Recapping 2025's First Quarter

Now that the first quarter of 2025 has ended, it's time to look back at what's happened so far this year with Talking Heads, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison. 2025, marking the 50th anniversary of the band, is due to be yet another very exciting year for fans. The end of this article will also explore what to look forward to across the remaining 9 months of the year.

Let's start with the most iconic event so far this year.

David Byrne performs in SNL50: The Homecoming Concert

Talking Heads isn't the only one who began in New York City in 1975! In February 2025, Saturday Night Live (SNL) celebrated its 50th anniversary with several specials, with David Byrne appearing in The Homecoming Concert on February 14.

Talking Heads appeared on SNL in 1979 to perform "Artists Only" and "Take Me to the River", and when David Byrne fully delved into his solo career in 1989 with Rei Momo, he returned to the show to perform "Dirty Old Town" and "Loco de Amor". Decades later, in February 2020 just before lockdown, he appeared again to promote his American Utopia on Broadway residency, performing "Once in a Lifetime" and "Toe Jam" and appearing in the sketch "Airport Sushi" with John Mulaney.

On January 30, 2025, SNL announced that for its 50th anniversary it would be hosting a large concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York, with over 20 artists performing — including David Byrne and several artists he's previously collaborated or performed with: Devo, The B-52's, The Roots, Miley Cyrus, St. Vincent, and Arcade Fire.

The last two performed alongside David during this concert, for a powerful rendition of David Bowie's classic "Heroes", which David Byrne previously performed a cappella with Choir Choir Choir in 2018. Following this, David stayed on stage performing backing vocals and St. Vincent continued providing guitar while Arcade Fire performed their song "Wake Up".

Following this, he unexpectedly appeared again for a second slot in the concert, this time alongside Swedish singer Robyn. The duo wore matching gray suits, slightly oversized to evoke Stop Making Sense. They performed her 2010 hit "Dancing on My Own", which David Byrne had previously included on a radio playlist named "Songs That Make Me Cry" in 2021. Following this, they were backed by The Roots for a beautiful rendition of "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" with choreography by Celia Rowlson-Hall.

In addition to The Homecoming Concert, David Byrne was sometimes shown on screen in the background of the celebrity-filled audience of the main SNL50 special episode on February 16. Several days after the concert, David discussed his performance in detail in an interview with Vulture, also revealing that he was responsible for inviting Robyn to be part of the event.

Click here to read the interview with David

Chris Frantz & Tina Weymouth return to RISD

Talking Heads famously began with David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Tina Weymouth meeting at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the early 1970's before moving to New York City. On February 12, Chris and Tina returned to the school for a Q&A moderated by Professor Daniel Cavicchi following a Stop Making Sense screening.

Talking Heads will release a demo album in November, including The Artistics recordings

Before Talking Heads, Chris Frantz and David Byrne played together in a band called The Artistics at RISD in 1974, with their friend David Anderson on bass. They never released any songs, but thankfully, demos exist to capture this very early chapter in the band's history.

When Chris & Tina visited RISD in February, they returned an Artistics demo tape that had been unearthed by the RISD Archives in 2023, featuring early versions of what would become the Talking Heads songs "Psycho Killer" and "Warning Sign", as well as an unknown song titled "Spin Spin". In an article published by The Boston Globe, Chris shared that fans will get to hear it "along with a few Talking Heads demos" later this year as a Record Store Day release on November 28 (Black Friday). Official confirmation of this demo album, including what other tracks it will include, will likely be revealed nearer the time.

Click here for more details and to read the interview with Chris

And that's not the only Talking Heads Record Store Day release this year!

Record Store Day is held twice per year, with this year's being on April 12 and November 28. In addition to the demo album recently teased for November, another Talking Heads album is included on the list of upcoming Record Store Day releases. This month, they will be releasing Live on Tour, a recording of their performance at the Agora in Cleveland on December 18, 1978. Just like April 2024's Record Store Day release of Live at WCOZ 77, this is another instalment of the band releasing full versions of the shows partially included on their live album The Name of this Band is Talking Heads.

Click here for more details

David Byrne sings on 2 new songs by Arnaldo Antunes

Brazillian singer Arnaldo Antunes released his new album Novo Mundo (New World) on March 20, 2025. This features 2 duets with David Byrne: "Body Corpo" (with "Corpo" being Portuguese for "Body") and "Não Dá Para Ficar Parado Aí na Porta" ("You Can't Just Stand There in the Doorway").

On both of these tracks, Arnaldo and David perform a bilingual duet, with Arnaldo singing in Portuguese and David singing equivalent lines in English. David has previously appeared on duets that do this technique, such as his 1994 collaboration with Selena, "God's Child", where she sings Spanish lines matching his English lines.

