REVIEW: Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew, Cool Cool Cool at The Paramount | 07.30.2024

A few weeks back I went to a screening of the mind-blowing 4K restoration of Talking Heads’ concert masterpiece, Stop Making Sense. Shown at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, the film was followed by a Q&A moderated by Questlove with the band themselves. Even the most casual Talking Heads fan can understand how seismic and how rare it is for all four band members to be in the same room at the same time.

Though they shared the stage together the band did not perform – not that I thought that they would, but in a lot of ways they didn’t even need to. The remastered audio in Stop Making Sense was pristine. The reverb on Chris Frantz’s snare echoing through the theater at the end of “Slippery People” had me convinced they were just playing live being the screen.

The painstaking process of giving the film’s audio new life can be directly attributed to none other than Talking Heads guitarist/keyboardist Jerry Harrison. As Harrison noted during the Q&A, he oversaw the process which involved remixing the entire film’s audio from scratch. Believe me when I tell you that you can hear the difference.

It’s a testament to the brilliance of Harrison; not only in watching him perform on the screen, but in his ability to make the remastered audio feel like you’re hearing the performance again for the very first time.

Would Talking Heads ever reunite for one more show? I’d say the answer is closer to yes than ever before, but it remains comfortably in the "so you're saying there's a chance?" realm of possibility. Still, there have been ways to enjoy the bands' timeless music in a live setting. David Byrne's American Utopia toured the globe and enjoyed a Broadway residency which came to a close in April of 2022. A few months later, Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew announced a show in LA to celebrate Remain in Light; the show turned into a tour, and the two have been on and off the road ever since.

While never an "official" member of the band, Belew's contributions to Remain in Light were and are absolutely iconic. He also toured with the band in 1980 and '81 – watch this 1980 performance in Rome and enjoy one hour of music perfection.

I was fortunate enough to catch the Harrison/Belew tour as a fan last year at a packed Sony Hall in Manhattan. This time, at The Paramount in Huntington, NY, I was fortunate enough to be able to enjoy the show through the lens of my camera as well.

COOL COOL COOL

Serving as both opening act and headlining backing band, Cool Cool Cool kept the vibes bright and the crowd moving from their first note to their final bow of the evening. The set was equal parts original songs and covers, their version of The Pretenders' "Brass in Pocket" in particular drawing fans out of their seats to dance. The band was tight but weren't afraid to let loose, at one point incorporating a breakdown that I swear had metal vibes – I was all about it.

Considering that I primarily shoot metal, I've almost forgotten that it's possible for a show to have consistently good lighting. While the light could have been a little brighter, it was clean enough that color adjustments in post didn't require a great deal of time and effort. Vocalists Shira Elias and Sammi Garett stood far enough from one another that my compositions were better framed from the side. Compensating with double exposure was a fun solution that I tried as well.

JERRY HARRISON & ADRIAN BELEW

The lights dimmed and Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians: Pulses" began playing over the speakers. The hypnotic tones put me into a trance, the resulting dreamlike state only further reinforced when Jerry Harrison took the stage and began playing the unmistakable intro strums to “Psycho Killer.” Adrian Belew's masterful guitar-playing wasn't far behind, not to mention Cool Cool Cool backing them up; the whole room was singing at the top of their lungs by the first chorus.

It may have been a Tuesday night but it might as well have been Sunday morning because Harrison and Belew took the sold out Paramount crowd to church. Playing a few classic tracks from Remain in Light such as "Crosseyed and Painless" and "Once in a Lifetime", the band's set went beyond the tour's namesake to explore more of Talking Heads' catalog, also including Jerry Harrison solo track "Rev it Up" and King Crimson classic "Thela Hun Ginjeet."

The lighting was about the same as it was for Cool Cool Cool. I had to brighten the shots up a bit in post but the color correction was again a relatively light lift. Jerry Harrison primarily stood behind his synths so I tended to have more luck shooting him from the side. For Adrian Belew the only challenge was his mic stand which was mitigated by shooting him at an angle. There was no photo pit which gave me more freedom to explore and find the right spot. More double exposure fun was had, as well as exploring shutter drag which produced a few cool shots.