Higher Ground has been Burlington’s room for this kind of show for a long time — the stage where you cross the state line to see something you will still be talking about on the drive home. On Saturday, May 9, Higher Ground’s Ballroom gets exactly that: Start Making Sense and the Ocean Avenue Stompers delivering two full sets of Talking Heads with a four-piece horn section and no opener. Just music, from 8:30 until the room is thoroughly emptied of everything it had.
Start Making Sense
Start Making Sense is the premier Talking Heads tribute, working through the entire catalog with a seven-piece band that takes the sonic and visual details seriously. Frontman Jon Braun bears an uncanny resemblance to David Byrne — the kind of physical similarity that makes the whole performance click in a way pure musicianship alone cannot manage. The band plays the art-punk rhythms, the funk, the new-wave urgency: everything that made Talking Heads one of the most original acts of their era.
Bernie Worrell — Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member and keyboardist for both Talking Heads and Parliament/Funkadelic — put it plainly: “This band makes plenty of sense to me, and is a great representation of Talking Heads’ music.”
For this run, the Ocean Avenue Stompers are aboard as a four-piece horn section, playing arrangements scored specifically for the Talking Heads catalog. That is eleven people on stage playing this music. Arrive before doors close.
The Venue
Higher Ground sits on Williston Road in South Burlington, just outside the Burlington city center — Vermont’s consistent stop for national touring acts coming through the North Country. The Ballroom is the main stage at the Williston Road location, and it is the kind of room that makes you glad you made the drive from wherever you started.
Tickets & Show Details
Doors open at 8:00 PM, show at 8:30 PM. Tickets are $28 in advance and $35 at the door. The show is all ages.