US AND YOU: a review of "David Byrne's American Utopia"

"DAVID BYRNE'S AMERICAN UTOPIA"
Produced by David Byrne and Spike Lee
Directed by Spike Lee
**** (four stars)

Years ago, I passed up a chance to see a performance by David Byrne right here in my city at a venue that happened to be easily accessible for me to reach. I remember deciding against going due to the fact that I really was not that familiar with Byrne's musical output since his tenure with his former band, Talking Heads. And for that matter, the show's steep ticket price may have been what tipped me over the edge into not going. Regardless, not attending has long remained one of my "concert regrets" and after having now seen Byrne's latest project, I am really kicking myself!

"David Byrne's American Utopia," his Broadway adaptation of his album "American Utopia" (released March 9, 2018) and his Reasons To Be Cheerful multimedia project, both excursions designed to help bring positivity into out increasingly turbulent 21st century, has now taken the leap into film via the superlative cinematic hands of none other than Spike Lee, and the result is absolutely sensational, exuberant, undeniably joyous and for that matter, is it unmissable! 

The performance of "David Byrne's American Utopia" opens with the remarkable image of David Byrne, barefoot and adorned in a grey suit upon a mostly barren grey stage, seated at a table with a brain as his only company. Byrne, while pointing to different sections of the brain, immediately begins to perform the song "Here," an ode about the brain to the brain and therefore, to the connections between the organ and to all of the actions and emotional responses it produces.

"Here is a region of abundant details
Here is a region that is seldom used

Here is a region that continues living

Even when the other sections are removed  
Put your hand out of your pocket
Wipe the sweat off of your brow
Now it feels like a bad connection
No more information now
As it passes through your neurons
Like a whisper in the dark
Raise your eyes to the one who loves you
It is safe right where you are..."

From this introduction, David Byrne is gradually joined by members of his 11 piece band, all barefoot, adorned in matching grey suits, wireless microphone headsets and instruments, as they engage in a 22 song cycle that is evenly split between Byrne's solo material and his work with Talking Heads, and further augmented by Byrne's spoken interludes directly to the audience, all of which indeed come off as introspective musings designed to forge connections between artists and spectators, and in doing so, human to human, making the entire production a shared emotional experience. 

"David Byrne's American Utopia" is masterful, a downright euphoric concoction that provides a stunning display of musicianship, vocal harmonics, modern dance and choreography (courtesy of , spatial aesthetics, and even the exquisite blending of art with philosophy, logic, reason, science and mathematics as well as our socio/political landscape. 

Certainly, when approaching this production and film, the late Jonathan Demme's landmark document of Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" (1984), long and rightfully regarded as one of the finest concert films ever made, will unquestionably invite comparisons as well as cast a mighty shadow. Yes, there are elements of which I felt Byrne devised intentional echoes from this show to the decades old Talking Heads tour, from beginning the show on stage alone with band members slowly emerging to full capacity as well as the multi-ethnic and gendered make up of the musicians. Yet, what makes this performance stand out on its own conceptual feet is how even those familiar elements are then re-contextualized into creating a narrative that can only exist in 2020. 

First things first, the musical performance is splendidly impeccable. At the age of 68, David Byrne remains a magnetic, compulsively watchable performer who does strike a peculiar balance between existing as some sort of out of step hybrid of Bill Nye the Science Guy and Fred Rogers. 

Still physically agile and in possession of his strong voice which sounds as if it has not aged a day in over 40 years, he is superbly assisted by the extraordinary vocals and meticulous, largely percussive musicianship from his band, who simultaneously assert their own personalities while also paying homage to Byrne's former Talking Heads bandmates, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth, all of whom co-created the Talking Heads discography and legacy. Byrne's troupe is magnificently dazzling, creating something that sounds simultaneously orchestral and also akin to a living drum circle as the layers upon layers of percussion serve as the musical engine that is augmented by guitar, bass, keyboards, other synthetic samples and that aforementioned astounding blend of voices that spiral into harmonic convergence from, beginning to end, most notably in the spirit lifting "One Fine Day." 

Thematically, and very much like Sean Evans and Roger Waters' astounding concert film "Roger Waters: Us + Them," I found it remarkable of how Byrne took some songs, which are all now between 30-40 years old and without even changing a word, weaved them together with more recent material, to create an impression of what it means to exist, especially in 21st century America.    

At the film's opening, after the performance of "Here," David Byrne informs us of the massive amount of neural connections we possess as babies and how we lose those connections as we age, making him wonder if we, as a species, are simply growing stupider as we grow older or is there some other meaning to be discerned. Byrne's occasional addresses to the audience throughout serve as a point of introspection designed to begin to forge the connections between himself and the audience, which indeed surprised me, as David Byrne has not typically presented himself as being an ingratiating frontman. 

Speaking about one of the first purchases he made once Talking Heads received a recording contract, we are given "I Should Watch TV," a song about utilizing the worlds depicted inside the machine as a means to try and observe and understand the real world. A mention of German philosopher and poet Hugo Ball, the founder of the Dada movement and the usage of "sound poetry" in order to utilize nonsense as a means to make sense of a world that does not make sense leads up to "I Zimbra." A wondrous sequence featuring "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)" showcases not only how the song is built upwards instrument by instrument but also to showcase the diversity within the band, which, as Byrne notes, is made up largely of immigrants.

