Photo by Blaine Schultz
Turkuaz Throws a Dance Party At Summerfest
It was a party; it was a disco and there was plenty of fooling around by the time Jerry Harrison took lead vocals on Talking Heads post-apocalyptic telegram “Life During Wartime” Saturday evening at Summerfest’s UScellular Connection Stage.
Turkuaz, featuring Talking Heads multi-instrumentalist Jerry Harrison and guitarist Adrian Belew, who toured as part of the Talking Heads, played a concert built around the Heads 1980 album Remain in Light.
From the opening salvo of “Psycho Killer” the 12-piece group had the crowd on its feet; a healthy segment of whom were not even born when the new wave band’s imaginative cover of Al Green’s soul groove “Take Me to the River” was released.
You could be excused in asking what year it was, with Shelia E packing a nearby stage and The Lemonheads performing earlier in the day. Leading up to the show other notions might have popped up: Is Turkuaz a band of Brooklyn hipsters with deep record collections glomming on to the star power of their esteemed guests? Has historical revisionism glanced hard enough at the notion of cultural appropriation, regarding Talking Heads influence of Fela Kuti, the Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer as well as that of Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola?
Nah. None of that mattered on Summerfest’s final night of 2021. With a dozen performers onstage, the groove was strong. It seemed like every instrument was a drum. Turkuaz replicated the sprawling polyrhythmic sound that so many fans have come to celebrate every year when the Milwaukee Film Festival screens the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense. This was simply that scenario played out in the flesh. Under a waxing gibbous moon, folks danced on bleachers and picnic tables; grey-hair ponytailed ‘fest veterans grooved with injured partners gliding on knee scooters.
For most of the show it was guitarist Dave Brandwein taking vocals as well as a few from saxophonist Josh Schwartz, abetted by Sammi Garett and Shira Elias. Shorewood-native, Harrison also took the spotlight on “Rev It Up,” at tune co-written with local songwriter John Sieger. Belew took a few vocals, including “Thela Hun Ginjeet,” from his days with King Crimson and the Heads “Cities,” made all the more powerful by the punctuation of a three-piece horn section.
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