Theatre of the Mind confirmed for Chicago

Theatre of the Mind is a unique interactive theatrical experience created by David Byrne and his partner Mala Gaonkar. It premiered in Denver, Colorado with a run that lasted from August 2022 to January 2023, and ever since has created speculation about a potential continuation in other cities.

On February 25, it was confirmed that it would be coming to Chicago when David Byrne appeared at a media event at the Goodman Theatre (alongside Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, who had his own upcoming project at the theatre). It will take time to prepare the stage at Chicago's Reid Murdoch Building, so the exact dates that it will open are unknown, but it's set to open in the fall.

Click here for more details

Bobby Grossman opens exhibit of historic photos, with Jerry Harrison attending on opening night

Bobby Grossman has photographed just about everybody in the 1970's New York art/music scene, such as Talking Heads, Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Blondie, Ramones, Iggy Pop, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and countless others.

His exhibit, "Corn Flakes and More" is currently open until April 13 at Ki Smith Gallery in Manhattan. The title references his iconic photograph series of people holding bowls of corn flakes, which includes David Byrne and Tina Weymouth.

Jerry Harrison appeared at the opening of this exhibit on March 8, posing for photos with Bobby Grossman next to a photo he took of Talking Heads in a recording studio in 1977.

Click here for more details

And a few other miscellaneous things to mention...

That's all the main highlights out of the way, but three months is a lot of time for stuff to happen relevant to a band of four people, so there's still a few things worth mentioning but not in a lot of detail:

• Jerry Harrison was interviewed by Qobuz, with the video's chapters including: "Songwriting Conduit", "Writer's Block", "Importance of High-fidelity", "Production Influences", "Regrets", "Stop Making Sense", and "Jonathan Demme".
• Chris Frantz shared photos from a recent vacation with Tina Weymouth throughout March in Brittany — a region in the north-west of France).
• Chris Frantz continues to regularly appear as a guest speaker/presenter on local radio station WPKN in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Titled "Chris Frantz the Talking Head", these appearances typically take place on the last Friday of each month.
• David Byrne continues to release a monthly playlist in his "David Byrne Radio Presents" series.
• David Byrne's drawing "The Couple" (from his "Dingbats" series which began in 2020) was included in a collection of artworks up for auction by ISCP (International Studio & Curatorial Program) at their 30th Benefit Auction on March 9.
• David Byrne appeared at several art exhibits and events, including with Judith Bernstein at the opening of her "Public Fears" exhibit, at Kim Hastreiter's book signing event for her book "STUFF: A New York Life of Cultural Chaos", with Andrew Edlin at his Outsider Art Fair, and with Angelique Kidjo at Jazz House Kids' gala benefit concert.
• Actress Jenna Ortega and Rage Against the Machine frontman Tom Morello both shared selfies with David Byrne, and David also stated that he got a selfie with Lady Gaga (but this has not surfaced online yet).
• David Byrne was announced as a special guest at Brooklyn venue Pioneer Work's Village Fête 2025 on May 6th, celebrating the 50th birthday of its founder Dustin Yellerin. However, this event is aimed at significant donors/contributors to the venue, with ticket prices in the thousands.

What to look forward to in 2025

This is gonna be a busy year! We've got a new David Byrne studio album and tour on the horizon, for the first time since 2018's American Utopia. Tom Tom Club have also been working on a new studio album, their first since 2012's Downtown Rockers.

David Byrne is also returning to host a second Reasons to be Cheerful benefit variety show titled "Amazing Humans Doing Amazing Things", following the success of the previous show in October. This will take place on May 29 at Manhattan's Town Hall like the previous event. (https://www.thetownhall.org/event/amazing-humans-doing-amazing-things-variety-show-hosted-by-david-byrne)

After years of touring America, Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew are taking their Remain in Light tour to Europe between May 18 in Stockholm and June 7 in London. The dates and tickets are available on https://remaininlight.net/

Jerry Harrison is also doing a small-scale Midwest Q&A tour at Stop Making Sense screenings in late April and early May. Here are the dates, locations, and website links:

April 26: Madison, WI (https://madisonorpheum.com/event/stop-making-sense/)

April 27: Milwaukee, WI (https://www.pabsttheatergroup.com/events/detail/stop-making-sense-2025)

April 30: Peoria, IL (SEEMINGLY CANCELED, but here's the link anyway: https://www.templelive.com/tm-event/stop-making-sense-a-film-by-jonathan-demme-and-talking-heads-3/)

May 1: Skokie, IL (https://northshorecenter.org/event/stop-making-sense/)

May 2: Fort Wayne, IN (https://fwembassytheatre.org/events/stop-making-sense-jonathan-demme-film-jerry-harrison-of-talking-heads/)

May 3: Cincinnati, OH (https://tafttheatre.org/events/2025/05/stop-making-sense-a-film-by-jonathan-demme-and-talking-heads)

May 4: Columbus, OH (https://www.capa.com/productions/stop-making-sense/)