29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Talking Heads' Jerry Harrison is touring live with ‘Stop Making Sense.' Here's how to get tickets
Talking Heads guitarist and keyboardist Jerry Harrison isn't just letting the days go by. The Marin resident is set to travel with the band's legendary concert film ' Stop Making Sense ' on a national tour with stops in the Bay Area.
Presented by A24 and restored for the film's 40th anniversary with Harrison's involvement, 'Stop Making Sense' will travel to 29 cities, beginning on Sept. 13 in Norwalk, Conn., and ending Jan. 17 in Bellingham, Wash.
Harrison, 76, is scheduled to introduce the film at each show, share behind-the-scenes stories from the making of the film, and host an audience Q&A following the screening. Harrison's Talking Heads bandmates — vocalist-guitarist David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth — are not scheduled to appear in person.
Northern California stops include the Golden State Theatre in Monterey on Oct. 2, the Mondavi Center in Davis on Oct. 3, the Gallo Center in Modesto on Oct. 4, the Bankhead Theater in Livermore on Jan. 9 and the Uptown Theatre in Napa on Jan. 10.
Pre-sales begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 31. General sales begin at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 1. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit
'Stop Making Sense,' directed by Jonathan Demme, is widely considered one of the great concert films of all time. Filming took place during four live shows at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles between Dec. 13 and 16, 1983, and featured such now-classic songs as 'Once in a Lifetime,' 'Burning Down the House,' 'Psycho Killer' and 'Girlfriend Is Better.'
The movie made its world premiere April 24, 1984, as the closing night film of the San Francisco International Film Festival. It was released nationwide in October 1984 and made more than $13 million against a $1.2 million budget. The soundtrack album from the film was released in September 1984 and spent over two years on the Billboard 200 chart.
The 4K restoration, which includes a Dolby Atmos soundtrack painstakingly remastered by Harrison and veteran engineer and mixer Eric Thorngren, was re-released in September 2023 and was an unexpected IMAX and arthouse hit, leading to Harrison's tour.
The tour coincides with the 50th anniversary of the band's founding in 1975, a time chronicled in Jonathan Gould's new book 'Burning Down the House: Talking Heads and the New York Scene That Transformed Rock.' Harrison has been revisiting the band's legacy through live performances of songs from the band's 1980 album 'Remain In Light' with guitarist Adrian Belew, including a performance at 2022's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco.
