At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos, His Excellency Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Minister of Tourism of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, delivered a clear message to global leaders: tourism must be led as economic infrastructure if it is to drive growth, resilience, and human connection in an increasingly fragmented world.

While many heritage acts survive by ossifying into waxworks of themselves, or by rationing their greatest hits like insulin shots, David Byrne has opted for something far riskier.

The former Talking Heads frontman has quietly redesigned himself into a new musical operating system, one that treats the live show not as nostalgia delivery, but as a living system where music, bodies, light and space all matter equally. The result feels improbably future-facing while remaining generous with the past, less “greatest hits tour” than a contemporary artwork you can dance to without feeling self-conscious.

This is Where Is the Sky? tour, currently passing through Australia before a long lap of Europe and beyond. Byrne, now in his seventies and still radiating a kind of caffeinated politeness, arrives not as a legacy act but as host of something closer to total theatre.

Light and projection mapping fall from above, pressing performers into the stage rather than projecting them outward. Movement replaces hierarchy. Byrne doesn’t dominate the space so much as circulate through it, drifting in and out of choreography until authorship feels almost beside the point. The show’s power lies in things you’re not normally trained to notice, and it works by accumulation rather than declaration.

The cast are dancers who play instruments, not musicians grudgingly persuaded to move between songs. Nothing is tied down. Nothing is static. There is no moment where someone wanders off to retune while the rest of us check our phones. Even the uniforms reveal themselves late: identical orange Nike Air Max 1s on every performer. This small visual joke quietly locks the ensemble together as the colourway interacts with the various effects being projected from the lighting desk. By the time you clock how deliberate it all is, you’re already inside it, like realising too late that you’ve joined a cult.

This feels like a clear evolution of American Utopia. That show stripped things back to bodies in motion; this one adds architecture. AV projection now carries narrative weight, placing performers in oceans, apartments, department stores and charged political space. Despite being author, narrator and headline act, Byrne functions less as frontman than as master of ceremonies inside a system that would probably continue functioning if he briefly popped out for a sandwich.

Much of the emotional charge comes from Byrne’s post-pandemic writing. He talks about emerging from lockdown and being startled by unfamiliar sounds outside, only to realise it was people talking to one another. That small moment becomes a hinge for the show’s broader arc, shifting from inward implosion to outward disarray. During Life During Wartime, projections of ICE agents attacking alleged immigrants flash behind him. Even in Melbourne, far from American borders, the room dips. This isn’t provocation; it’s the world arriving uninvited.

Byrne frames this severity carefully. The show opens with Talking Heads’ Heaven, the Earth rising behind him as paradise is redefined not as an afterlife, but as the fragile spinning thing we already occupy. It closes the same way, Brian Eno’s Apollo soundtrack playing as the crowd drifts out, recalibrated rather than flattened.

Musically, Byrne is generous. Talking Heads material is deployed without rationing or reverence – This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) and Psycho Killer arriving with particular punch; newer songs are packaged with so much storytelling and AV excellence they exist on their own terms, and an eccentric cover of Paramore’s Hard Times sails cheerfully over the heads of an older crowd willing to trust the pilot. What lingers isn’t just the songs, but the sense of total, rhythm-led completeness. This is stagecraft as emotional engineering, and a reminder that the future of live music doesn’t lie in perfect avatars, but in imperfect humans, briefly aligned, and fully present.

Catch David Byrne’s Where Is The Sky? Tour on the following dates around the world:

