To make up for a slightly disappointing (albeit brief) beginning, we’re treated half-way through the show to a lively and energetic selection of songs. Slippery People is one of the highlights of the show, with some outstandingly filthy sounds coming from bassist Booby Wooten, who successfully moves the bassline away from Weymouth’s more staccato delivery, and into something much funkier and more suitable for Byrne’s current lineup.Įverybody’s Coming to My House is from Byrne’s most recent studio album, also titled American Utopia, and is one of the stronger selections from his solo career, with some tasteful lead bass runs, and when I saw him perform, he had a nice anecdote about a group of children in America who brought a more positive meaning to the song when they covered it. The irresistibly catchy I Zimbra wasn’t actually released on the album version of Stop Making Sense, but clearly hasn’t been forgotten by the audience, as the ambient audience cheers indicate. Maybe it’s the hypnotic bassline, or the quaint synth solos, or Byrne’s surface-level-innocence lyrics? Whatever it is, ‘This Must Be the Place’ loses none of its charm here, and is kept remarkably similar to the original version, perhaps because it’s quite hard to improve upon perfection. It captures a feeling of nostalgia for experiences you haven’t even had yet, in a way that no other song does. ‘Lazy’ is good, but immediately eclipsed by This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody), one of the best songs of not just the ‘80s, but all-time. Ironically, it’s when we get Lazy that we really get going, with tight vocal harmonies, subtle percussive fills and the closest thing we get to a dance track with its infectious groove. The same can’t be said for Don’t Worry About the Government, one of the few performances from this show that doesn’t live up to the original. On Here, Byrne discusses the intricacies of the human brain whilst handling a model brain, so it doesn’t quite work without the visuals, but it’s at least an improvement on the original. They both begin with a lone Byrne on stage, singing a too-slow version of ‘Psycho Killer’ in 1983, and a song from his latest album in 2019. However, much like Stop Making Sense, it doesn’t have the strongest of starts. I saw Byrne and his 11-piece band perform at the O2 Arena in London in late 2017 in the middle of a tour, and they managed to make it feel like it was a one-off (yes, you could say it was a “Once in a Lifetime experience”) concert with how special it felt. They both have extraordinary songs, they both have sublime performances from the musicians and they both have inventive, gripping visuals. There are naturally going to be many comparisons between American Utopia and Stop Making Sense. Needless to say, it’s a large-scale production, and one fit for Broadway, as it’s not just a selection of unrelated songs. According to Byrne’s touring bassist Bobby Wooten (no, not a close relation of Victor Wooten), there were six 10-hour days of rehearsal just for the music, followed by three weeks of choreography. This is undoubtedly David Byrne’s most ambitious show since Talking Heads’ 1984 classic concert film, Stop Making Sense, with its accompanying live album ranked among the greatest live albums of all time.
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