![]() And in one of the many comfortably talkative monologues he delivers between songs, he says, in that assured but invitingly casual warble of his: “Most of us are immigrants.” The musicians onstage, in keeping with the theme, are from around the world: France, Brazil, Canada. The proceedings here are far less interested in Byrne alone than in the former Talking Heads singer as the emcee of a party to which all of us are invited. But despite being unaffiliated with a band, he’s never come off as a “solo artist” in the literal sense. ![]() All of it lends a sense of alive-ness to this live performance. And, of course, there’s the thrill of seeing people standing up in their seats, clapping along, silhouetted against Byrne’s bright, inviting presence onstage. ![]() There are close-ups on Byrne’s face, his eyes, even his feet dynamic roving views from onstage and off a keen awareness of the audience. Like the late Jonathan Demme, director of Stop Making Sense, Lee is here not just to document but to heighten. ![]() There’s also director Spike Lee, who, as he did adapting the rock-musical Passing Strange into a movie in 2009, is more than just wingman-ing here. A filmed version of the hit Broadway show that ran from October 2019 to February 2020 (and begins streaming on HBO Max October 17th), it’s a time capsule with a timely end-date for a project that finds unity where many of us might only see difference and disruption. He points to another region on the brain: “Here is a connection with the opposite side.”Ĭonnection - and not only between opposites, but in the manner of a neural network or, to make the obvious but still valuable analogy, a world community - is the guiding element, maybe even artistic theology, of American Utopia. American Utopia begins where David Byrne’s 2018 album of the same name ended: with the song “Here.” “Here is an area of great confusion,” the former Talking Heads singer declares from a steel-gray, uncluttered stage, a model brain aloft in his hand. ![]()
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