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This Must Be the Band : A Tribute to Talking Heads »

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• Canopy Club »
  708 S. Goodwin Ave. Urbana, IL 61801
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It's a bit hard to review a cover band. After all, what are you reviewing—the band's originality, or their ability to perfectly mimic the band they are covering?

Even as I write this review, I'm not sure how to answer that, but This Must Be The Band, a Talking Heads cover band, did a really good job of being a cover band on Saturday night at The Canopy Club.

The group did their best to replicate the Talking Heads' 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, and for the most part it was accurate, even down to the statements the band yells out between songs and testing the drums for sound.

The show started out, just like the movie, with David Byrne (played by Charlie Otto) coming out with just an acoustic guitar, playing the song "Psycho Killer" with an electronic drum beat. As the show wears on, more and more band members come on stage, culminating as a band five songs into the set.

The running order was the same ("Psycho Killer" to "Crosseyed and Painless"), and a lot of times, it was easy to get lost in the music. The band did such a spot-on impression of the Talking Heads (complete with Byrne's spastic stage presence and the backup singer's dancing), that the music felt like it wasn't being covered note-for-note—it felt organic, like this was a unique performance, but of course it wasn't, and that's to their credit.

Still, the band struggled with any material that didn't require the full nine-piece band. Songs like "Found a Job" and "This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)" have a more delicate sound, and instead This Must Be the Band tried to make them sound larger. It didn't work, and two of the best songs from the movie got swallowed up.

Still, on rave-ups like "Take Me to the River" and "Life During Wartime," the band was spot-on. The confidence was there, perhaps knowing that any mistakes made could be covered up by any of the eight other members.

After the band completed Stop Making Sense, the band returned for a set of non-movie songs. Again, the cover band steered more towards the big-band sound, taking most songs from the 1980 album Remain in Light ("Cities" and "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)" were great covers), and occasionally veering into later-era material ("(Nothing But) Flowers" was a definite highlight). And the same as the main set, the band struggled with early, sparser material like "New Feeling."

The band closed with "And She Was," and while it wasn't the best way to go out, it was great to see the songs performed live. David Byrne has long shown disdain for pulling the original Talking Heads back together, so fans will have to settle for the occasional cover band (or Byrne solo tours). That's not always such a bad thing, even if it will never replace the original.