It’s eccentric rather than thrillingly off-beam. Byrne is touring his first solo record in14 years and the plain fact is that American Utopia is the work of an artist slouching toward their twilight. Remarkably limber at 66, his grey hair swishing constantly, he cut a magnetically dorky figure (you could see why The Simpsons name-checked him as one of the outstanding nerds in popular culture).īut if the staging, a collaboration with choreographer Annie B Parson, was breathtaking – when the moving light-stand appeared and the walls turned red it seemed we were about to plunge headlong into a David Lynch movie – the music occasionally fell down. Here, he restricted himself to more sensible tailoring but nonetheless was a fascinating presence. The over-sized suit Byrne sported in Stop Making Sense became a pre-internet meme. With the backdrop framed as a grey cube – a blank space for Byrne to project whatever he wished – he was joined by a dozen or so musicians, swaying and grinning as they played. Byrne was at a table and addressing a brain, as if participating in an experimental Shakespeare production gone off the rails. This time, there was a little more ostentation to the opening. What an incredible show! Unlike any other live gig! #AmericanUtopia /jyzI2SF5YR- Warner Music Ireland October 24, 2018 Now he was doing it all over again with a solo show that began, as per Stop Making Sense, with Byrne seated and crooning as if to himself and soon blossomed into what at moments felt more like an avant-garde musical than rock concert. It was nervy and optimistic where the genre has traditionally been about swagger and sweat. Stop Making Sense – which proceeded from Byrne rapping alone to a tape machine to a multi-headed carnival – has gone down as a historic subversion of rock’s shaggiest cliches.
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