Live Review: David Byrne

In a Venn diagram of imagination, ability and technology, David Byrne’s American Utopia show is dead centre.

The stunningly ambitious world tour wrapped up in Adelaide last night, and what a privilege it was to share in this unique live music experience. 

Plenty of contemporary artists use technology for musical evil, but Byrne perfectly exploits it for good. A complex wireless system powers his mutant 11-piece marching band/funk ensemble, freeing the stage of any cables, amps, or microphone stands. It’s a minimalist backdrop for a maximalist show.

For the next 140 minutes, the performers weaved in and out of each other with coordinated abandon and infectious smiles, their frenzied polyrhythms fuelling everything from 2018’s Everybody’s Coming To My House to 1980’s The Great Curve.

But first, Byrne sat alone, holding a (presumably fake) human brain and highlighting the functions of each lobe. From behind shimmering silver curtains, the musicians emerged, wearing custom-made harnesses supporting all manner of percussion, erhu-like stringed instruments, and an electronic keyboard. (Guitar and bass were slung in the usual way.)

Byrne’s 2002 X-Press 2 collaboration Lazy appeared early. The performers moved about in choreographed step while bass player Bobby Wooten absolutely slayed in the bottom end, drawing dancers to the stage and aisles from their stuffy, allocated seats. But it took Talking Heads’ masterpiece Once In A Lifetime to at last permit the whole audience to rush the stage. It was impossible to keep still anymore.

These musicians – guitarist Angie Swan; vocalists Chris Giarmo and Simi Stone; the septet of drummers; literally all of them – would be mind-blowing in any conventional setting. But to perform at virtuoso level and memorise a ceaseless dance routine all at once, with heavy instruments strapped to the torso, is superhuman. A cunning setlist comfortably nestled American Utopia cuts like I Dance Like This next to Talking Heads crowd-pleasers Slippery People and Burning Down The House.

Byrne took a moment to prove to nay-sayers that this was all happening without the assistance of sequencers and backing tapes. He quoted a journalist: “I know he says that on stage, but come on, are they really doing it?” Of course, they were.

Technology certainly empowered the performance: the players wore discrete headsets providing click-tracks and cues, and guitar effects and synth sounds are selected somewhere off stage. But every last note was performed live. It's exquisitely executed.

With an encore that paired another Heads hit (Road To Nowhere) with Janelle Monae’s protest song, Hell You Talmbout (and a brief guest spot from the capable opener, Kimbra) the audience was only barely satiated. Show of the year, hands down.