Project · Providence · the Bowery · Nassau · Hollywood
Three art students and a typeface at its narrowest.
Frantz, Weymouth and Byrne began playing together at RISD, then moved to New York and formed Talking Heads. Pass their first tape around Providence, split a Bowery rent, fill the Pantages stage one player a song.
College Hill, Providence · the RISD years
Chris Frantz met David Byrne at RISD while they were working on the soundtrack for a friend’s short film. Their first band there, the Artistics, was short-lived. Follow the demo they made from shelf to shelf.
Benefit Street: Frantz taped the Artistics demo, with the first Psycho Killer, in his apartment on Benefit Street.
20 North Main Street, College Hill, Providence
The tape came to the RISD Museum in 2005, with a purchase for its prints, drawings and photographs department, and was later rediscovered there.
A public art museum on College Hill. Check opening hours and tickets before you go.
15 Westminster Street, Providence
The library fills the old Rhode Island Hospital Trust bank, which looks much as it did in the early 1900s. A round clock hangs under its dome. On their 2025 visit Frantz and Weymouth looked through posters of early shows and old student publications in the archives.
A college library in an old bank. See the front from Westminster Street; ask RISD before planning a visit inside.
February 2025
In February 2025 Frantz and Weymouth came back to Providence for a 40th-anniversary screening of Stop Making Sense in Brown’s Martinos Auditorium, and got a standing ovation. It was their first return since 2015, when RISD gave them honorary degrees.
Brown’s arts centre on Angell Street; the auditorium hosts public screenings and talks.
20 North Main Street, Providence · Open Tuesday to Sunday · check the museum for hours and prices
The art museum on College Hill where the Artistics tape, with the first Psycho Killer, sat from 2005 until it moved to the RISD Archives. Children 18 and under go free.
Plan a visitChrystie Street and the Bowery · 1975
In New York the three shared a loft of about 2,700 square feet on Chrystie Street, rented for $289 a month. It was three blocks from CBGB. They went to day jobs in the morning, came home for dinner, and rehearsed for hours.
Rent · one month · $289
Pay a share for each of them.
$0.00 of $289 paid.
A private building: named here, never mapped.
The doors are open on the Bowery.
Talking Heads played their first gig as a trio at CBGB in June 1975, opening for the Ramones, to about 15 people.
315 Bowery, East Village, Manhattan
CBGB opened on 10 December 1973 and closed on 15 October 2006. John Varvatos opened a store in the space about 13 months after the club closed. The store kept layers of band stickers and graffiti near the old stage. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.
A shop now. See the front from the Bowery.
The Bowery, East Village, Manhattan
A brick hotel up the Bowery from the old CBGB, with Gemma, an Italian trattoria, on the ground floor and a bar in the lobby. Rooms run from about 275 square feet to penthouse suites with downtown views.
Check roomsWest Bay Street, Nassau · March 1978
Chris Blackwell, who founded Island Records, opened Compass Point Studios on the edge of Nassau in 1977.
The studio in its first months.
Sessions for More Songs About Buildings and Food began there in March 1978. Talking Heads were the first band to record in the new studio, and stayed several weeks.
They had met Brian Eno, who produced the album, in London while touring their first record in 1977. The band later made Remain in Light there too.
Private land on West Bay Street; the studio is closed and the site is set for housing. Look from the road.
The same year, on the road
181–189 Second Avenue, East Village, Manhattan
On 10 August 1978 Talking Heads played the Entermedia Theatre. The recording is on the 2025 super deluxe edition of More Songs About Buildings and Food. The Entermedia was one of the building’s many names. It began as the Yiddish Art Theatre and seated 1,265.
A working cinema, Village East by Angelika: buy a ticket to see the inside.
Sproul Plaza, Berkeley
Footage of a 1978 Talking Heads show on Sproul Plaza is on the Blu-ray of the 2025 More Songs About Buildings and Food super deluxe edition.
