David Byrne @ CMAC in Canandaigua, New York Sunday August 5, 2018
When anticipating a David Byrne concert, you can probably imagine that he will throw out a few curveballs and guess that the show itself might give you a vague glimpse into the future of live music. The wildly creative front man is a groundbreaker and along with his flagship band Talking Heads produced a catalog of songs that still holds up. I personally have a soft spot for those tunes: Talking Heads were my Beatles, “Once In a Lifetime” was my “Let It Be” and the Byrne-Eno collaboration “My Life In The Bush of Ghosts” was certainly my “White Album.” But I digress. Byrne’s “American Utopia” tour at the Constellation Brands Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua, New York started out a bit slow with the opening song but turned up the funk by the second number and ultimately he and his eleven-piece band put on one of the most impressive concert displays in ages.
Benjamin Clementine was up first. I arrived late at my seat so I missed a couple of songs. The London-based troubadour performed in a duo format with his guitarist partner and was brilliant and brooding and filled the space with more sound than his voice and piano allowed. The pair’s stage setup was minimal with a piano and amplifier for guitar with no backdrop. Clementine and his touring partner performed a memorable set despite the complete starkness of their visual and musical presentation. At one point Clementine looked at his watch and was reminded that he had ten more minutes to play. It may have been a beautiful disaster or a stroke of genius but I am still humming his tune.
After the changeover, David Byrne walked onto the stage by himself dressed in a charcoal gray suit with no shoes and launched the opening song “Here.” Surrounded by a backdrop that looked like chain mesh and using a model of a toy brain as a visual aid, the song itself felt like taking baby steps towards a fuller concert experience that you know is going to follow. It was during the second number (“Lazy”) that Byrne’s band hit the stage en masse and turned it up a notch. The result created an impulse for a few members of the audience to walk down the aisle and move closer towards the front of the stage to dance. Typically, that’s something you see during a band’s encore but it was a strong affirmation from a reverential crowd that gave Byrne numerous standing ovations throughout the evening. The band itself – an eleven-piece ensemble with up to six percussionists – was magnificent, completely wireless and moving around fluidly like a spirited marching band. Byrne and company showed no signs of stopping when performing hits like “Burning Down The House” and he took full advantage of the largesse of his group to mix in a few Afro-funk grooves from the albums “Remain In Light” and “Speaking In Tongues.” Perhaps the highlight of the evening was the robust song “Blind” which was overpowering in its visuals of giant shadows projected against the back wall.
Additionally, Byrne got political during a mid-set speech citing low voter participation by younger age voters and stating that “we gotta fucking turn out if we want to call ourselves a democracy.” The final song of the night was a updated cover of Janelle Monae’s “Hell You Talmbout,” a social protest song that chants the names of African Americans killed in race related incidents, followed by the phrase “say his name” or “say her name.” Added to the impeccable concert experience, it was a honorable display of social justice. 8.2/10
By Roman Jones
Photo Credit: Roman Divezur