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David Byrne sings about Philando Castile during his encore at the Orpheum

The mention came during an update of Janelle Monae's 2015 protest piece about racial violence.

May 18, 2018 at 7:27PM
David Byrne and his band at the Orpheum in Minneapolis.
David Byrne and his band Thursday night at the Orpheum in Minneapolis. (Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Star Tribune photo by Jeff Wheeler
Star Tribune photo by Jeff Wheeler (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

By design, David Byrne doesn't speak very often during his meticulously designed show.

On Thursday, on the first of two nights at the Orpheum Theatre (read my review), the Talking Heads talking head paused to step out of character, so to speak, three times.

Once, he talked about the importance of voting in elections. Another time between songs, he explained that all the music was being played live by the musicians onstage. (Granted, a keyboardist synthesized the sounds of accordion, steel drums and horns at various points.)

Lastly, the Rock Hall of Famer introduced his final piece of the night, a cover of Janelle Monae's 2015 tune "Hell You Talmbout" (see her version below) by saying that she gave him permission to update it.

The song is a protest piece about racial violence, with the names of victims repeated over and over.

Indeed, Byrne and his band rebooted the song to include Philando Castile, the St. Paulite shot by a police officer during a routine traffic stop in Falcon Heights in 2016.

Byrne performs again on Friday at the Orpheum.

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about the writer

about the writer

Jon Bream

Critic / Reporter

Jon Bream has been a music critic at the Star Tribune since 1975, making him the longest tenured pop critic at a U.S. daily newspaper. He has attended more than 8,000 concerts and written four books (on Prince, Led Zeppelin, Neil Diamond and Bob Dylan). Thus far, he has ignored readers’ suggestions that he take a music-appreciation class.

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