News & Updates
DECEMBER 2024
Hello All and Happy Holidays from Start Making Sense!
We only have a few more shows this year including our annual Xmas to New Years Eve run. We are so excited to play all of these amazing venues and see all of you wonderful people out there.
After that, we'll take a few weeks off and then head to Australia for our second tour down under!
On January 6th we'll be announcing our Spring tour with the Ocean Avenue Stompers playing the music of Talking Heads, David Bryne and more with a full Horn Section!!! The show at The Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ has already been announced and is already on sale. The rest will be announced on January 6th!
As always, we are so grateful for all of the love and support you have given us over the last 15 (almost 16!) years.
Wishing you all a wonderful, peaceful holiday season full of love.
- Start Making Sense -
November 2024
Hey Everyone!
We hope you're enjoying your fall so far. We have so many shows coming up that we are super excited to share with you.
Next week we'll be in Chicago performing at Park West with our good friend Charlie Otto + His Gear. For those that don't know, Charlie fronted This Must Be the Band, an amazing Chicago based Talking Heads Tribute that toured at the same time as Start Making Sense for almost a decade !! We love Charlie's solo work and everything he and the This Must Be the Band crew have done over the years, so this is a very special night for all of us to finally share the stage together!
Our New merchandise is now for sale online here. We're so stoked about these new designs, we hope you are too!
The rest of our 2025 schedule is below and here. In addition to that we'll be going back to Australia in Jan/Feb of 2025, our annual tour with the Ocean Avenue Stompers horns will be happening in March/April, we'll be returning to CO in May and CA in July! So many awesome things!
Also, if you aren't aware, we wanted to remind you of David Byrne's Reasons to Be Cheerful website. A wonderful project that shares good news about people doing positive things all over the world.
As always, thank you so much for supporting us in our attempts to share the music of Talking Heads. We couldn't do it without you!
August 2024
Well Hello there!
We hope you've been enjoying your summer. We're very excited to announce all of our fall dates right now (don't worry summer isn't over yet, we just like to be a little ahead of the curve).
We can't wait to get back to all of these wonderful places (and a couple new ones Chicago, KY, OH, Jersey City, Syracuse we're looking at you!). We also have a bunch of amazing opening acts on a lot of these shows. So please check out all the info and get tickets here. (some of these shows aren't on sale yet, but don't worry they'll all be available soon, we like to give you all advance notice when we can).
Also our merch store is up and running. You can check that out here.
We'll have lots of new designs and cool stuff coming in September.
And.... We're going back to Australia in 2025!! Dates/info below.
WOW.
Thank you again everyone for your continued love and support. We are truly grateful to you all.
With Love
-Start Making Sense -
June 2024
Hey Everyone!
We’ve got some exciting news to share with you all.
We have an online store for our merchandise! It took us quite a while, but finally we have all of our t-shirts, posters (and many more things to come in the next few months) available for purchase online. You can go here to see it all !!!
https://merch.ambientinks.com/collections/startmakingsense or just check out the Merch Tab on our website (you’re already here right?)
In addition to that we have some great shows coming up from June - September.
Please take a peek at the calendar and hopefully we'll see you at one of these amazing places!!!
https://www.startmakingsenseband.com/new-events
We have a lot of shows planned for the fall/winter (and even more in 2025!) So keep an eye out as we announce those soon.
Again we just want to thank each and everyone of you for constant love and support. We couldn't do this without you!
See you soon !!
- Start Making Sense -
April 2024
Hello Everyone!
We just wanted to give you all a quick message on what's coming up for Start Making Sense.
Our last two shows with the Ocean Avenue Stompers Horns playing the whole night with us (yes, two sets of Talking Heads, David Byrne and more with a full horn section) are happening this weekend. All the info is here.
It's likely we won't have any more of these shows with the full horn section until 2025, so if you can make it out, please do.
Then we return to our regularly scheduled program in PA, CO, VA, MD, MA, NY, Philly, NJ, CA etc etc (all of the dates are here)
We have a bunch of dates coming up in the Fall in places we haven't been in a while and some new places too (Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit, Cleveland, NH, Maine we're looking at you!) All of that is being announced in the next few weeks.
In addition to that we will be launching our online merchandise store in the next month or so. We will definitely be making a big announcement and letting you know about it. But we're very excited about this as we have been unable to really get anyone shirts/posters/merch unless we had them at shows (which has been few and far between in the past. we’ll have them all the time going forward). We'll have all the old designs and a bunch of new ones up there too. Fear not, we will definitely remind you a few times, when it is up and running.
