Talking Heads tribute plays Bluebird Friday

If you’re a fan of Talking Heads and thought you would never see the band’s rare B-sides performed live, Friday night is your chance.

This Must Be The Band, a Chicago-based Talking Heads cover band, will take the Bluebird Nightclub’s stage at 8 p.m.

If 8 p.m. sounds early for a Friday night performance, it’s because TMBTB members play all of the Talking Heads song requests thrown at them.

Every last one.

It’s not unusual for a “TMBTB” show to last four hours.

“I didn’t realize how important playing requests was until I went to the show of a band I liked,” lead singer and guitarist Charlie Otto said. “There was a bonus song that I loved, and I was so angry that they didn’t play it. I realized then how important it is when someone shouts out a song and gets to hear it.”

No matter how obscure the cut, there is a chance TMBTB has the song in its collection and would be happy to perform it for you, Otto said.

The band has even received special requests via email and Facebook prior to shows and taken special care to learn a song just for enthusiastic fans.

A side project for Otto, he said This Must Be The Band was founded in 2006 out of his desire to simply play guitar.

After watching a Thin Lizzy cover band’s performance, Otto said forming a tribute band sounded fun. One of his favorite bands, Talking Heads, had the best catalogue for guitar playing, he said.

Seven years later, TMBTB now features a rotating cast of 20 musicians, six of which will take the stage on any given night.
 
If the cover band’s members did not appreciate Talking Heads prior to joining the group, Otto said he’s confident they all love the band now.

“A lot of people know the hits, and once they have to learn at least 45 of the songs, they start to learn how rich the catalogue is and they understand the music,” Otto said.

Matt Dusza, a Talking Heads fan from Downers Grove, Ill., said he has seen TMBTB 25 times since discovering the group four years ago.

“It’s really good music,” Dusza said. “They take the songs I love and sometimes make them longer or put their own spin on it while keeping Talking Heads’ structure. They’re also phenomenally nice people. It’s unique for a tribute band. They don’t just stick to the hits and get out of there.”

However, Otto is quick to point out people who attend TMBTB shows are not necessarily the band’s own fan base, but rather fans of the original Talking Heads.

Because This Must Be The Band is a tribute band, members are straightforward when it comes to their presence.

Band members dress up for only one occasion: the recreation of the 1984 Talking Heads film “Stop Making Sense,” during which members reenact every outfit, word spoken and song played.

But Otto said he prefers to just play.

“I like connecting with the crowd,” he said. “If we reenact shows, then we can’t do what we do best, which is take requests and incorporate that into the show. Then people can hear what they paid for.”

Otto said he doesn’t know how long he’ll continue to pay tribute to legendary Talking Heads singer David Byrne. He can only speak to something that has him performing with TMBTB seven years after its creation.

“People get so happy, so there’s no reason to stop if you’re just bored with it,” he said. “I have no other way of making people as happy as this, so it’s a-no brainer.”

Tickets for the show are $5. More information can be found online at thebluebird.ws.