David Byrne
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Jaqueline Acevedo
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Gustavo di Dalva
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Daniel Freedman
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Chris Giarmo
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Tim Keiper
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Tendayi Kuumba
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Karl Mansfield
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Mauro Refosco
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Stéphane San Juan
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Angie Swan
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Bobby Wooten III
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David Byrne | Jaqueline Acevedo | Gustavo di Dalva | |||
Daniel Freedman | Chris Giarmo | Tim Keiper | |||
Tendayi Kuumba | Karl Mansfield | Mauro Refosco | |||
Stéphane San Juan | Angie Swan | Bobby Wooten III |
David Byrne | Jaqueline Acevedo | ||
Gustavo di Dalva | Daniel Freedman | ||
Chris Giarmo | Tim Keiper | ||
Tendayi Kuumba | Karl Mansfield | ||
Mauro Refosco | Stéphane San Juan | ||
Angie Swan | Bobby Wooten III |
The cerebral first song, “Here,” from Byrne’s 2018 American Utopia album, opens in a mood of cool reflection, but that soon builds as Byrne is joined on stage by vocalist-dancer Tendayi Kuumba and dancer-vocalist Chris Giarmo, with their uncanny mix of artful gesture and dance-floor funk. Then, on come nine more musicians, including percussion masters from the US, Brazil, France – even Toronto’s Jacquelene Acevedo. “Most of us are immigrants,” Byrne says at one point, “and we couldn’t do it without them.” They launch into “Everybody’s Coming to My House.”
The classics are all here, too, but transformed – the aching beauty of “This Must Be The Place”; “Once in a Lifetime” now a euphoric anthem. In a film of countless highlights, Byrne’s cover of Janelle Monáe’s “Hell You Talmbout” is a showstopper, with the band chanting out the names of Black Americans killed by police. Lee’s powerful visuals bring it right up to the present.
Calling on all of us to think, connect, engage, and dance, David Byrne’s American Utopia unites the brain and the backside, which may be exactly what we need right now.