• 24 Jan 2026 – Adelaide Entertainment Centre Arena, Adelaide, Australia

• 27 Jan 2026 – RAC Arena, Perth, Australia

• 12 Feb 2026 – Tempodrom, Berlin, Germany

• 15 Feb 2026 – AFAS Live, Amsterdam, Netherlands

• 16 Feb 2026 – AFAS Live, Amsterdam, Netherlands

• 18 Feb 2026 – Forest National Arena, Brussels, Belgium

• 21 Feb 2026 – Teatro degli Arcimboldi, Milan, Italy

• 22 Feb 2026 – Teatro degli Arcimboldi, Milan, Italy

• 24 Feb 2026 – Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt, Germany

• 26 Feb 2026 – Rockhal, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

• 27 Feb 2026 – The Hall, Zürich, Switzerland

• 2 Mar 2026 – Utilita Arena, Cardiff, United Kingdom

• 3 Mar 2026 – Eventim Apollo, London, United Kingdom

• 4 Mar 2026 – Eventim Apollo, London, United Kingdom

• 6 Mar 2026 – Armadillo, Glasgow, United Kingdom

• 7 Mar 2026 – Armadillo, Glasgow, United Kingdom

• 9 Mar 2026 – O2 Apollo, Manchester, United Kingdom

• 10 Mar 2026 – O2 Apollo, Manchester, United Kingdom

• 11 Mar 2026 – O2 Apollo, Manchester, United Kingdom

• 13 Mar 2026 – 3Arena, Dublin, Ireland

• 15 Mar 2026 – Eventim Apollo, London, United Kingdom

• 16 Mar 2026 – Eventim Apollo, London, United Kingdom

• 18 Mar 2026 – La Seine Musicale, Paris, France

• 19 Mar 2026 – La Seine Musicale, Paris, France

• 26 Mar 2026 – Big Ears Festival, Knoxville Civic Auditorium, Knoxville, USA

• 27 Mar 2026 – Big Ears Festival, Knoxville Civic Auditorium, Knoxville, USA

• 4 Apr 2026 – Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, Canada

• 5 Apr 2026 – Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, Canada

• 7 Apr 2026 – Keller Auditorium, Portland, USA

• 8 Apr 2026 – Keller Auditorium, Portland, USA

• 11 Apr 2026 – Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Indio, USA

• 14 Apr 2026 – Santa Barbara Bowl, Santa Barbara, USA

• 16 Apr 2026 – Frost Amphitheater, Stanford, USA

• 18 Apr 2026 – Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Indio, USA

• 20 Apr 2026 – The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, USA

• 21 Apr 2026 – Arizona Financial Theatre, Phoenix, USA

• 24 Apr 2026 – Smart Financial Centre, Houston, USA

• 28 Apr 2026 – Stifel Theatre, St. Louis, USA

• 29 Apr 2026 – Stifel Theatre, St. Louis, USA

• 1 May 2026 – Murat Theatre, Indianapolis, USA

• 2 May 2026 – Murat Theatre, Indianapolis, USA

• 3 May 2026 – Miller High Life Theatre, Milwaukee, USA

• 5 May 2026 – Starlight Theatre (Outdoors), Kansas City, USA

• 7 May 2026 – Playhouse Square – KeyBank State Theatre, Cleveland, USA

• 9 May 2026 – Ascend Amphitheater, Nashville, USA

• 11 May 2026 – DPAC, Durham, USA

• 12 May 2026 – DPAC, Durham, USA

• 13 May 2026 – The Dome, Virginia Beach, USA

• 15 May 2026 – Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater, Bridgeport, USA

• 16 May 2026 – Hippodrome Theatre, Baltimore, USA

• 17 May 2026 – Hippodrome Theatre, Baltimore, USA

• 12 Jun 2026 – Piknik i Parken, Oslo, Norway

• 17 Jun 2026 – O2 Universum, Prague, Czechia

• 18 Jun 2026 – Budapest Arena, Budapest, Hungary

• 21 Jun 2026 – Release Athens x SNF Nostos, Athens, Greece

• 23 Jun 2026 – Fiera del Levante, Bari, Italy

• 25 Jun 2026 – Piazza Napoleone, Lucca, Italy

• 26 Jun 2026 – Marostica Summer Festival, Marostica, Italy

• 28 Jun 2026 – Arena Pula, Pula, Croatia

• 1 Jul 2026 – Open’er Festival, Gdynia, Poland

• 3 Jul 2026 – Roskilde Festival, Roskilde, Denmark

• 4 Jul 2026 – Down The Rabbit Hole Festival, Beuningen, Netherlands

• 10 Jul 2026 – Cruïlla Festival, Barcelona, Spain

• 11 Jul 2026 – Mad Cool Festival, Madrid, Spain

• 14 Jul 2026 – Ageas Cooljazz Festival, Cascais, Portugal

• 24 Jul 2026 – Latitude Festival, Henham, United Kingdom

 

The post Live Review: David Byrne shows Melbourne his moving world, Sidney Meyer Bowl, Australia appeared first on The Travel Magazine.

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