Almost all of the live performances improve on the album versions - "Burning Down The House" on LP sounds antiseptic and dull compared to this. My only gripe is that "This Must Be The Place", one of their prettiest songs, is oversung in this performance. The energy level is too high for this tender song. Through the "build the band one song at a time" staging, and ever-changing lighting schemes, the mood and palette of each song is different - there's one song late on where I thought "how does it look like they suddenly switched to color film?" Thanks to cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth (he also shot my favorite movie, Blade Runner)! Almost the entire ensemble wears neutral-colored clothing, and the staging is all black, which makes the movie more dynamic, not less, somehow. The synchronized dancing works for me, although I suspect some of the Millennial crowd thought it was silly? I find the jog-dancing is a fun satire of then-contemporary aerobics culture.
Shown at the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington, Mass, I was thrilled to get a chance to see it on the big screen, as I missed the A24 distributed rerelease in 2023. The theater was 3/4 full and enthusiastic. People cheered and applauded after songs, it was great.