If Byrne’s discontent ripples slyly beneath the music, Lee finds ways to put it front and center. Byrne admits he thinks the man in the song is more despondent about his situation, and then leads a performance of the track that miraculously manages to combine both points of view. Introducing “Everybody’s Coming to My House,” from American Utopia, Byrne recalls how a Detroit choir once performed a more celebratory version of it that he found “profound” (and likely resonates with my own, more eschatological interpretation). I’m trying to figure this out.” While talking at another point, Byrne mimics the chopping-hand motion from the music video for Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime,” bringing the disillusionment of that 1980 song right into the present day. In one of those early soliloquies, Byrne says, “I”m observing. (I could have watched those two the entire time.) This effusive crew, at once riotous and rigid, may be in prison, but they’re going to make beautiful music anyway.Īcross his career, Lee’s discontent has largely been social and confrontational, while Byrne’s has been more existential and ruminative.
The choreography, by Annie-B Parson, is at once precise and delirious, with backup dancers/singers Chris Giarmo and Tendayi Kuumba exhibiting a thrilling connection both with Byrne’s lead movements and each other. In between contemplative soliloquies by Byrne, the ensemble performs spirited renditions of both American Utopia tracks and earlier Byrne songs (including those by Talking Heads).
Long strands of glistening beads form a box on the stage, hemming the performers in as if they were well-dressed inmates in an elegant prison. If American Utopia paints a doomsday scenario of the state of the union, it also offers joyous hope for a national rebirth.īyrne shares the stage with about a dozen singers, dancers, and musicians from around the globe, all dressed-as he is-in gray suits and sporting bare feet. This is a work that thrums equally with Dada despair and do-the-right-thing agitprop, while somehow still managing to culminate in liberating exuberance. Less concert film than musical art installation, David Byrne’s American Utopia elucidates that concern in a way that manages to put both artists’ distinct, idiosyncratic gifts on display. Equally invigorated, the pair zeroed in on a careers-long common concern that seemed to be at a breaking point: discontent with the American dream. That time frame is crucial, as it was a moment when both artists underwent a creative resurgence-Lee with the likes of Da 5 Bloods and BlacKkKlansman and Byrne with American Utopia, his first solo album in 14 years. That question is answered in David Byrne’s American Utopia, Lee’s document, as director, of Byrne’s Broadway show, which ran from October 2019 to February 2020. What could David Byrne and Spike Lee possibly have in common?
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