David Bowie?s Reality Tour Returns To La

 

Back by popular demand, DAVID BOWIE‘s “A REALITY TOUR” returned to California where BOWIE delivered more potent sold-out shows in front of celebrity-studded audiences who also witnessed The Polyphonic Spree (his current opening act) add their uplifting harmonies to his moving song “Slip Away” from 2002’s Heathen album.

BOWIE touched down April 16 and 17 in San Francisco (where Tom Waits was in the audience on the first night) and April 19 in Santa Barbara (attended by Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore and Marilyn Manson with his fiancée Dita, plus comedian/actress Margaret Cho) before moving on to the Greek Theatre April 22 in Los Angeles. This marked his fifth sell-out show in Los Angeles in a three-month period.

Cheering Bowie on at the Greek was an eclectic mix of figures from the music and film worlds, including Anthony Kiedis & Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Marilyn Manson, Page Hamilton of Helmet, Gavin Rossdale, Brian Setzer, Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian from System of a Down, Timothy B. Schmit of The Eagles, No Doubt’s Tony Kanal, Vanessa Carlton, and previous BOWIE collaborators, bassist Tony Sales and producer Ken Scott. They were all seen backstage at the after-party, joined by actors Johnny Knoxville, Lara Flynn Boyle and Rosanna Arquette, plus film producer Luc Besson (“The Transporter”).

While in Los Angeles, BOWIE performed his new single “Never Get Old”–a highlight of the critically acclaimed REALITY album–on “The Tonight Show” (Wednesday, April 21) and taped performances of “Never Get Old” and his classic “Changes” (featured in the upcoming “Shrek 2” film and on the soundtrack album) for the “Ellen DeGeneres Show” airing Friday, April 23. The song “Never Get Old” recently received the “mash-up” treatment by noted masher Mark Vidler for a popular TV ad for Audi, which is presenting the tour. The resulting “Rebel Never Gets Old” track inspired the recently announced contest for BOWIE fans to create the best “mash-up” remix of a song from the REALITY album with another track from his catalog.

Here are critical soundbites from the second North American leg of “A REALITY TOUR,” where BOWIE continues to earn consistently rhapsodic reviews:

“?last night’s 2 1/4-hour dash through the 57-year-old musician’s catalogue testified to Bowie’s rare and influential feel for the fine art of invention…his enduring appeal. Bowie played to a multigenerational sea of original fans, members of the glam and goth nations, all-purpose art-school types, and tow-headed youngsters deep into their classic rock indoctrinations??New Killer Star? and ?The Loneliest Guy,? both from the new disc, marked two of the night’s most mesmerizing, deeply musical moments?Backed by a crack six-piece band, Bowie was loose, suave, a bit salty, and incredibly amiable.”

–Joan Anderman, BOSTON GLOBE, 3/31/04

“Bowie and his super-hot sextet backed up his always stunning visual cool with a dynamic two-hour, 15-minute set…He swiveled his slim hips to the speedy groove of ?Hang On To Yourself,? solemnly praised the healing power of music in post-9/11 elegy ?New Killer Star,? amiably encouraged a sing-along to ?All the Young Dudes? and bit into the lyrics of ?Fame? with a grin, jerking to the chunky backbeat supplied by Sterling Campbell?Campbell, like most of Bowie’s current band, is a veteran of several tours now, and the second-nature nuances of players who know each other well came out in the performance. Whether it was keyboardist Mike Garson’s starkly beautiful accompaniment on the gorgeously sad piano ballad ?The Loneliest Guy? or the interplay between guitarist Earl Slick and Jerry Leonard and Campbell on the chaotic rhythms of ?Hallo, Spaceboy,? they were a tight unit??Quicksand? swirling into majestic harmonies, the off-kilter, haunted-house keyboards of ?Ashes to Ashes? marrying R&B with spook, the cathartic technofunk of ?I’m Afraid of Americans? ratcheting up the dance quotient and ?Heroes? uniting the audience.”

