It’s the 40th anniversary of Stop Making Sense, a career defining moment for alternative rock band Talking Heads.

Filmed over three nights in December 1983 by Jonathan Demme, now it’s back in cinemas for a short spell thanks to A24 restoring it in 4K.

And that’s a fantastic thing, as this is arguably the greatest concert film of all time! An incredible, energetic performance from David Byrne and the rest of the band. It’s stunning to behold.

Energy, Prophecies, and Epic Music in Stop Making Sense

Stop Making Sense launched late in December 1984, but fans of the band are again celebrating as the time is now.

Over those three epic nights at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater, Los Angeles, Talking Heads took to the stage and delivered this manic, epic, really quite wonderful set of performances.

Jonathan Demme (yes, the one who went on to direct Silence of the Lambs) filmed it all each night with around six cameras.

Talking Heads was already famous for its live performances, but worked hard to provide a particularly creative set for the film.

Creative spearhead David Byrne opens the show. At first it’s just him and his acoustic guitar… and no set! Gradually, as they pass through early songs, the crew roll more bits of the stage on.

Viewers get to see the stage gradually fill out and each number becomes more advanced, peaking 20 minutes in with the arrival of guitarist Alex Weir (an absolute bloody legend).

As soon as he’s on stage, the set just explodes and they launch into Burning Down the House, which had just launched in July 1983 and was the band’s first big hit.

As many people online have noted, what with Oppenheimer out in cinemas, actor Cillian Murphy has a striking resemblance to a young David Byrne (who’s 71 now).

We’re not lying. Check out this image compare (use the slider below). If there’s ever a biopic of David Byrne then Cillian Murphy is the man for the job.

Anyway, on with the show! And Talking Heads really couldn’t have conceived a more brilliant build-up across the show.

It just flows perfectly and then they’re off.

They also couldn’t have found a more perfect set of supporting musicians. Normally just the four members, they’d added Weir, percussionist Steve Scales, and keyboardist Bernie Worrell earlier in 1983 for their album Speaking in Tongues.

Backing singers Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt are also epic.

Burning Down the House is followed by Love During Wartime, at which point it becomes clear singer David Byrne is a bloody athlete. He invented some peculiar dance routines for his shows, in this example running on the spot (and around the stage).

Byrne is autistic (he didn’t know that back in late 1983), which has been picked up on recently thanks to eccentric dances like this one.

It’s been doing the rounds on the internet of late.

As the concert advances, Byrne enters into his character he created.

He was lampooning corporate capitalist culture of the ’80s (something that feels more relevant than ever), using music videos on MTV to play up this image.

This first appears in What a Day That Was, with spasmodic body contortions and erratic dancing moves. This was to mimic those American preachers you see on TV ranting about Jesus and performing miracles for people in the audience.

But there are more introspective and relaxed moments, too, such as with the beautiful This Must Be The Place.

Byrne was also inspired by Fred Astair in Royal Wedding (1951) with some of his lanky staggering around the stage.

Later in the show, and quite legendarily, Byrne appeared in an enormous ’80s suit.

As he’s so skinny (still is now), this just emphasised the ridiculous thing even further. But it’s one of the most iconic moments of ’80s music.

Indeed. Well, we’ve seen the film twice recently.

And you can see Stop Making Sense in the cinema. It has a limited run in the UK and North America (possibly elsewhere, too). We were lucky enough to watch it in Manchester at the swanky Trafford Centre.

Seeing it blasting out on a big screen was an invigorating experience. Really.

It was effing amazing seeing it on that vast IMAX screen and this is unquestionably one of the very best concert films ever.

The Production of Stop Making Sense

This film returning to cinema screens marked the first time the Talking Heads members had seen each other in decades. Unfortunately, the band’s split in 1991 was pretty permanent, but they’ve expressed their delight at catching up again.

David Byrne has also highlighted he feels his behaviour could have been better. But he didn’t realise he’s autistic until after the band split.

Back in the early ’80s, the film had a budget of $1.2 million and went on to make a modest $5.1 million. However, it received rave reviews and has since gone down as a cult classic.

Talking Heads raised that budget by themselves.

The live shows ran from 13th to the 16th December 1983 and used a groundbreaking mixture of digital editing and sound. Director Jonathan Demme dedicated certain nights to ensuring wide shots were filmed, then others to gathering close ups.

In fact, this was the first ever film to entirely use digital audio.

Throughout the show you can regularly see cameramen moving between the performers.

Unlike other concert films, there’s rarely any footage of the audience. You can occasionally make them out, particularly at the end when percussionist Steve Scales encourages everyone to get dancing during Crosseyed and Painless.

Talking Heads disbanded in 1991. The original members, Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison, and Chris Frantz, joined a Q&A in Toronto on September 11th 2023 for interviews.

This was specifically to mark the relaunch of the film.

It must be odd for them revisiting the film 40 years on, now in their early 70s. Almost as if it was a different lifetime.

For the likes of us, catching up with the concert film for the first time makes us realise how timeless this performance is. Although very ’80s, the music of Talking Heads will always be popular.

One watch of Stop Making Sense and we defy you to NOT become a fan.