On October 13, my neighbors had better get used to the sound of "Psycho Killer," the acoustic version, blaring through the walls of Rancho Chiarella in high-resolution 5.1 channel sound.
Stop Making Sense, in my opinion the greatest concert film ever made, will be celebrating its 25th anniversary with a Blu-ray debut, courtesy of Palm Pictures. Under the direction of eventual-Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs), the movie captures the band at Hollywood's Pantages Theater, masterfully bringing to life a series of tunes each more akin to a piece of elaborate performance art. Pre-dating "Unplugged," much of the music was reworked for these shows, resulting in an evening of entertainment that at once surprises and satisfies fans, while amazing newcomers. (Golly, I should probably save some of this for my disc review….)
Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame inductees David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison--joined on stage by some incredible singers and musicians--serve up 16 songs spanning their entire career to that point, among them “Burning Down the House,” “Once in a Lifetime” and my personal favorite, "This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)." And who can forget Byrne singing and dancing to the title track in his big white suit?
Stop Making Sense has been remastered in high-definition naturally, with both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and a stereo 2.0 track. New for Blu-ray are the 1999 press conference/reunion of all four bandmates on the occasion of the original DVD release, the featurette “David Byrne Interview … David Byrne,” a storyboard comparison to the final staging, and trailers. The disc will carry a suggested retail price of $34.99 and is available for pre-order on Amazon.com.
