Everybody Resists: David Byrne Brings Subversive Love To Philadelphia On No Kings Day [Review/Photos]

On “Everybody Laughs”, the opening track from David Byrne‘s new offering, Who Is The Sky?, the former Talking Heads frontman crows approvingly about the many things that “everybody” does—even if some of them sound less like things that everybody does and more like things David Byrne does. But the inclusivity with which he conveys his own existence is telling.

As Byrne explained when the single arrived earlier this year, “Someone I know said, ‘David, you use the word “everybody” a lot.’ I suppose I do that to give an anthropological view of life in New York as we know it. Everybody lives, dies, laughs, cries, sleeps and stares at the ceiling. Everybody’s wearing everybody else’s shoes, which not everybody does, but I have done. I tried to sing about these things that could be seen as negative in a way balanced by an uplifting feeling from the groove and the melody. … Music can do that—hold opposites simultaneously.”

Much of Byrne’s Who Is The Sky? live show deals in the beauty that can come from contrast: Heaven and Earth, light and shadow (a key element of the production’s immersive look), motion and stillness (both employed to gripping effect by the ensemble throughout the performance), old and new (taking the tenets of American Utopia to new places), weight and wonder.

Related: Everything You Need To Know About The New David Byrne Album, ‘Who Is The Sky?’ [Photos/Videos]

Just as the grey costumes for American Utopia received a splash of color for their Who Is The Sky? update, the stark, chain-link backdrop that accompanied Byrne’s last spectacle has been supplanted by a rounded triptych of floor-to-ceiling screens that embrace the stage from behind. On Saturday night at The Met Philadelphia, Byrne used those screens to open the show on a virtual moon, floating through space for a delicate, stripped-down take on Talking Heads’ hopeful “Heaven.” Then, as his 12-piece ensemble of untethered musicians, singers, and dancers in matching garb filed in around him on the empty stage, he shifted his focus from Heaven to the Earth that had been floating in the distance, landing on “Everybody Laughs” as his literal, metaphorical, and philosophical “worldview.”

It’s a perfect song for the job, if you think about it. It mixes surreality with profundity, pairs humdrum topics with celebratory sounds, and persists in pooling us all together rather than sacrificing unity because of a few small differences. While the “laughing” may at first seem like the focal point, its the “everybody” part—the collective action, the participation—that really moves David Byrne.

“Congratulations, humanity. We’ve made it,” read a sign pictured behind Byrne as the song came to an end, and although its societal assessment was surely intended to be aspirational—sarcastic, even—through Byrne’s lens, the fact that we did it together is what makes the assertion true.

Case in point: As he explained before the next number, earlier that day he had participated in the City of Brotherly Love’s No Kings Day march, part of a global network of demonstrations against the fascist tendencies and abuses of power that have come to define the United States’ current administration. After “Everybody Laughs”, he showed off some photos from the day on the towering video walls behind him, including one striking snap of a large group of protestors unfurling a massive American flag.

His comments on the experience weren’t particularly charged, but the photos he showed of this collective action toward a common ideal spoke thousands of words. The visual of his own figure in front of them was powerful in itself: this gangly, blue-cloaked, white-haired, sage embodiment of curiosity, connection, and compassion set against against sprawling stars and stripes, delivering a simple message of togetherness in the face of turmoil—preaching unity as resistance.

While the images from the protest were a new addition on Saturday night, they echoed themes already embedded in the DNA of Who Is The Sky? New song “My Beliefs Are On My T-Shirt”, which has yet to appear on a record, was accompanied by a slideshow of corny t-shirt logos, but one in particular which has been there throughout the run—a Burger King logo reworked to read “No Kings”—prompted a palpable swell of excitement in the Met.

Late in the set, a frantic take on Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime” ended with a barrage of jarring video clips from the last round of No Kings demonstrations and other recent protests, squeezing genuine emotional impact and relevant commentary out of the classic track’s lingering sense of foreboding.

Between two songs rooted in innocence and acceptance—Talking Heads staple “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)” and curious Who Is The Sky? selection “What Is the Reason for It?”, which asks the tough questions but doesn’t presume to know their answers—Byrne paraphrased John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) in noting that in a time when kindness is seen as disposable and empathy is viewed as a weakness. “Love and kindness are the most punk things you can do right now. … A form of resistance.”

The Mitchell-penned New York Times guest essay to which Byrne referred, “Today’s Young People Need to Learn How to Be Punk,” may not say those exact words, but it’s not hard to see how they may have inspired some of this show’s most salient themes. In the piece, Mitchell credits collaborative effort and “D.I.Y. collective action” as the key tools of an anti-establishment, “punk” ethos—something today’s youth may be contemplating as they “confront the very real possibility of a post-democratic America.” He writes, “MAGA has adopted an authoritarian style of punk that disdains what Elon Musk calls our ‘greatest human weakness,’ empathy. But O.G. punk, while equally free of trigger warnings, is constructive and caring. Above all, it’s about community.”

Of course, this being David Byrne, in actuality it’s less about “above all” and more about “yes, and…” The visuals often stuck with one theme until the end of a song, then changed to something new, stringing the audience along as the show unfolded. The kinetic staging tended to evolve in similar fashion within each number—as soon as you think you’ve got it down, there’s a slight variation.

Yes, the show was built around the new album, and it paid homage to a large chunk of enduring Talking Heads material in a new light. Yes, it has carried a notable weight of political resistance, and it dealt with apolitical wonder in whimsical topics like “laughing” and surreal subjects like eating blueberry tarts with the Buddha in the Village.

Yes, it recognizes the dark spots in the world, and it notices how interesting they look when the light shines through them. Beauty in contrast. Punk in acceptance. It’s an intoxicating line of thinking to borrow from a man who has always perceived life differently than most. With Who Is The Sky?, David Byrne invites you to see the world the way David Byrne sees it. If you ask him, he’ll tell you everybody’s doing it.

At the bottom here is typically where we’d typically drop the setlist, but that’s out there on the internet if you want it (I know I didn’t ahead of time). The Who Is The Sky? set is a meal meant to be consumed whole. A list of courses and ingredients is far less useful than these two recommendations: 1) Be punk. 2) Go see this show.

David Byrne’s tour heads to Canada this week with a three-night run at Toronto, ON’s Massey Hall (10/21, 10/22, 10/23). Byrne and company will continue to work their way around North America through early December before taking the show overseas beginning in January, February, and March of 2026. Find a full list of upcoming David Byrne tour dates and ticketing details here.

Below, view a selection of photos from David Byrne’s Saturday, October 18th Who Is The Sky? Tour performance at The Met Philadelphia via Andrew O’Brien.

David Byrne | The Met Philadelphia | Philadelphia, PA | 10/18/25 | Photos: Andrew O’Brien