In the meantime, if you can, please be kind to yourselves and everyone else around you. As always we are so thankful for the love, support and friendship you have shared with this band. We can't wait to see you out there somewhere soon.
- Start Making Sense
February 2024
Hey Everyone!!
We hope your winter is treating you well. Start Making Sense is
currently in the midst of our yearly, self imposed, down time. We try
to take a little time off in winter months with the intention of
resting, recuperating and spending some quality time with our loved
ones after a very busy 2023 and our first ever tour of Australia in
January of 2024.
And it looks like we'll be doing that tour of Australia again in
January of 2025. I never thought I would be typing those words. We started this band,
literally, 15 years ago (more news on that later), with the intention
of doing a couple shows in our hometown, and trying our best to honor
a band we all loved dearly and had been hugely influenced by. Beyond
that, well, we really never thought beyond that! Everything since
then has been an amazing surprise that we never anticipated. We can
not thank you all enough for your love and support over the last 15
years. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
We'll be back at it with the Ocean Avenue Stompers Horns playing the
music of Talking Heads, David Byrne and more! Tour begins on 3/29.
All the details here.
We absolutely love doing these shows with the Stompers. One of the
highlights of our year for sure. Lots of new songs and unexpected
songs coming at you this time !!! We hope to see you there.
Our Sincerest Thanks and Gratitude
Start Making Sense
JAN 2024
Wow. Thank you Boston, Cohoes, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and of course Bethlehem for an amazing week of shows. Just unbelievable. You all are phenomenal. We really can't thank you enough for all the love and support you have shown this band over the last 14 years (15 years in March!!! so keep your eyes peeled for some sneaky celebrations at that time). We are so grateful to be able to travel around sharing the music of Talking Heads with you all. Speaking of traveling around, we're headed to Australia next week! So if you have any friends down under, please spread the word. We'll be taking a little time off after we return and then we'll be back out with Ocean Ave Stompers Horns starting on March 29th. As always you can find the info here.
Thank you everyone for making this year one of the best. Happy 2024 to you all !!!!!
OCT 2023
Hello Everyone!
We've got so much going on in the next few months, we figured we should share as much of it as we can with you. Tons of shows all over the Northeast, Colorado, Chicago and the Midwest this fall, a Hometown show on New Years Eve, and then Australia in January!!
Yes, all of that is true. And we'll be returning with the Ocean Ave Stompers Horns in April 2024 playing some brand new places!
We'll also have merchandise with us this fall, new t-shirts, old t-shirts, tour posters and more !! For those of you asking about the "Feel the Byrne" shirts these last couple years, they're back !!
This has been a very busy, but very unbelievable year for us. And we thank you so much for all of your love and support. As always, we couldn't do this without you.
Can't wait to see you out there!!!
more info here -----
- Start Making Sense
JULY 2023
Hey Everyone !!
Summer is here. And though our schedule may look a little lighter than normal, we are covering a lot more ground than we ever have! From Buffalo to Califronia to Philly to Rhode Island to Cape Cod to West Virginia! We'll be there. Where will we see you? Below is our full summer schedule and you can find details here
On top of that we'll be firing up Ye Olde Merchandise machine this summer and fall. Bringing back old t-shirt designs we haven't had in years and new one's just for this year. We'll even have some limited edition posters for our CA run this July.
And as if that wasn't enough, we have some side projects going on in August and September that we are so excited about, we thought we should mention them here.
Great White Caps Summer Reunion Shows! That's right. GWC is back for two super surf rock shows this August! Info Here
Start Making Sense and Friends present Tripping Daisy's "Jesus Hits Like The Atom Bomb". Members of SMS and friends will be performing the classic underappreciated psychedelic Texas pop masterpiece in celebration of it's 25th anniversary. If you aren't familiar with this record, we highly suggest checking it out. And if you are in the Northeast this September, come share in the Celebration with us for 3 shows only!
As always thank you all so much for your support of this band, and this ever growing group of musicians, in all that we do. We can't thank you enough for supporting Start Making Sense in all of our Talking Heads Tribute endeavors, but also all of the support you have given us in our original projects and other tribute projects. We would not be able to do any of these things without you. From the bottom of our hearts, all of us, Thank You.
