“Power weird by mystics taught…” DB flies in to the Budweiser Centre in Loveland.
I’m going down to the rhythm of Loveland…
A Reality Tour reached the Loveland in Denver last night, and I have no more to say about the show than that, as BowieNetters mego and zigbot have said it better than I could anyway. First I’ll give you the setlist, and obviously you won’t forget to go and check out Erik‘s absolutely superb shots from the show in the Virtual Ticket section.
Keep scrolling after the setlist for aforementioned reviews, which are really rather good, and both give a great insight in to what sounds like a remarkable show. BowieNet members can read much longer, but no less interesting, versions of both reports on the MBs. Simply click on the link at the start of each review to get to them.
Mego also sent in the 26-song setlist which was confirmed officially by HNB and, you may notice, is identical to the Anaheim setlist:
Denver April 25th 2004
01 Rebel Rebel
02 Battle For Britain (The Letter)
03 New Killer Star
04 Cactus
05 Fashion
06 All The Young Dudes
07 Try Some, Buy Some
08 China Girl
09 Fame
10 The Loneliest Guy
11 The Man Who Sold The World
12 Hallo Spaceboy
13 Sunday
14 Heathen (The Rays)
15 Under Pressure
16 Days
17 The Supermen
18 Looking For Water
19 Ashes To Ashes
20 Quicksand
21 I?m Afraid Of Americans
22 “Heroes”
(Encore)
23 Hang On To Yourself
24 Five Years
25 Suffragette City
26 Ziggy Stardust
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Loveland review and pictures by Mego
Loveland. Unbeknownst to many, the Bud. Event center is actually in the middle of a huge field; across the freeway from the airport where little private planes and crop dusters are kept. In other words, this venue is in the middle of nowhere. Crops and cows. And it’s 5,000 feet above sea level (which is lower in altitude than Denver, but shorter on oxygen – wide open plains, few trees, little air, you know)…
The Polyphonics: a trip; although Emily and I were so distracted by the light that kept flashing directly into our eyes, that I’m not sure I can tell you more than I think I liked them. But it might have been the hallucinatory feeling I was getting from that light; comically, every time the Polyphonics sang about the sun… there it was!
It was pretty clear from the “I’m suffocating!” pantomime that David and Gail kept playing, that the altitude was getting to him. “Looking For Water” got an arena-wide chuckle, at “I can’t breathe this air!”, and we were asked to import some oxygen! Lightheadedness aside, a touching and memorable show. I about swallowed my tongue when a lovely fellow named Craig let me stay with him in his space – I managed to find myself as front and center as it gets! The view from there was… uh, different… than from the side… 😉
“My head issho big becaush itscho full of ideash!”
Netter kctallgirl brought with her a program from one of the nights the Elephant Man was in Denver in 1980. Bowie caught sight of it and had to see it, so he borrowed the playbill from her and took a look at it, and after signing it for the very ecstatic Denise, told us a story or two about his role, putting together the posture he assumed, and giving us a few lines he remembers. An absolute treat. (See pic above)
A really delightful evening had by all, I think; a truly warm crowd, and David was so sweet to us all night. I don’t think I’m the only one who’d be thrilled to bits if he came back (though ya might want to practice your mile-high breathing techniques, db. Remember, kids, the best deterrent to altitude sickness is to drink, drink, drink that water!). Now that the band’s been properly introduced to the term ‘realitithrustification’.
“Realitithrustification” – It changed Mego’s life!
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Loveland review by zigbot
David said hello addressing the audience as scallywags and rascals before settling in to the now-familiar crazy m*therf*ckers. 🙂 He looked and sounded amazing, but made some jokes about the lack of oxygen in the Mile High City and all the cows and pastures he had to pass through to get to the remote Loveland venue. At the close of The Loneliest Guy, after delivering his usual very dramatic vocal (coupled with covering his face and eyes during a couple of the “ohs” and “not me”s), David joked that he had to watch out or he could easily “break into mime” at the end of that song. He then asked if there were any clowns in the audience and cautioned that clowns and mimes should be kept far apart from one another so trouble won’t ensue. In fact, at one point when Earl moved to Gerry’s side of the stage, David asked them turned and asked them “Are you ganging up on me?” The crowd laughed, and David interrogated Earl and Gerry further with “You’re not clowns, are you?”
