The Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour is a 2008–2009 promotional concert tour of music co-written by David Byrne and Brian Eno with performances by Byrne. In addition to being a retrospective of the duo's collaborations, the tour promoted the album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. The musical performers were accompanied by dancers who were choreographed to several songs. Performances were held across the world and later documented on a tour EP and a concert film.
Material
Byrne assembled a band to tour for the album, performing music throughout the latter half of 2008 and early 2009 across North America, Europe, and Australasia. He hired more singers than he had on previous tours to reproduce the complex vocal harmonies of the album and was inspired to bring along dancers after seeing Sufjan Stevens promote the album Illinois as well as the Japanese films Funky Forest and The Taste of Tea. Byrne was initially uninvolved in the choreography, but made more suggestions as the tour went on and after he saw a live performance by Deerhoof that incorporated dancing with instruments. He began booking tour dates before the album was completed and continued writing his book The Bicycle Diaries throughout the tour.
In planning the set lists for the tour, Byrne initially considered only promoting this album, but decided to assemble songs this album as well as their previous collaborations, including the Talking Heads albums More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, and Remain in Light and Byrne's The Catherine Wheel soundtrack. By playing music from all of their collaborations, Byrne hoped to "draw a line linking this new material with what we did 30 years ago" with the goal of clarifying the connection between all of the duo's previous work. In reviewing the music, he found that "[t]here might be more continuity than I imagined, which I hope is going to work in my favor." Although he was invited to participate and early reports indicated that would, Eno chose to not tour, letting Byrne decide how to present this music live.
A month after releasing the album, Byrne was skeptical of market saturation, claiming "I sense that a lot of people don't know we have a record out" and hoped to counterbalance that ignorance with this tour. At the same time, the main goal of the performance was not promotion but the show itself.
Set lists
The set list for the first night:
Set
"Strange Overtones" (originally from Everything That Happens Will Happen Today) "I Zimbra" (Fear of Music) "One Fine Day" (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today) "Help Me Somebody" (My Life in the Bush of Ghosts) "Houses in Motion" (Remain in Light) "My Big Nurse" (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today) "My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks)" (The Catherine Wheel) "Heaven" (Fear of Music) "Home" (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today) "The River" (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today) "Crosseyed and Painless" (Remain in Light) "Life Is Long" (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today) "Once In a Lifetime" (Remain in Light) "Life During Wartime" (Fear of Music) "I Feel My Stuff" (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today)
Encore
"Take Me to the River" (More Songs About Buildings and Food) "The Great Curve" (Remain in Light)
Second encore
"Everything That Happens" (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today)
By the time he reached St. Louis in mid-October, the following set was played:
Set
"Strange Overtones" "I Zimbra" "One Fine Day" "Help Me Somebody" "Houses in Motion" "My Big Nurse" "My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks)" "Heaven" "Never Thought" (originally from the deluxe edition of Everything That Happens Will Happen Today) "The River" "Crosseyed and Painless" "Life Is Long" "Once In a Lifetime" "Life During Wartime" "I Feel My Stuff"
Encore
"Take Me to the River" "The Great Curve"
Second encore
"Air" (Fear of Music) "Burning Down the House" (Speaking in Tongues) "Everything That Happens"
Midway through this leg, Byrne expanded some shows to have three encores, such as Omaha, Indianapolis, Toronto, and Raleigh. The first was as listed above, the second was "Don't Worry About the Government" and "Burning Down the House", and the third was "Everything That Happens". He also played this extended encore at the Hong Kong and Sydney shows. Byrne expanded his February 28, 2009, show to contain four two-song encores.