last night on late night

The Actual Mayor of New York, David Byrne, Burns Down the SNL House

To all the punks who are reading this but didn’t bother seeing David Byrne and his monochromatic pals in American Utopia: Well, lucky you, because American Utopia is actually coming back in a few months. But that’s not the point. We don’t want to reward your procrastination. But we guess we have to, anyway, because Byrne and his team of exemplary, untethered musicians graced the SNL stage with two gorgeous performances of “Once in a Lifetime” and “Toe Jam” (a Talking Heads staple and a Brighton Port Authority bop, as if you needed a “respectively”), which, by our very legit math calculations, would’ve cost you $600 if you bought a ticket to his Broadway show. (Or $57 if you stayed for just two tunes.) His SNL song choices were the same as they ever were, which is to say, simply perfect.

The Mayor of New York, David Byrne, Burns Down the SNL House