![]() 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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