An overwhelming 27,000 people showed up to see David Byrne play a free show at the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn on Monday night. The show was the opening of the 2009 Celebrate Brooklyn concert series. Celebration was easily the theme of the night, whether you were celebrating the fact that it didn’t rain, the fact that you managed to actually get inside the bandshell (many were detoured by the long, snake-like line, which purportedly began just before 11am), or the fact that you were seeing a legendary performer for free (or the cost of your donation).

The show’s focus was Byrne’s work with Eno, covering the Talking Heads’ three pivotal, mid-career albums, and their two collab LPs, 1981’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, and last year’s Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, with the latter release unsurprisingly taking the most focus. (Which explains the absence of hits like “Psycho Killer,” “And She Was,” and “Road To Nowhere.”) Still, Byrne brought out some of the bigger Talking Heads players, all of which got the crowd going – “I Zimbra,” “Crosseyed & Painless,” “Once In A Lifetime,” “Burning Down The House” (See video below!), “Life During Wartime,” and the group’s funky Al Green cover, “Take Me to the River.” The hopeful attitude of the newer material was especially fitting, as Byrne serenaded, “I’m counting all the possibilities,” in “My Big Nurse.” (more…)