It’s a Heady Evening of Tunes at the Mayan With David Byrne

David Byrne’s songs can supply a good string of straight lines for a reviewer.

“Say something once, why say it again? . . . “

Because it might keep your career going.

“Same as it ever was . . . “

True, there were moments during Byrne’s Mayan Theatre concert on Wednesday when it was like old Talking Heads times.

“Stop making sense . . . “

It didn’t figure that this show, coming at a quiet time in the singer’s career, would amount to anything memorable, but Byrne’s scrappy, eager-to-please performance finally beat the odds.

Byrne seemed to have no problem conceding that the glory days were what this concert was all about. He ignited the show with a Talking Heads one-two punch and then relied on classic, familiar Heads material to keep it afloat.

Accompanied by three instrumentalists and singer Christina Wheeler (a tirelessly dancing, grinning embodiment of good spirits), he folded in some songs from his new album, “Feelings,” but the man who was once at rock’s cutting edge is now content to keep his eyes on the rear-view mirror.

But at least he’s flooring the gas pedal. At the Mayan he looked like a walking carpet from the Madonna Inn as he took the stage in a shaggy pink suit. He later sported a kilt, and he sang “Psycho Killer” in a head-to-toe body suit that made him appear skinned to the muscles.

The slamming, soul- and funk-based rhythms kept the energy high, but Byrne couldn’t reconcile his personas--the bug-eyed, robot-dancing shaman and the sincere balladeer, the masked actor and the salsero. That left things spotty rather than seamless, but as he closed the set with a Scots-flavored arrangement of one of the Talking Heads’ last hits, the road to nowhere seemed a fine place to go.