Start Making Sense
7/15 - Cobblestone Live Buffalo, NY
7/27 - Belly Up San Diego, CA
7/28 - Teregram Ballroom Los Angeles, CA
7/29 - The Hangar Costa Mesa, CA
8/3 - Rocks Off Boat Cruise, NYC
8/4 - Anchor Rock Club Atlantic City, NJ
8/17 - Concerts Under the Stars King Of Prussia, PA
8/18 - Summersounds Park Greensburg, PA
8/19 - Palentine Park Fairmont, WV
8/24 - The Ocean Mist South Kingstown, RI
8/25 - The Ocean Mist South Kingstown, RI
8/26 - Payomet PAC Truro, MA
Great White Caps
8/10 - Musikfest Bethlehem, PA
8/12 - The Funhouse Bethlehem, PA
SMS and Friends Presents "Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb"
9/22 - World Cafe Live Upstairs Philadelphia, PA
9/23 - The Funhouse Bethlehem, PA
9/24 - Mercury Lounge NYC
Start Making Sense full tour dates
June 2023
Start Making Sense & Friends Present Tripping Daisy's "Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb"
Hey Everyone, Jon Braun here from Start Making Sense.
To continue our strange obsession of presenting live performances of
albums that changed our lives with our good friends (like we did with
Tom Petty's Wildflowers and Jane's Addiction first two albums way back
in 2021 at the Musikfest Cafe), Start Making Sense and Friends are beyond
excited to present Tripping Daisy's 1998 overlooked/underrated
masterpiece "Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb", in celebration of its 25th
anniversary. I've been trying to figure out a way to word this post
and explain it without writing a novel for quite some time. It's doubtful I've succeeded.
But here goes.
This album literally changed my life and the way I look at music. As
it has done for all 6 people involved in this one time project (Three
shows only in September 2023: Philly 9/22, Bethlehem PA 9/23 and NYC 9/24). I've shared this music with
every person I possibly can. It brings me pure joy when I hear it, every time,
no matter how I'm feeling. It is a full on celebration of positivity,
life in all of it's forms (good and band) and most importantly, love. You can feel it
dripping out of the speakers when you listen. Although the album
didn't sell well at the time and the band is known much more for the
"I Got a Girl" single or their later morphing into the much much more
popular Polyphonic Spree, to me this album was a pinnacle. It's where
everything clicked. Produced by Eric Drew Feldman (check out his
credits!) and recorded at the legendary Dreamland Studios with
complete creative freedom, the heavily layered album continues to
reveal new sounds, vocals, synthesizers, trumpets and god knows what
else to the listener, even now, 25 years after its release. You can
find something new on every listen. Though this album struck me from
the day it came out, I know of many people who came across it much
later and it still had the same effect on them. So it's definitely
not a nostalgia, time or place type of thing. That's what makes
it a masterpiece. It is absolutely timeless. We have been toying with
the idea of trying to perform this album live for at least 15 years or more. It is so
dense and layered that it requires a ton of work and attention to
detail. A true labor of love. We are so excited to say that we've
finally been able to bring that idea to fruition.
The Band is comprised of myself, Jon Braun and Jesse Braun from Start
Making Sense. Aaron Kinsman and Conor Kinsman (yes, another set of
brothers! - sidebar, all 4 of us grew up together playing in bands and
marveling over this record), Tom Kushing (who also grew up with both
sets of brothers and playing in bands with them) and Matt Molchaney
(who has worked with most of the above folks over the last 15 + years
playing on bills together or engineering/producing our original music at
his amazing studio, Shards in Bethlehem, PA). This is one hell of a
band with a much deeper connection to each other than just the shared love of this
album.
So please go give Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb a listen (it's
available everywhere, finally) and if you like what you hear or are
even just a little curious, please come out to one of the shows and
share in this celebration of a truly transcendent and celebratory
album!! And thank you to Tripping Daisy for creating a work (and a body of work) that has resonated so deeply with so many people.
Ticket Info
World Cafe Live Upstairs - Philadeplpiha with special guests Catatonic Suns
The Funhouse - Bethlehem, PA with special guests Catatonic Suns
Mercury Lounge - NYC with special guest JR Atkins
Spring 2023
Hello Everybody!! Happy New Year!! We have so many amazing things on tap this spring. Our March tour schedule is filled with amazing venues. And we are beyond excited to announce our April tour with the Ocean Avenue Stompers Horns! (yes it’s the same folks from last year, just a different name for the Horn Section). We had so much fun doing this last April we could not resist doing it again. There will be new Talking Heads songs, new David Byrne solo songs, and more. All info and tickets available here. We can’t wait to see you all out there this spring to share the music of Talking Heads with you.
Artwork by Masahiro Nukui and Nick Kossup
Video by Ben Hallman
September 2022
Hello Everyone!
Fall is here and so are a bunch of Start Making Sense Shows!
