Stop Making Sense (1984)

Wed Aug 20 2025 at 07:00 pm to 08:30 pm UTC-04:00

The Music Hall | Portsmouth

The Music Hall
Publisher/HostThe Music Hall
Stop Making Sense (1984)
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SHOWTIMES
Wednesday, August 20 2025, 7:00pm
Thursday, August 21 2025, 7:00pm
Saturday, August 23 2025, 4:00pm
TICKETS
$16 Adults
$14 Seniors 60+, Students/Children, & Military/Veteran/First Responder
https://www.themusichall.org/events/stop-making-sense-1984/
Restored in 4K, the 1984 Talking Heads concert film was directed by renowned filmmaker Jonathan Demme and is considered by critics as the greatest concert film of all time. Stop Making Sense stars core band members David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison along with Bernie Worrell, Alex Weir, Steve Scales, Lynn Mabry and Edna Holt. The live performance was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in December of 1983 and features Talking Heads’ most memorable songs.
The movie is the finest imaginable version of the Talking Heads’ Speaking in Tongues tour. The concert’s physical staging elements, introduced in pieces and segments, with elegant and wryly suggestive words, create an aura of pristine unease. -Chicago Tribune
As wonderful as all this new technology is, it would be nothing without Demme’s simple framing, the band’s musical intensity and Byrne’s lanky, restless cool. Those were the film’s strengths 40 years ago and they remain so today. -Houston Chronicle
The drama that Demme evokes in “Stop Making Sense” is the artistic self-transcendence that emerges from collaboration in performance. The New Yorker
Talking Heads made for great material, with its revolutionary mash-up of punk, funk, art, avant-garde and other sounds. But what sets “Stop” apart is the intimate look at that brilliant talking head, lead singer David Byrne. -LA Times
Stop Making Sense successfully captures almost everything that was great about the Talking Heads, and there’s no better endorsement of a concert film than that. -Austin Chronicle
R, 88min
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SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR CINEAM SERIES SPONSOR, NEWBURYPORT BANK.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut Street,Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States

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