![]() ![]() Other moments take on a very self-reflective ambiance, as when Byrne remembers buying a small television with his first, small earnings from Talking Heads’ first record deal in 1976. Everyone from the percussionists to the backup vocalists seems to suddenly be gifted with the world’s most skilled dancing toes. “Toe Jam” shows off the band’s magnificent skills with irresistible fun. ![]() A performance of Byrne’s solo track “Lazy” turns the song into a near celebration of doing your own thing in an oppressive world. He evokes the Dadaists before breaking into an exhilarating rendition of “I Zimbra,” discussing how Dada founder Hugo Ball believed in using “nonsense” speak to challenge a world gone mad. Byrne turns Talking Heads favorites like “Once in a Lifetime” into renewed, grandiose numbers where his vocal power soars as well as his sense of the theatrical. Artificial divisions, prejudices and inhibitions seem to dissipate inside the Hudson Theatre. What Byrnes and his fellow musicians create on stage as captured by Lee is a form of utopian freedom. It all comes together to envelop the viewer and audience into the sheer joy of creativity.īeginning with the title, “American Utopia” can mean many things, but none without powerful merit. ![]() Byrne and his band mix songs from the “American Utopia” album with Talking Heads classics and selections from Byrne’s solo work. What follows is a show where music and ideas combine as pure expression, flowing from theme to theme, sometimes explicitly made, other times evoked through the songs. Yet these cells also connect us all, because it’s part of our collective anatomy. Byrne commences the show with “Here,” then shares about the intricacies of the human brain and how we lose cells as we grow older. They have no need for elaborate set designs to distract the eyes of the audience. Byrne and the musicians and dancers accompanying him are dressed in simple, grey suits. The set is bare, consisting of mostly grey backgrounds and light curtains. Staged at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre in New York City, “American Utopia” is David Byrne’s celebration of various elements, ranging from diversity to the sheer power of live human expression. Lee’s cameras filmed “American Utopia” performances in late 2019 and early 2020, just before the pandemic would have rendered such a feat impossible. Lee is not out to simply film Byrne’s stage performance, but to combine its art with his craft, thus transforming it into its own, stunning piece. This is in essence the third reiteration of the concept, and also a fresh rebirth. In 2013 Talking Heads frontman David Byrne made an album with the legendary Brian Eno, “American Utopia,” which received strong reviews even before Byrne turned it into a hit Broadway performance. Spike Lee ’s dazzling chronicle of “ David Byrne’s American Utopia ” also proves a great filmmaker can capture that very feeling. In Spike Lee-Directed ‘American Utopia,’ David Byrne Powerfully Transcends the StageĪ profound live show can become a transcendental experience, combining performance and sound into something akin to secular spiritualism.
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