We have a lot of really great places we'll be playing this fall and we hope to see you at one of them. We'll be announcing our December schedule and some very exciting news for the spring, very shortly. Until then we can't wait to see you at one of these amazing venues !!!
Thanks for all of the love and support !
- Start Making Sense
June 2022
Hey everyone! It's been a wild year for us so far and we are back into the swing of things starting next week in Chicago! We have a very busy summer with more shows being announced every week. Check out the dates and all the amazing venues we'll be at here. We can't wait to share the music of Talking Heads with you this summer. We hope you can come out and share in the gift of live music with us. We've also uploaded a bunch of live shows to our bandcamp site, you can find those here for free! And we’ll be releasing the video from our show at Higher Ground with the Immaculate Horns on our youtube page shortly!! WOW. Thank you as always for all of the love, support and friendship. We couldn't do this without you.
Love
Start Making Sense
APRIL HORN TOUR! 2022
That’s Right, Next week we turn into an 11 piece band playing the the music of Talking Heads, David Byrne’s American Utopia, David Byrne & St. Vincent, and much much more! We are so excited for this upcoming run with the Immaculate Horns. We've been trying to get this thing together for a long time and thanks to the amazing horn arranging talents of Ian Gray Matt Salazar and Alex Ayala we're finally able to make it happen! Every Night will be two full sets (almost 3 hours of music!).These are the only shows scheduled where we will be performing these songs with the Immaculate Horns. Tickets are available for all shows here.
HORN TOUR!!! April 2022!
Start Making Sense and The Immaculate Horns present an evening of
songs by Talking Heads, David Byrne and more.
That's right, a long time in the making, but we've finally got it together.
Start Making Sense is proud to present the music of Talking Heads,
David Byrne and more with a full Horn section! This special evening
will feature David Byrne solo material, Talking Heads songs and more
surprises, with the Immaculate Horns. (Ian Gray, Matt Salazar, Robin Rutigliano and Rob Clabby).
We will only be performing this show at select venues in April of
2022. Don't miss out on this very special tour!
tickets available here
Artwork by - Masahiro Nukui
4/1 XL Live - Harrisburg, PA
4/2 Stone Pony - Asbury Park, NJ Fan Club No TM Fee tickets available here
4/8 The Cabot Theatre - Beverly MA
4/9 TBA
4/15 Cohoes Music Hall - Cohoes, NY
4/16 Anthology - Rochester, NY
4/22 Higher Ground - Burlington, VT
4/23 State Theatre - Portland, ME
THE BAND
Jon Braun - vocals/gtr
Jenny Founds - vocals
Brian Davis - guitar/vocals
Eric Anderson - bass
Jesse Braun - drums
Alex Ayala - keyboards / Horn arrangements
Colin Miller - percussion / vocals
Ian Gray (Cory Wong, Swift Technique, Remember Jones) - Trombone / Horn Arrangements
Matt Salazar (Cory Wong, Remember Jones, Nik Greeley and the Operators) - Turmpet / Horn Arrangements
Robin Clabby (Brass-A-Holics, Francis Mbappe) - Baritone Sax
Rob Rutigliano (The Chronicles, Snacktime, Tré Lambert) - Tenor Sax / Flute / EWI
JAN 2022
Well, that was one heck of a year! Thank you to everyone who came out to the Ardmore Music Hall for a beautiful New Years Eve celebration. We couldn't have asked for a better night at one of our favorite venues. Despite the challenges we were able to continue to bring the music of Talking Heads across the country to everyone who wanted to be there and listen. Thank you all so much for supporting this band throughout the last 13 years. Without an audience, there is no show. We truly can't thank you enough for coming out to enjoy the gift of live music, together. There is no substitute for that. We also need to send out a monstrous thank you to all of the venues and staff who, despite unbelievable obstacles, were able to host us and all of you. What it takes to keep the doors open at independent venues these days is nothing short of a miracle. We are beyond blessed to be able to play these songs for you and our appreciation for that opportunity has only deepened over the last few years. We can not wait to get back out there and do it again with all of you in 2022. Until then, please be kind to yourselves and others. And let's ALL have a Happy New Year. - Love, Start Making Sense -
Photo - Melanie Smith
DEC 2021
It's that time of year again! We can't wait to see you all out there for our last few shows of 2021. We have a bunch of new and exciting shows/tours coming in 2022 as well. We hope to see you all soon so we can share the gift of music together again! Be kind to each other and be well this holiday season (and every season!)