An open campus plaza, free to walk at any time.
Hollywood Pantages Theatre · 14–16 December 1983
Stop Making Sense was filmed at three Talking Heads concerts here, 14 to 16 December 1983. An earlier show was a practice run for the shoot. Bring the band on in the order the film does.
Press Next song to bring on David Byrne.
The film opens with David Byrne alone on stage, playing Psycho Killer. Tina Weymouth joins for Heaven, Chris Frantz for Thank You for Sending Me an Angel, and Jerry Harrison for Found a Job. Lynn Mabry, Edna Holt and Steve Scales join for Slippery People. Bernie Worrell and Alex Weir arrive for Burning Down the House, and the band is complete.
Jonathan Demme and his cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth used six fixed cameras, plus a hand-held camera and a Panaglide for close-ups on stage. Byrne is credited with the stage lighting design, with Beverly Emmons. The production notes give the budget as $1.2 million.
A working theatre at Hollywood and Vine; the way in is a ticket to a show.
For the last three songs Byrne comes back in an oversized white suit. The credits say it was built by Gail Blacker.
Byrne has said a Japanese designer told him that everything on stage is bigger than in real life, so he decided his suit should be bigger too.
Frantz joked that the suit was really big that night, on an IMAX screen. Harrison put the film’s pull down to how much fun the band were plainly having.
It also grows as you scroll.
Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles
Hollywood’s first luxury hotel, open since 1927, with the Tropicana Pool and Shirley Brasserie, further along Hollywood Boulevard from the Pantages.
Check rooms429 Castro Street, San Francisco · 24 April 1984
Stop Making Sense had its world premiere here on 24 April 1984, as the closing-night film of the San Francisco International Film Festival.
It opened in Los Angeles and New York on 19 October 1984, after premieres at the Palace and the Ritz two nights before.
Seats in: 1,115 for a film.
After a two-year, $41 million renovation, the Castro reopened in February 2026. The fixed seats were replaced with removable ones. It now holds 1,115 people seated, or 1,385 standing. Its vertical neon sign works again.
A working cinema and concert hall on Castro Street; buy a ticket to go in.
Toronto · Hollywood · Brooklyn · 2023–2024
Spike Lee has the microphone in Toronto.
On 11 September 2023 Byrne, Weymouth, Frantz and Harrison appeared together for the first time since their 2002 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, after a TIFF screening of the restored film. Spike Lee moderated a conversation of about 25 minutes, which was streamed live to IMAX screens around the world.
A working multiplex downtown, still used for festival screenings.
The 4K restoration opened in IMAX on 22 September 2023, and in cinemas everywhere on 29 September.
A working multiplex downtown, still used for festival screenings.
141 West 44th Street · 2019
David Byrne’s American Utopia opened on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre in 2019. Byrne shared the stage with 11 musicians from around the world.
Spike Lee’s film of the show premiered on HBO on 17 October 2020. The show came back to Broadway on 17 September 2021, at the St. James Theatre.
A working Broadway theatre; see it on a show night.
12 places you can visit. The Benefit Street apartment and the Chrystie Street loft are private and not on the map; Compass Point is closed, so look from the road.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public art museum on College Hill. Check opening hours and tickets before you go.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A college library in an old bank. See the front from Westminster Street; ask RISD before planning a visit inside.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Brown’s arts centre on Angell Street; the auditorium hosts public screenings and talks.
20 North Main Street, College Hill, Providence
Chris Frantz met David Byrne at RISD while they were working on the soundtrack for a friend’s short film. Their first band there, the Artistics, was short-lived.
A public art museum on College Hill. Check opening hours and tickets before you go.
15 Westminster Street, Providence
In 2023 the tape moved to the RISD Archives in the Fleet Library, which lent it to Frantz to copy and remaster.
A college library in an old bank. See the front from Westminster Street; ask RISD before planning a visit inside.
Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, 154 Angell Street, Providence
In February 2025 Frantz and Weymouth came back to Providence for a 40th-anniversary screening of Stop Making Sense in Brown’s Martinos Auditorium, and got a standing ovation.
Brown’s arts centre on Angell Street; the auditorium hosts public screenings and talks.
Stay
A hotel up the street from the old CBGB, and Hollywood’s first luxury hotel along the boulevard from the Pantages.
The Bowery, East Village, Manhattan
A brick hotel up the Bowery from the old CBGB, with Gemma, an Italian trattoria, on the ground floor and a bar in the lobby. Rooms run from about 275 square feet to penthouse suites with downtown views.
Check roomsHollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles
Hollywood’s first luxury hotel, open since 1927, with the Tropicana Pool and Shirley Brasserie, further along Hollywood Boulevard from the Pantages.
Check roomsGo there
The RISD Museum on College Hill, and East Village music walks on the marketplace.
20 North Main Street, Providence · Open Tuesday to Sunday · check the museum for hours and prices
The art museum on College Hill where the Artistics tape, with the first Psycho Killer, sat from 2005 until it moved to the RISD Archives. Children 18 and under go free.
Plan a visitEast Village, New York
Live marketplace results for walking tours of the East Village and Bowery music scene. Check each itinerary for the stops it really makes.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
Four nights on the Pantages stage this November, and a show at the Kings Theatre in October.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
Chris Frantz’s memoir, David Byrne’s book on music, and four records tied to these places.
Chris Frantz
The drummer’s memoir of five decades with the band and with Tina Weymouth.
Find the bookDavid Byrne
David Byrne’s own book about making and hearing music.
Find the bookTalking Heads · LP, Sire SR 6036, 1977
The first album, with Psycho Killer, from the CBGB years.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyTalking Heads · LP, Sire SRK 6058, 1978
Begun at Compass Point in March 1978, with Brian Eno.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyTalking Heads · LP, Sire SRK 6095, 1980
Made at Compass Point too.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyTalking Heads · LP, Sire 9 25186-1, 1984
The soundtrack of the three Pantages nights.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
14 of 14 places · 18 of 18 Moments
20 North Main Street, College Hill, Providence
15 Westminster Street, Providence
The Artistics tape moves from the RISD Museum to the RISD Archives.
Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, 154 Angell Street, Providence
Frantz and Weymouth get a standing ovation at a 40th-anniversary screening.
Benefit Street, Providence
Frantz tapes three songs on reel-to-reel on Benefit Street, including the first Psycho Killer.
Chrystie Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Frantz, Weymouth and Byrne share a Chrystie Street loft and rehearse after work.
315 Bowery, East Village, Manhattan
The trio play their first gig, opening for the Ramones at CBGB.
CBGB closes; a clothes shop opens in the space about 13 months later.
181–189 Second Avenue, East Village, Manhattan
The band play the Entermedia Theatre; the tape is issued in 2025.
141 West 44th Street, Manhattan
David Byrne opens American Utopia on Broadway with 11 musicians.
1027 Flatbush Avenue, Flatbush, Brooklyn
The four take questions in Brooklyn, with Questlove moderating.
West Bay Street, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas
More Songs About Buildings and Food is started at the new Compass Point studio.
The band go back to Compass Point to make Remain in Light.
6233 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles
Jonathan Demme films Stop Making Sense over three concerts, the stage filling one player at a time.
Byrne returns for the last three songs in an oversized white suit built by Gail Blacker.
The four take questions on the stage where the film was shot.
429 Castro Street, San Francisco
The film premieres as the closing-night film of the San Francisco International Film Festival.
The Castro reopens with removable seats after a two-year renovation.
Sproul Plaza, Berkeley
The band are filmed playing Sproul Plaza at Berkeley.
259 Richmond Street West, Toronto
All four sit together in public for the first time since 2002, with Spike Lee asking the questions.
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