This is also where the performance and film builds vibrantly from what could have remained as esoteric, while already enormously entertaining, and ascends into something more tangible and meaningful as we witness Byrne extending his engagement into the world around him, which does also ask of us to perform the same feat internally. The importance of voting, the prevalence of racial injustice and the Black Lives Matter movement, themes of representation and inclusion ("Everybody's Coming To My House") and even more are all a part of the show yet, most importantly is the theme of self-reflection and self-evolution as a means to build greater connections and hopefully change the world for the better. As Byrne himself proclaims at one point early in the show, "Unfortunately, I am what I am" but later admits, "Maybe I can change too," "David Byrne's American Utopia" rises and rises into a euphoria so infectious that you will rise from your seats...even when watching this film at home.    

And here's where Spike Lee gets involved...

It may seem to be a bit of an odd pairing to merge the sensibilities of Spike Lee and David Byrne together. Admittedly, when I first heard that a film version of the Broadway show would be helmed by Spike Lee, I also felt the same quizzical reaction towards the thought of the team-up...and considerable excitement at having one iconoclastic artist play off of another iconoclastic artist. With this film, the pairing could not have been more perfect as they never once tried to usurp the other, and always supporting each other by allowing each other to just do what they do at their very best. 

For Spike Lee, who has already created a great reputation for documenting live performances which then become excellent cinema as we have already witnessed with the likes of the extraordinary "Passing Strange" (2008) and the somber, sobering and surreal "Pass Over" (2018), capturing "David Byrne's American Utopia" represents a new high watermark...which is even more impressive as this film arrives in the same year during which has already given us "Da 5 Bloods," which I feel is one of the finest "Joints" he has ever made!

With "David Byrne's American Utopia," Lee does provide for us the immediacy of a live performance while also utilizing the language of film to give us a cinematic vision as opposed to a theatrical one. Reportedly seeing the performance multiple times from preview shows to subsequent Broadway outings, Lee has truly studied the narrative of the show from song to song, allowing himself to devise ways to approach the s how on a visual level that is different than to what can be gathered when seeing it within a theater setting. In short, Spike Lee gives us the show in a way that cannot be seen in its traditional setting and the effect is elegant and crisply thrilling as we are seeing the efforts and concepts of Byrne and his band to an even greater effect.

Earlier, I mentioned how the performance showcased a certain marriage between art and mathematics. There is a profoundly geometrical aspect to the show and Spike Lee is able to capture those aspects cleanly and without any sense of forced interjection on his part. 

By definition, according to Oxford Languages, "Geometry" is "the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties and relations of points, lines, surfaces, solids and higher dimensional analogs."  Taking that into consideration, Spike Lee has visualized the concept of Geometry via David Byrne's performance as we witness the points and lines of the dancers and choreography, the positions and placements of the musicians with each other throughout a variety of points and spaces on the stage. Lee  often gives us a bird's eye perspective, again illustrating to a greater degree the geometrical connections between Byrne and his band. And during "Blind," Lee works with and focuses upon the juxtapositions of lights and the giant shadows of the musicians that are created and loom largely over the stage. 

From facial expressions, hand movements, and just being able to get a camera at points where you just are not able to visualize while sitting in your theater seat, the show receives an enhancement that b rings you further inside of the performance itself. To that end, Lee is also able to use his skills to enhance the greater emotional content as well, most notably during the stirring, intense performance of Janelle  Monae's "Hell You Talmbout," which Lee punctuates by images of Black lives cut down violently alongside their living family members as Byrne and his band implore us to "Say Their Names!" 

But, I think was the most illuminating factor of this artistic marriage was how this project brought out a quality that has largely not been associated with either artist: a sense of warmth. This is not to suggest that either Byrne or Lee have watered down their tendencies. Not in the least. But, as we think of their respective artistic histories, Byrne's eclecticism may have kept some rock fans at arms length due to any perceived elitism and Lee's impassioned, unrepentant sensibilities have struck some film goers as being overtly confrontational and combative. Yet, with this film, both David Byrne and Spike Lee arrive at their most inviting and inclusive, creating a party atmosphere that is welcome to any and everyone who chooses to enter, a feeling that extends from the barren physical space of the stage, that in Byrne's words was chosen to house, and therefore represent, "nothing but the things we care about," which is...each other.

Spike Lee's presentation of "David Byrne's American Utopia" opens and concludes with the sounds of birds, which I believe is the peaceful sound of the very utopia we all wish to attain, and the show, particularly by the elation of the concluding number "Road To Nowhere" and a lovely end credits sequence of which I shall not reveal, very nearly reaches! And yet, it is through the union of these two artists and therefore, their union between themselves and to all of us watching, that we arrive with a feeling that is as much urgent as it is filled with a near childlike innocence. 

Perhaps, music, film and art can change the world. Perhaps it really can.