Start Making Sense
https://www.startmakingsenseband.com/new-events
OCT 2021
Hey Everybody! October is almost here, and we're going to be all over the place. Maybe even somewhere near you. So let's get together and share in the gift of live music! More Info here and more shows coming this fall!
MAY 2021
And just like that, we're back!
We are so excited to be back playing shows. Thank you again everyone for your love and support over the last 14 months. We literally could not have weathered this storm without you. We have so many amazing shows coming up this summer and fall. We can't wait to share them all with you. Not everything is listed yet, but more shows are being announced every week, so keep your eyes peeled here
We're stoked to be playing very cool, new venues (both indoor and outdoor) for the summer and the fall is literally completely booked at almost all of the places we normally play in a year! So get ready, it's very likely we're coming to your town!
Thank you again for all of the constant love and support. We'll see you out there soon!
- Start Making Sense
MARCH 2021
NEW SHOWS!!! Yes, you heard that right! Both indoor and outdoor shows are coming in every week. So it looks like we'll be out and about quite a bit this spring and summer! Plus we have rescheduled a bunch of shows to the fall with the hopes that they will be able to happen smoothly! Check the tour dates section of our site as it's being updated regularly. Thank you again everyone for all of your support over this last year. It's been a tough one for everyone and the music industry has been hit particularly hard. We are so grateful for all of your love and support. We never would have made it through without you. If you have the means we encourage you to support your local music/art venues and the staff. We can't wait to get back out there and play the music of Talking Heads for you all !!
January 2021
We are so excited to announce 4 very special shows coming up in Feb and March at Steelstacks Musikfest Cafe in Bethlehem, PA! A residency of sorts, where we will be debuting some new projects we've been working on over the last bunch of months, and one Start Making Sense show to top it all off. All shows will have a limited capacity, socially distanced, live audience and will also be live streamed through Nugs.tv and our youtube channel. Tickets available here. We are so thankful to Artsquest / Steelstacks Musikfest Cafe for giving us the opportunity to do these shows. And for their never endings support of live music and art within the Lehigh Valley Community. With 2020 being so devastating to so many people, we are grateful and honored to have the chance to share the gift and positivity of music in our hometown in these trying times.
Feb 5 - Start Making Sense and Friends present Tom Petty's “Wildflowers” - Acoustic. Start Making Sense will be doing a 4 piece, acoustic, stripped down performance. No drums or orchestras. Just some guitars, voices and piano playing the entire Wildflowers album in order. Plus we'll be doing a few classic Tom Petty songs, and a few from the "All The Rest" album as well. Every one of us in SMS has lived with and loved this record since it came out. Doing these songs has been a goal of ours for quite some time. With the re-release of the Wildflowers album this year on vinyl, including "All the Rest" (songs that were recorded at the same time and intended to be part of that album but never got released) we couldn’t resist. The time is now for us to pay tribute to what we feel is one of the greatest, most honest, beautiful and perfect albums ever made. Live Stream info Here (tips/donations are always gratefully accepted! via venmo @startmakingsense1 or paypal startmakingsense1@gmail.com) Ticket Info Here
Feb 12 - Start Making Sense and Friends present Jane’s Addiction’s “Nothing Shocking” and “Ritual De Lo Habitual” As a 4 piece band, Jenny Founds on lead vocals, Jesse Braun on bass, Chris McDermott on guitar and Jon Braun on Drums, we will be playing both albums, in their entirety, in order. These two albums have been life changing records for all of us in Start Making Sense (and we assume most of you as well!). This project has been percolating within the band for quite a while. Jenny has wanted to do this show on her birthday for the last 3 years! Finding ourselves with a little more musical down time in 2020 than we expected, we figured this was the perfect time to go for it. We are so excited to play these two brilliant, classic records for you and for us!
“The T.V.'s got them images. T.V.'s got them all. It's not shocking!” - Perry Farrell Ticket info here Live Stream Info here (tips/donations are always gratefully accepted! via venmo @startmakingsense1 or paypal startmakingsense1@gmail.com)
Feb 19 - Ruby Dear Record Release Show In case you aren’t aware, Ruby Dear is an all original band made up of members of SMS. Back in Feb of 2020 Jesse, Jenny and Jon from SMS traveled up to Boston to record a new Ruby Dear record at Chillhouse Studios with Will Bradford from Seepeoples producing. We recorded the whole thing in just under 3 days, mostly live. The events of the spring slowed down the mixing and all the other things that go along with finalizing a record. But now, it is done and ready to be unleashed. We are beyond proud of this album. We spent a long time writing / arranging these songs and feel that is the best work we’ve ever done as band. We hope you enjoy it! More info on the album soon. Ticket info here Live Stream Info Here (tips/donations are always gratefully accepted! via venmo @startmakingsense1 or paypal startmakingsense1@gmail.com)
March 5 - Start Making Sense presents…… Start Making Sense! - pretty self explanatory right? haha. Ticket info here Live Stream Info Here (tips/donations are always gratefully accepted! via venmo @startmakingsense1 or paypal startmakingsense1@gmail.com)
Dec 2020
Hey Everyone! As we await the return to regular live shows, we have something we would like to share.
