David Byrne's American Utopia is burning down the house in HBO special's new trailer
Aux Features Coming Distractions
We’re less than a month away from HBO’s premiere of David Byrne’s American Utopia, the Talking Heads alum’s Broadway show that’s here been translated to film with the help of Spike Lee. Described by our own A.A. Dowd as a “spiritual sequel” to Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense, the concert film finds Byrne and an ensemble of 11 musicians, singers, and dancers cycling through a number of the songwriter’s hits in between anecdotes, asides, and interactions with the crowd. Per a synopsis, the show invites audiences “into a joyous dreamworld where human connection, self-evolution, and social justice are paramount.”
Our TIFF review of the film lauds its “celebratory, eccentric identity,” going on to call it “more relaxed, maybe more intimate and inviting [than Stop Making Sense].”
“His band, a multi-national 11-piece decked out in identical gray suits, works its way across the space with movements that somehow feel both spontaneous and synchronized,” it continues. “The stage is empty, save for a chain curtain along its edges; no equipment is visible, no instrument is wired. At a certain point, the bareness reveals itself as an expression of Byrne’s philosophy about the relationship between artist and audience: ‘Us and you, that’s what the show is,’ he says.”
Watch the latest trailer for the piece below:
David Byrne’s American Utopia premieres on HBO Max on Saturday, October 17.
34 Comments
I was lucky enough to see this live and it was absolutely amazing. And the Stop Making Sense CD was on repeat throughout my teens and 20s, before I ever even watched the movie, which also blew my mind repeatedly once I finally owned it. I can’t wait to to check this out!
Me too! I saw it in Scranton PA which was I think the 2nd stop on the tour? I’m so glad I saw it indoors, I watched some of it from Coachella and seeing it outside doesn’t seem to have nearly the same effect.
Already making plans to watch Stop Making Sense and then American Utopia back to back with some friends after it drops.
I saw it in Hershey, I think the next stop? It was a fucking amazing show (and the forth and best time I have seen Byrne live).
Yeah I think Hershey was after Scranton.
I saw it outdoors at the Gorge and it was fantastic.
It definitely didn’t look like the wall of light ropes didn’t have the same effect in the bright Cali sun, maybe it wasn’t as bright when you saw it?
He played during the sunset up here.
Ahh ok that’s definitely better than the blazing Cali sun lol
Those are chains surrounding the stage.
When I saw it it was a room made of light ropes that made various effects like a portal and stuff.
What other Greatest Hits Live!! albums do you like?
The King Crimson boxed set is amazing! Half of it is studio, and the other half is mostly the same songs performed live, many of which included Adrian Belew on guitar, who actually played on the Talking Heads live release The Name of the Band is Talking Heads, also worth checking out.
I would also respond (to my own question) Ween’s “Paintin’ the Town Brown” is pretty awesome.
Not specifically ‘greatest hits’ but Yes Live from the House of Blues in ‘00 is a hell of a show:
Stop Making Sense
/PSA
On Amazon Prime atm… for those who are interetsted but haven’t seen it.
Stop Making Sense is just amazing. You can’t watch it without feeling happy by the end
Saw the Heads 3 days before Stop Making Sense was filmed.
I’m gonna have to steal someone’s HBO password. Side note: Byrne’s film True Stories is wonderful and weird.
True Stories defined the way I viewed everything for about 6 confusing months:“This is the Vericorp building, just outside Virgil. It’s cool. It’s a multi-purpose shape: a box.”My girlfriend told me to mention Byrne’s fantastic book, How Music Works, which explains the myriad, seemingly irrelevant influences on why so many classics are what they are:https://www.google.com/search?q=david+byrne+how+music+works&rlz=1C1AVFC_enAU859AU859&oq=david+byrne+how+music+works&aqs=chrome..69i57j46j0l6.10497j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
That book is a fantastic reference here. It’s difficult if you don’t have a lot of musical background (at least according to some friends of mine) but it’s a wonderfully researched look into something most people just take for granted. Music.
I second that – True Stories is fantastic. It’s wholesome, but a very odd kind of wholesome. There really is nothing else quite like it, and I love it.
There really is nothing else like it. I wish he made more films. My wife said it’s like a children’s film for adults. I guess I’d kind of agree.
I can see where she’s coming from! I get a bit of a Mr. Rogers vibe from him, I think it checks out!
I saw this show in Canada and the crowd sat down the entire time and was very polite and even through the amazing avant garde opener Benjamin Clementine. I saw the show in St. Louis and the Bud Light swilling crowd was so disruptive during Benjamin Clementine he left after 3 songs, and they were sloshing beer around the opera house for Byrne. Both were amazing shows. But American audiences are big dumb assholes.
I too saw it in Canada and although the crowd was seated (unless specifically exhorted to stand by the performers), everyone had ear-to-ear grins on their faces the entire time and probably left a little smarter.
I think there has to be a happy medium between beer sloshing and polite sitting. It is a concert after all.
I saw it Minneapolis and the experience was…somewhere in between, as one might expect—standing audience, and some fairly polite, respectful of personal boundaries, dancing in place. Have to say I found Benjamin Clementine, um, very avant gardy. Mostly I remember him wandering around the stage for an excruciatingly long period of time with a boy-shaped mannequin and asking various audience members if the mannequin was their child. After a couple of minutes of that I started laughing and then felt bad for laughing and then wondered if that was the point actually and then I got bored.
Yes, that’s how every concert in American is. Except it’s Miller Lite in Milwaukee, Coors Light in Denver, etc. . .
This looks insufferable.
It’s a shame you’ll be forced to watch it much like you were forced to click on this article, watch the trailer and publish a comment. A damn shame.
I’m a huge Talking Heads fan, and I’m inclined to agree.It looks pretentious and silly.
I detest his overgrown theatre kid backing band so much
Anybody know if this is going to be purchaseable / rentable on iTunes and/or Amazon when it premieres? (NOT subscribing to HBO Anything!)