An incredible highlight was a woman in the front row (only one row ahead of me!) who held up her playbill for The Elephant Man. David kneeled before her and signed it! He also did his “Elephant Man posture” and grimace, but commented it was easier to do in 1980 because he was skinnier then! He then recited what he stated were two of his favorite lines he recalls from the play. One involved a statement along the lines of “I have a big head” and the other was “Please don’t let Michael Jackson buy my bones!” Both weredone in his Elephant Man voice, while he contorted himself into that familiar pose! The woman who got her playbill signed must have cried through at least the next two songs! During one of those songs, David also mimed signing MORE autographs and threw his make-believe autographs into the crowd for us to catch.
He did China Girl in Chinese to start, then cut the band off and pulled an “I told you so” on them, stating he had told them that if he was going to do China Girl in Chinese, it should have been in Mandarin, not Cantonese, because “Cantonese won’t fly in Denver!”
There were plenty of pointy hats–figurative AND REAL! Gerry gave Earl the “pointy hat” sign while David was introducing the band. So David stopped and explained the sign meant the recipient of the “pointy hat” gesture had just messed something up. Someone (a roadie?) then threw one of those multi-coloured velvet “fool’s hats” (with bells on all tips) up to Gerry. Gerry donned it for a bit, then threw it to Earl who put it on. Earl then offered it to David, who declined to wear it saying something along the lines of “all my charisma is in my hair–if I put a hat on, I’m nobody.” Funny stuff.
I was in heaven because he did The Supermen and Quicksand, both of which are among my favorite songs of his EVER! He said he wrote The Supermen when he was three years old! At the end, he recited some of the song lyrics as though in a poetry recital (the line about “a man would tear his brother’s flesh, a chance to die to turn to mold” and the line about “minds in unithought”) and he laughed that these are the kind of lyrics one writes when one is young. He then told us he had to enunciate all the lyrics because “you should know that it is you’re listening to.” I love these lyrics – not sure why David thinks they’re kinda young and perhaps a bit goofy. Sorry, David, I disagree wholeheartedly with you on that one! Lovely rendition, and Kat’s Ooooh-Aaaaahs were better than butter! Oh, and when reciting the lyrics, David messed up one line and said “a chance to die to BECOME mold,” at which time the first few rows of the audience gave him the “pointy hat” sign en masse! Hysterical.
He then gave a shameless plug for the fantastic Tattered Cover Book Store – where BowieNetter Emily works! He said he wanted to give us an example of just how exciting rock ‘n’ roll is “at my age.” He said he went to the Tattered Cover (which, I think, he called the “Tattered Book” – I tell you, the man needs to carry a pointy hat in his back pocket!) and bought a book about the New York Library catalogue, or some similar reference type book. The audience laughed, and David leaned in closer to us and said the REALLY funny part is he was “REALLY pleased with it!” More laughter!
He closed with a foursome of Ziggy songs: Hang On To Yourself, Five Years, Suffragette City, and Ziggy Stardust, at the end of which he received a beautiful bouquet of roses from a front-row fan. He was ON FIRE during the encore and the crowd was in a frenzy! LOTS of heavy breathing during the end of Hang On To Yourself (“Come on, Hah!, Come on, Hah!”). Maybe he was just gasping for oxygen again – man, he should perform in oxygen-deprived venues more often. All that panting was very sexy.
This is probably my last gig on the A Reality Tour. David, thank you for such an amazing ride! Oh, Oh, Oh! I nearly forgot! He told the crowd he hopes to be back in Denver in “two or three years.” Here’s hoping it’s even earlier than that!
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A Reality Tour continues on Tuesday at the The Backyard in Austin, Texas.