On December 18th we'll be releasing video of our show at Daydream Farms in NJ from this past summer. It was a magical day and night that we'll never forget. It was also one of the few times this year we were able to share the joy of music with other people, live and in person. The full show will be available here, at CashorTrade, Live For Live Music, and Elmthree Productions on Dec 18th at 8 pm.
As always, it's free to watch, but any tips/donations will be gratefully accepted at our
venmo - @startmakingsense1 or
paypal - startmakingsense1@gmail.com.
This beautiful evening would not have been possible without the ridiculous work of Elmthree Productions , gbCreative , Daydream Farms, Speak Easy Audio and our very own Colin Reynolds on sound. It takes a lot of people/hard work to make a show happen in 2020, and all of these people worked tirelessly to pull this off. We can't thank them or you enough for all of the support and love this year. Big thanks to CashorTrade and Live For Live Music for helping us get this out there. We hope you enjoy the show.
News & Updates
May 2020 Pt 2 - Sad on the internet
Hey Everyone. Jon Braun from Start Making Sense here. Just wanted to let you all know that there is a music video to accompany one of the songs on my latest album. Strangely, it feels like the timing couldn't have been more appropriate (even though the song was written and recorded last year).
The video was produced, directed, edited, animated and designed by my longtime friend and soul brother Daniel Winer. You can check out his video production here at TytePics or here. I couldn't be happier with how he made the music come to life in visual form. A true master and one of my favorite humans on the planet. The song is also available on all the usual streaming platforms. Hope you enjoy!
MAY 2020 Pt 1
Hey Everyone!! We are very excited to announce our second live Stream during these crazy times. Satuday May 9th at 8 pm EST we will be playing live for 2 + hours! Just like the last time this will be a free stream, but any tips you would like to/can put into the virtual tip jar are greatly appreciated. We’ve got a few song surprises for you as well. More details and links to the stream will be here and on all of our social media shortly. Stay positive everyone! And we’ll see you back out there in the real world soon!
startmakingsense1@gmail.com (paypal)
startmakingsense1 (venmo)
March 22, 2020
WOW. Thankful and grateful doesn't even begin to describe yesterday. We can not thank you enough for tuning in with us. Despite not being in the same physical location as you all, we absolutely felt the love. The comments, emails and notes were received. You are all so very generous. A lot of people spoke of how much they needed some music and joy in their life at this time. It is the exact same situation for us. We did this for you and for us to help us all "feel normal for a few hours". We could not have made this happen without Sean Smith . The absolute live stream guru who pulled it all together in a few days time, Colin Reynolds our sound engineer, nugs.net for the generosity in bandwith and resources, and all of you for "being there" with us. If the situation allows, we will try to do this or something like this again as soon as we can. Until then, in the words of Eric Idle, always look on the bright side of life. From the bottom of our hearts. Thank you.
The stream will always live on the internet HERE - in case you missed it!!
March 20, 2020 - LIVE STREAM
Ok - Here are all the details for this Friday's live stream! The song requests are in, the set list is written and the streaming vehicles are in place. 8 - 10 pm EST Fri March 20, 2020 you can watch here - https://2nu.gs/startmakingsense
Again, this is totally free! but if you wish to donate a virtual tip it can be done at startmakingsense1@gmail.com (paypal) or startmakingsense1 (venmo). We're hoping to do a bunch more of these in the coming days. HUGE thanks to nugs.tv and our great friend Sean Smith for making this happen on such short notice.
You can also watch on all of the below platforms as well!
https://www.facebook.com/nugs.tv/
March 16 2020
Hey everyone. Our Sincerest Apologies, but we are going to have to postpone all of our shows for March and quite a few in April. We will absolutely be rescheduling all of these shows. We’ll be constantly updating our site and social media to reflect the postponements, reschedule dates and any pertinent info. Once things settle down we’ll have a comprehensive list posted as well. Keep your eyes peeled. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding in these very strange days. In the meantime, be well, stay grounded and take care of each other. We’ll see you on the other side, with music.
