David Byrne Expected a ‘Hard Audience’ for His SNL50 Concert

It’s been a few days, but David Byrne still hasn’t felt the need to watch his SNL50 performance back again. “Maybe I will now,” he says. “I’ve been busy taking some dance classes in preparation for a tour.” As part of the show’s spectacle of an anniversary concert on Friday, February 14, Byrne served as the de facto prince of Radio City Music Hall, gliding through two segments that spanned four songs. First, he formed an electric caravan of players with Arcade Fire, St. Vincent, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to cover David Bowie’s “Heroes” and Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up.” The real magic, though, came a few minutes later, when he joined Robyn for a dizzying rendition of her club classic “Dancing on My Own” before the duo launched into the Talking Heads hit “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody).”

As Byrne tells it, he pitched the collaboration to Robyn and enlisted a choreographer for the occasion after she said yes. They only had half a week to prepare in a studio, and he still can’t believe they pulled the whole thing off. “It was a jam-packed week,” he reflects. “But I was very happy.”

This concert was announced to the public in January, but I’m assuming it was a monumental feat of planning that goes back longer than that. When were you approached?
A couple of months ago. They said they were doing this concert and a bunch of artists were already confirmed. Mark Ronson was the music wrangler and coordinator. He isn’t the usual person who does that for SNL. They brought him in just for this. We had met before, and I was like, Oh, this sounds like it’s going to be fun. I had a million questions, though. Is there a house band? Oh, the Roots are the house band? I know them, that’s good. I also looked at the initial list and thought, There’s a lot of people there who are almost as old as me.

Did SNL give you a blank slate with what you wanted to do or did they come bearing a few requests?
The edict was, Work with another artist and maybe do something by a third artist who has been associated with the show. I thought, If everybody is going along with this concept, I’ll be fine. I saw “Dancing on My Own” on the list as a possible song to be covered, and I thought, Well, why don’t we just get Robyn? She’s a great performer. I’ve seen her videos where she’s dancing all over the place. I have also known Arcade Fire for a long time. Win Butler reached out to me and said, “Hey, would you sing with us?” I had to think if I could really contribute something. I suggested St. Vincent could kill the guitar parts and knew she was going to be in town. Soon enough I was becoming the Mark Ronson.

Tell me more about the choreography you and Robyn put together when she agreed to the performance. What did your rehearsals entail?
I always knew we would be moving around a lot and not playing instruments. I brought in a choreographer whom I worked with in the past, Celia Rowlson-Hall. We had worked together on John Mulaney’s children’s show he put together a few years ago, The Sack Lunch Bunch. I thought, She knows how to shape people who are non-trained dancers. Can she help me? When I talked to Celia, I said, “We’re going to be most comfortable with you shaping what we’re improvising.” If she saw something we did that was good, she would go, “Yes, now do that here and there.” Rather than bringing in a lot of steps that we had to learn, because we’re not as good at that.

Do you have a favorite move that emerged from this improvisational shaping?
My favorite was doing things directly related to the lyrics of the songs: “Out here in the corner, why can’t you see me?” So I would go to the corner of the stage and gesture, I’m right here, I’m right here! I would never do that in real life, but in that context it worked great. There was another section where Robyn was spinning around. I thought, Oh, I wish I could do that, but I would get too dizzy. I could only circle around her backward.

The pink-and-blue strobe effects were so striking on the gray suits. Did you oversee the lighting?
I didn’t officially oversee it, but I had suggestions. For “Dancing on My Own,” I said we should get a club look, because the song takes place in a club. I thought it would be appropriate and help tell the story. And for “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody),” I wanted to have pictures of houses from all over the world. I never turned around to look, so I don’t know if they did that.

They did, on the screen! Your request was granted.
Oh, good. It’s really nice they could pull that together so quickly.

There’s this brief moment, at the end of “Dancing on My Own” and before “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody),” where you look into the crowd while standing back-to-back with Robyn. You seem elated, like you’re taking it all in. What was going through your mind?
The audience stood up and were dancing the entire time we performed. I thought, This is kind of incredible. I didn’t expect that reaction. I knew who was there. During the dress rehearsal, there were those cardboard cutouts that they do for who’s sitting where. You see where Lady Gaga is sitting. Post Malone is over there, Anya Taylor-Joy is sitting there, Steve Martin is there. And all the way back there is where I was going to be sitting. So you see all of these names and you go, Oh my God. I thought this could be a hard audience who has seen it all. But they were up and dancing with huge smiles on their faces.

You had previously put “Dancing on My Own” on a playlist titled “songs that make me cry.” When was the last time you cried to it?
Recently, I’m sure. There are some lines in the song that I find very moving. There’s one early on where she sings, “There’s a big black sky over my town.” It has nothing to do with the story, but it tells you exactly how she feels. I love that line. It gets me every time.

What was the environment like backstage at Radio City? Did you share any memorable encounters with the fellow musicians?
It was collegial. I talked very briefly with Lorne Michaels after the show ended, and he was glad there was no squabbling about people asking for bigger dressing rooms. Everybody took it in stride. I got a selfie with Lady Gaga. I got to shake hands with Cher. I didn’t expect that to happen. There were so many people everywhere!

In his introduction, John Mulaney described you as “the only music icon that I can dance like.” What do you dance like, David?
[Laughs for several seconds.] Long ago, I realized I couldn’t dance like some of the slicker, great dancers in pop music. Besides, why should I try that? I’ll do my own geeky thing. If I feel like moving a certain way, that’s the way I’m going to move. If it didn’t work, if it looked stupid, if it looked crazy, it wasn’t like I would ruin my reputation. Because I didn’t have any!

You’ve appeared as a musical guest on SNL three times. Do you think you would be a good host?
Maybe. Who knows. I did a stand-up performance about a year or so ago. When I did American Utopia, I talked a lot between songs and got a fair amount of laughs. Fred Armisen told me I should try stand-up, so I did. It’s a night Fred does at a place in Los Angeles called Largo. He’s the only person on the bill, but he always invites other people. Of course, that’s an audience who’s primed to be open-minded to what they’re going to see. Mulaney and Sarah Silverman were also there. It’s set up as a place for comedians to test out new material.

Did you have a tight five?
Fred told me, “David, you can do ten minutes of stand-up.” So I asked him if I could do it as a slideshow, show pictures I’ve taken, and comment on them. He said, “sure.” I got a fair number of laughs.