David Byrne in Hong Kong!

David Byrne opens the show with a brain...

We interrupt our report on Rome and Spain with a report from the second day of Clockenflap, a three-day music and arts festival in Hong Kong.

I was very keen to see Renaissance man David Byrne perform tonight and I was not disappointed!

His entire band is mobile on stage so they can walk around

While I don't know all his songs, I was very impressed by his show -- it was all well thought out, choreographed and sounded amazing.

The stage was completely bare -- and he and almost all of his musicians and back-up singers were in bare feet. They also all wore the same shirt and gray suit, complete with vents and pleats behind each shoulder to allow more movement.

With the bare stage lined with long strings of chain as "curtains", it seemed like Byrne wanted to show that he had nothing to hide -- this is me -- and there are no special effects behind the scenes. And he did point out there were no amplifiers, that it was the musicians themselves who were playing the music.

He and his performers are barefoot on stage

Everyone from the guitarist to the drummers and keyboardist were mobile -- they wore contraptions on their shoulders to carry the instruments around and be able to walk around the stage and even dance.

Meanwhile Byrne himself was completely natural on stage, completely unfazed by what was going on and did his thing. He was non-stop for an hour and a half, singing, playing the guitar, dancing, marching around on stage. At one point he was lying on his side on a chair for a few minutes. Now that's core! And he's 66 years old!

At times he asked in Cantonese, "Ho teng ma?" "How's the concert" or "How does it sound?" We roared in approval.

Midway through he finally performed a Talking Heads song -- Once in a Lifetime -- and then eventually Burning Down the House where the crowd got really excited.



For his last song, Byrne struck a serious social and political note. He sang Janelle Monae's song, Hell You Talmbout, which calls everyone to say people's names. Whose names? Victims of police violence.

There are names like Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown and Sharonda Singleton.

In a recent interview Byrne explains why he wants to perform it:

"Here was a protest song that doesn't hector or preach at us," he said. "It simply asks us to remember and acknowledge these lives that have been lost, lives that were taken from us through injustice, though the song leaves that for the listener to put together. I love a drum line, so that aspect of the song sucked me in immediately as well. The song musically is a celebration and lyrically a eulogy. Beautiful."



It's an energetic song, but also a sombre reminder of the times we live in.

David Byrne, thank you for an amazing concert! We hope you had as much fun performing for us in Hong Kong as we enjoyed every moment with you.