March 2020
Spring is almost here. That means it’s time for Start Making Sense to fire up the Econoline 15 Passenger van and get on the road! Check out all of the dates on our tour page (more coming soon!). And keep your eyes peeled for a bunch of auido and video that we’re going to be uploading to youtube / archive.org We’ve been sifting through the archives to find some really cool things we think you’ll enjoy! See you out on the road! - Start Making Sense
January 2020
Goodbye 2019! What an amazing year for us. We were fortunate enough to be able to re-create Stop Making Sense at the Paramount Theatre, we had the honor of playing at Levon Helm Studios, The Burton Fall Bash, some amazing festivals and we were lucky enough to travel all over the country playing the music of Talking Heads at the best venues, to all of you beautiful people who enjoy it as much as we do. Thank you so much for coming out to all of the shows, plus all of the love, support and friendship you've shared with us this year (and the 9 years before that!). Now, everyone go see David Byrne's American Utopia on Broadway in 2020 before it's over!! It will blow your mind! Happy new year everyone. We’ve got plenty of amazing things in the works for 2020 and we'll see you all again in March - Start Making Sense
Photos by WATERMRK STUDIOS and Melanie Smith
JUNE 2019
HEY EVERYONE !!
We have some amazing news to share with you!!
We will be doing our Live re-creation of Stop Making Sense one more time this fall to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the film's release. 35 years to the day !! It will be October 18th at the historic Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, NJ. Tickets Available HERE or at the venue box office (no fees at the box office!) on 6/7. Like we've said in the past, this show is quite a difficult thing for us to pull off and we really don't know how often we can make it happen. This could be the last time we do it, or maybe we'll do it in 2020 or 2022 or 2024 ? As of now it's the only performance of the film that we have scheduled. We're delighted to be able to do this show in NJ (home state and birthplace of many of our band/crew members) with our always amazing crew that brings this show to life. Yes, our crew for this show is the only reason we can pull this off and we are so lucky to be able to have all of the same crew members on this show that we have had on the 2 previous performances. They are all masters of their craft and we are so thankful to be able to work with everyone single one of them.
So please come out to help us celebrate the 35th anniversary of the BEST concert film ever made.
And now we have a mailing list !!!! Please sign up on the home page right now !
We'll be using it to keep you up to date on things like the Stop Making Sense re-creation, our destination travel show/ 10th anniversary celebration trip to Amsterdam in 2020 (yep we just said that!) and to offer discount tickets and pre-sale tickets to other special shows (ie - We actually will have a limited amount of discounted tickets for the Stop Making Sense Re-Creation available only to folks on the mailing list! no Ticketmaster fees !! More Info on those tickets coming very very very soon!). So sign up now to get the inside scoop on all sorts of cool stuff. We promise we won't flood your inbox.
While we're talking about news worthy events, if you didn't catch David Byrne's American Utopia tour last year (or even if you did!) you should be heading over HERE to buy tickets for it on Broadway ! That's right. One of the most amazing live music shows ever created will be on Broadway from Oct - Jan of this year. From all of us in Start Making Sense - DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW. It is truly one of the most brilliant things Mr Byrne has done on stage. Don't let it pass you by !!
Thank you so much for all of your support and love over the years. We have more specials shows and info about the Amsterdam destination concert/travel event for 2020 in the works. Keep your eyes peeled !
POSTER DESIGN BY BOBBY HACKNEY !!! —— https://www.facebook.com/roughfrancis/
April 2019
- We’re back !! So many awesome things going on this year. We have a ton of announcements coming up in the next month or 2 with some really special shows and events we can’t wait to tell you about ! In the meantime check out the tour dates page and we hope to see you out there on the road !
January 2019
- wow. just wow. what a year !! all of the amazing venues, people, the stop making sense re-creation, Cuba?!!!! thank you so much to everyone who came out over the last few weeks, months, years, and basically as long as we've been doing this! which by the way is going on 10 years this February. wow again. when we started this as a one night event at the Funhouse South Side in Bethlehem, PA 10 years ago we never could have imagined we would be where we are today. we are truly honored and grateful to be able to bring you the music of Talking Heads year after year. and we couldn't do it without you. literally. so thank you for all the love and support. happy new year to you and yours ! see you in 2019 !!!
THANK YOU !!!!!
December 2018 !!!!!!
