David Byrne: A Big Suit And A Bicycle

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 28, 2009 3:20PM

The story goes that when Talking Heads were planning the concert that would be captured on film as Stop Making Sense, frontman David Byrne asked a stage designer friend for pointers. She told him that on stage, everything needs to be bigger. He took her advice literally. Thus was born the Big Suit.

Now you can see the Big Suit on a big screen. A very big screen. Like, Navy Pier IMAX big. The Chicago Public Radio program Sound Opinions is presenting Stop Making Sense for one night only, this Thursday. The 7:30 show sold out so a 10 o'clock screening has been added. Buy a ticket now, 'cause we're guessing the second show will sell out too. The movie was the first to have an all-digital soundtrack, and hearing it on a 12,000 watt digital surround sound system should be nothing short of awesome.

In Byrne's new book Bicycle Diaries he writes about what it's been like to bike all over the world while he's traveling on tour. Turns out, he loves biking in Chicago. In a chat with with the Trib's Christopher Borrelli, he talks about heading to Oak Park from downtown (in the snow!) and then adds,

Chicago, I feel, is more bike-friendly than a lot of places. It's a big city, so if you lived in the North Side and wanted to hear music on the South Side, it would be long, and certain areas feel dense. But I heard about that bike commuting thing [McDonald's Cycle Center] in Millennium Park and how the idea is a bike station for commuters, which is pretty smart.

Millennium Park's bike station is cool and all but we'd much rather have some of those funky bike racks he designed for New York City.