If Only, If Only

Film: David Byrne’s American Utopia
Format: Streaming video from HBO Max on Fire!

Ask people who watch a lot of concert movies and you’ll hear over and over that the single best concert film in history is Stop Making Sense, the Jonathan Demme-helmed film of the Talking Heads tour at the end of 1983. Honestly, it’s not a huge shock to me that what is probably the second-best concert film in history is another David Byrne project, this time produced and directed by Spike Lee. David Byrne’s American Utopia captures the same sort of lightning in a bottle, showing a display of music, dance, and art from front to back, covering Byrne’s Broadway show of several years ago, and nothing more (with a few minor exceptions).

It is very much like Stop Making Sense. What was unique about Demme’s film, or at least very different from a lot of musical documentaries and films is that there was nothing behind the scenes. It was just the concert, one song leading into the next, the band and the instruments coming out one by one as the show progressed and screens drop down so that images could be projected on them. American Utopia is even more stripped down. This is literally just the show, filmed from start to finish. The genius of the show, and the genius of the film is that it doesn’t need to be anything more than this.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I would write a full review of this because there isn’t, at least on the surface a great deal to write about. The film consists of Byrne’s Broadway show, a series of songs from his original work and some classic Talking Heads songs performed by Byrne, accompanied by two dancers/backup singers and ten or so additional musicians. Everyone on stage is wearing the same plain grey suit and grey shirt, barefoot, and the stage itself has only some curtains at times around the band. Everything else is done with lighting. The focus is on the band and on Byrne, which is honestly as it should be.

The main difference between this and the Demme film is that there are at least some moments here where Byrne addresses the audience, talking about his philosophy, the fact that they removed everything from the stage but the people because people are what we like to look at most. Byrne’s musings are short, and sometimes mildly nonsensical, and intentionally so. But not all of this is musings on why we like to look at people more than we like to look at a bag of potato chips. Byrne talks about registering voters and why it’s important, a message that rings louder at the moment. As the film enters the final few songs, the theme becomes much more pointed on the ideas of social justice. Byrne talks about the value of people from everywhere, introducing the band not just by name but also by where they are from. But nothing hammers this home more than the performance of Janelle Monáe’s protest song Hell You Talmbout.

It is here, of course, where Spike Lee does more than just film what is on the stage. As the names of the dead are shouted out, their pictures are shown, and the names keep coming. It’s not merely sobering; it’s terrifying and infuriating.

Of course, the real story here is the song selection. Some of the songs naturally select themselves. If you went to see David Byrne perform, you’d be upset if he didn’t play Burning Down the House or Once in a Lifetime. But there are some deeper cuts here, like Don’t Worry About the Government from the first Talking Heads album and Dada poetry-inspired I Zimbra from Fear of Music. On a personal note, hearing that performed on stage here was joyful. It’s literally the first Talking Heads song I ever heard when on a whim I checked out a cassette tape of Fear of Music from my local library when I was 14. As the name of the show would imply much of the music is from Byrne’s album American Utopia.

This is what stage performances should be. This is what art and music can be, and right now, it’s what we need more of. David Byrne is a genius and we’re lucky to have him.

Why to watch David Byrne’s American Utopia: Jesus Hippy Christ, but this is what live performances should be.
Why not to watch: You’re soulless.