And Just Like that, it’s here. WOW. Just WOW. If you would have told us 10 years ago that we would playing all of the places we're playing in the next few weeks we would have laughed. Quite hard. We are beyond honored and grateful do be able to do what we do. It's going to be a bit crazy over the next 3 weeks but we are so happy to do it. We can't thank you all enough for your never ending support, help and enthusiasm in sharing this amazing music with us. And in the middle of it all, on Dec 28th, we'll be doing our complete re-creation of the Stop Making Sense film. Live at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY. We are still in awe that this is happening ! We have rehearsals starting tomorrow where we'll be going over last look, glance, note, dance move, mic stand placement, light bulb (or lack there of), lyric change, inflection, boombox click, big suit alteration and everything else you can think of ! It takes a lot of people to make something like this (and even just our day to day operations) happen. So we have to thank all of the phenomenal crew we work with for taking the time in the middle of the holiday season to do what they do so well. And always with a smile on their face. Always. We here at Start Making Sense are thrilled to work with the absolute best musicians, techs, audio engineers, lighting designers, promoters and venues in the country. hands down. so get your tickets now right here - to the Capitol Theater show as we really don't know when we will be doing this exact show again.
See you out there everyone. And again, THANK YOU !!
- Start Making Sense
http://www.thecapitoltheatre.com/event/1713381-start-making-sense-port-chester/
https://www.startmakingsenseband.com/new-events/
STOP MAKING SENSE RECREATION at THE Capitol theater. 12/28/18 !!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes !! It's happening !! We are so excited and honored to be bringing our recreation of the legendary Stop Making Sense film to the historic Capitol Theater in Port Chester NY !!! In case you're wondering, yes, this is an entirely live, complete recreation of Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense. Right down to every last detail. Did you know that the microphone grills are black in the film? Did you know that there is no silver hardware anywhere on stage to cut down on reflective surfaces for lighting? We didn't know any of these things either until we did this recreation in our hometown of Bethlehem, PA back in 2016. All of those crazy details and more will be on display on December 28, 2018 ! This marks our second performance of the Film in it's entirety and we couldn't be more excited to be doing it at the beautiful Capitol Theater.
Like we said back in 2016, we don't really have plans to do this recreation very often as it is a very large production. So whenever the situation arises and the stars align we'll do our best to make it happen. But as of right now, this is the only performance we have scheduled or on the horizon. Making it (so far) a biennial occurrence (yes. i had to look that word up myself. It means once every two years!).
So don't miss this !!! it could happen again in 2 years or not! Pre-sale tickets go on sale thurs with this special code (talkingheads), and general public on sale is friday !! we'll have more news and info soon !!! thank you very much !!!
FOR TICKETS - http://rocksoff.com/shows/6201
Friday, December 28th 2018
Rocks Off & The Capitol Theatre Present:
STOP MAKING SENSE - A Live And Direct Recreation of the Legendary Concert Film As Performed By
START MAKING SENSE: Talking Heads Tribute
149 Westchester Ave
Port Chester, NY 10573
Pre-sale Thursday, July 12 @ 10am - 10pm
Genreal on-sale Friday, July 13 @ 12pm
we are going to cuba and you are invited.
4/25-4/29 2018 HAVANA, CUBA
WED, APR 25, 2018 SUN, APR 29, 2018
A "Once In A Life Time" Trip To Cuba With Start Making Sense
Havana, Cuba
That’s right we are going to Cuba and we are inviting our fans & friends to join us for this once in a lifetime cultural concert experience. This is a very special trip. To the best of our knowledge no band has ever done this before. It took some serious effort to make this happen and that means there are limited spots available. We literally have only 50 seats we can offer. During this 5 day, 4 night journey, Start Making Sense will be playing two different shows at two different venues in historic Havana. You, our fans and friends will have access to daily cultural tours that include exploration of historical sights, local arts and music, free breakfast, two dinners (with Start Making Sense), and exposure to the Afro-Cuban music scene that has helped to not only inspire the music of Talking Heads, but musicians globally.
We all know that music is the universal language that connects us, and while under unique circumstances the Arts (including Cuban music) have thrived. This is our chance to be a part of a larger conversation and at the same time give back.
SMS will be using a portion of this experience to share with our Cuban brothers and sisters the gift of giving back. We will be bringing drum sticks, guitar strings, colored pencils, pens, and other items that the people and the musicians of the US might take for granted. These items are in very short supply in Cuba and will help make the creation of art and music easier for the Cuban people. We are encouraging you, our guests on this trip, to do the same.
Trip Dates: April 25th to April 29th, 2018
Deposit Due - $500
Double Occupancy - $2575 (airfare included on American Airlines)
Single Occupancy Upgrade - $364
Full Package Details and Itinerary visit:
http://www.porterratravel.com/2018-sms.html