“Remember this one kids? The old glass box mime trick?
Well, I ain’t doing it tonight, but it’s impressive, ain’t it?”
Come out of The Garden, baby…
With the next phase of David Bowie’s A Reality Tour just around the corner, I thought you might enjoy this brief review of DB’s MSG show from Rolling Stone magazine, (22 January 2004) as a little reminder of what you’ve got to look forward to… not that you need reminding.
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Rolling Stone – DAVID BOWIE – Madison Square Garden, New York, December 15, 2003 by Rob Sheffield
Rock Legend gives the fans what they want: his best songs
By now, David Bowie should be resting on his laurels as a Rock and Roll Grande Dame. Nobody would begrudge him if he just wanted to do a simple greatest-hits show. But somehow Bowie keeps finding new ways to seduce a crowd and make fans come back for more. Although a recent bout with the flu sidelined him for his first five concert dates, Bowie showed up lithe, limber and lethal. Like Madonna, he just seems to get blonder and hotter with age.
The show was an eccentric tour of the Bowie musical empire, with minimal spectacle. “We’re making it up as we go along,” he announced early on. “Keep calm. No, don’t keep calm, that’s the last thing I mean. Do I? No I don’t.” After the opener, “Rebel Rebel.” he stuck to his word. He did three songs from Outside, his universally loathed 1995 concept album, and he made two of them sound pretty great.
His band was full of old hands – guitarist Earl Slick, pianist Mike Garson, bassist Gail Ann Dorsey – keeping up as he covered the Pixies’ “Cactus” and struggled manfully with a harmonica in “Jean Genie.” He also brought down the house with left-field selections such as “Life On Mars?”, “The Man Who Sold The World”, and a real crowd-killer, “Five Years.”
As any Bowie freak will tell you, his hair is always the mirror of his soul; on this night, his do was a perfect shade of blond to top his snow-white tan. He hasn’t looked this good in years – pure sex in a silver toreador jacket, a black morning coat, high-tops and black trousers. Despite the recent illness, his voice was as slinky and vital as the rest of him. Toward the end, he began busting out the sure-fire anthems including a ferocious “Heroes”, the timely “I’m Afraid of Americans” and the climactic one-two punch of “Suffragette City” and “Ziggy Stardust.” As one woman in the crowd raved, there wasn’t a dry crotch in the house.
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GERMAN ROLLING STONE POLL RESULTS
While we’re on the subject of Rolling Stone magazine, BowieNetter Anlimara tells me that the current German edition (January 2004) has voted David Bowie fifth Best Artist Of The Year and fifth Best Live Gig Of The Year. Readers also voted Reality fourteenth Best Album Of The Year.
Also of interest in the same issue is an eight page feature on Iggy Pop, he apparently mentions David frequently in an interview that includes a photograph of both of them together.