“It’s not biography, but it’s elements of my own life” he says.

The arc mirrors Byrne’s own progression from socially awkward figure to empathetic elder statesman. “It feels like a very joyous ending and yet it’s telling us that we’re all heading for oblivion,” he smiles. It starts with Byrne, stood alone, holding a brain and ends with communal, marching-around-the-aisles finale Road to Nowhere. We wanted to take everything away and just reveal ourselves as human beings, and connect with the audience like that”. “But here, we’re creating something not with stuff but with our bodies. “Conceptually, the similarity is the stage show is basically one very simple idea,” he says.

Yet unlike director Jonathan Demme’s high benchmark, it adds heart to the highbrow theory. It has the same groundbreaking feel as Talking Heads’ 1984 live film Stop Making Sense (even without Byrne’s famously oversized suit). ‘It’s not biography, but it’s elements of my own life’ (Photo: HBO/AP) In a career-spanning set, the Talking Heads classics are the stuff of wonder: for a percussion-heavy Burning Down the House Byrne straps on a guitar, pacing the front of the stage before revolving with the band in a perfect X formation during Once in a Lifetime, he mimics his dance moves from the 1981 video, a deliberately arch, Byrneian nod to the past. On a bare, grey stage, Byrne plays affable ringleader as his well-drilled, all-singing, all dancing troupe rotate into all manner of highly stylised configurations around him. The aforementioned Broadway show is now an HBO concert film, thrillingly captured by director Spike Lee.Ī companion piece to his 2018 album of the same name, it emphasises everything we expect from Byrne – enigmatic cool, angular choreography, immaculate attire, lateral thinking – in a revelatory performance. If you could distil the essence of Byrne’s singular perspective into one whole, it would look a lot like the truly euphoric David Byrne’s American Utopia. You can accomplish a lot with this kind of technology, but I think it also lacks a lot”.

“Over-relying on electronic connections is not the same. Not only has he missed touring – “it’s part of who I think I am, that’s tough” – he tells me how, living alone, he’s missed regular human interaction throughout the pandemic. The New York band’s distinctive, artful, rhythmic blend of post-punk, funk and pop spawned countless imitators, but nobody could match Byrne’s anxious cultural commentary, where the everyday was filtered through the lens of some strange neurotic interloper.ĭavid Byrne’s American Utopia, review: electrifying, unmissable joy His inquisitive mind, first with Talking Heads, then through a fitful solo career and collaborations with artists ranging from Brian Eno to St Vincent, has helped turn rock music into an intellectual pursuit. ‘We wanted to take everything away and just reveal ourselves as human beings’ (Photo: Drew Gurian/Invision/AP)Īt 68, Byrne is still asking questions. It’s hard not to conclude: David Byrne, same as he ever was. “’What’s going on? What’s he doing now? What’s happening now? Do we like this? What do we think of this?’”Īs he twists around in his seat, jolting his arms in the air, I’m fully expecting him to shout out “how did I get here?”, the famous lyric from Talking Heads’ Once in a Lifetime, the track that cemented the image of Byrne as the jittery, eccentric thinking man of alternative music. “They’d put it together in their heads,” he smiles.

David byrne american utopia dvd