There are Talking Heads tributes, and then there is Start Making Sense. The band has built a reputation as the definitive Talking Heads experience — not just the songs, but the full theatrical vision, including the iconic oversized suit that David Byrne made one of rock’s most recognizable stage images. On May 1, they bring that spectacle to Buffalo Iron Works, joined by the Ocean Avenue Stompers Horns for a night that promises to be something beyond the ordinary tribute show.
The addition of a live horn section changes the equation considerably. Talking Heads drew heavily from funk and Afrobeat throughout their catalog, and those influences hit differently when the brass is live. Expect the arrangements to breathe in ways a five-piece alone simply cannot deliver — the kind of full-band sound that made Stop Making Sense, Jonathan Demme’s legendary 1984 concert film, feel like something genuinely new.
Buffalo Iron Works is a reliable home for this kind of show. The room has the right scale — intimate enough that nothing gets lost, large enough to hold a performance with real production ambition.
The set will pull from across the catalog: “Psycho Killer” and “Burning Down the House” are givens, but the deeper cuts — “Slippery People,” “Life During Wartime,” “This Must Be the Place” — are where nights like this separate themselves. With the Stompers Horns in tow, the funk-heavy later era gets the treatment it deserves.
Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets at buffaloironworks.com.