–Sarah Rodman, BOSTON HERALD, 3/31/04

“?the voice was his most handsome asset. It leaped effortlessly between a piercing alto (the glam crunch of ?Rebel Rebel?), a low monotone (the Pixies’ ?Cactus?), and a baritone croon. With effortless grace, he employed that croon to sing of impending apocalypses, in the funereal medley of ?Sunday? and ?Heathen.? He also used it on metronomic love songs (?New Killer Star?) and strummed Nietzschean laments (?Quicksand?). It soared while he knelt before his longtime Philadelphia fans during the glitter theme ?All the Young Dudes? and hummed through the jungle metal of ?I’m Afraid of Americans.??While the taut pulse of bassist Gail Ann Dorsey and the grandiloquent piano of Mike Garson brought nuance to creepy melodies (?The Man Who Sold the World?), guitarists Earl Slick and Gerry Leonard created a palette that was primal and noisy, yet clean. Their razor leads and trashy rhythms provided Bowie with the best guitar sound he has had in his career.”

–A.D. Amorosi, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 3/31/04

“The subtly rumbling groove of ?China Doll? was a delectable highlight. The title cut from his latest album, Reality, rode pulverizing polyrhythms. But the mood downshifted neatly for the entrancing ?Man Who Sold the World,’ the 1971 tune that Bowie noted was the first he’d ever heard of himself on the radio.”

–Jay N. Miller, PATRIOT LEDGER (Boston, MA), 3/31/04

“?the coolest man on Earth?Easily one of the most vital and exciting veteran pop stars in this or any other galaxy?he was profound, provocative, poetic, passionate, playful and, most importantly, pretense-free as he gleefully explored every facet of his career?With sly sophistication and a crafty sense of drama, Bowie used his velvet croon to enhance the sound and vision of his soul-searching musings, spiritual epiphanies and cosmic sermons. Opening with the timeless anthem ?Rebel Rebel,? the 57-year-old ?chameleon of pop? proved he still has evocative pipes. Bowie?s cool, detached voice surfaced from a murky mix of snarly guitars and crashing drums on the nightmarish opus about Sept. 11, ?New Killer Star.?”

–Craig S. Semon, WORCESTER TELEGRAM & GAZETTE (Boston, MA), 4/1/04

“Let Mick Jagger and Bono tussle over who’s got the biggest band in the world. David Bowie is the quintessential ?thinking man’s? rock star and that, at the end of the day, is a far more enviable position in which to be…Last year’s Reality and its brooding 2002 predecessor, Heathen–the best record to bear the 57-year-old Bowie’s name in 20 years–have contained some of his most direct, accessible and self-referential material in years, and it was clear from the extensive stage time given to songs from those albums that Bowie is the rare artist of his vintage committed to where he is now, not yesterday….The blaring Reality track ?New Killer Star? was an early winner, as was Bowie and his crack band’s increasingly (quite pleasingly) dirty version of ?Cactus? by the Pixies.”

–Ben Rayner, TORONTO STAR, 4/1/03

“The 57-year-old Bowie and his razor sharp, six-piece band performed a stunning, sometimes challenging, two-hour-and- 15-minute set with plenty of emphasis on songs from his last two albums–2003’s Reality and 2001’s Heathen. Coming across well in that regard were such new songs as ?New Killer Star,? ?Never Get Old,? and his cover of The Pixies’ ?Cactus.?”

–Jane Stevenson, TORONTO SUN, 4/2/04

“The 57-year-old rock star, in his second Seattle concert of the year, offered a powerful and inspiring performance Wednesday night at Key Arena that served as a showcase for his extraordinary career. The show was a blend of new songs and past hits with fresh arrangements that made them sound entirely new.”

–Gene Stout, SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER, 4/15/04

“…Bowie charmed and dazzled in his first Portland performance in nearly a decade…Really now, is it fair that one man should have so much: an inexhaustible store of memorable, thrilling, often groundbreakingly creative songs; a voice that can be by turns fey, coy, seductive, snarling, urgent, cocky and grandiose; a charisma that made anything from dramatic poses to goofy offhanded banter seem like masterly showmanship; a rock star’s ultra-trim physique and feral grace, still, at age 57?…Bowie played for well over two hours, mixing numerous hits from as far back as 1970’s ?The Man Who Sold the World? with lesser-known tunes old and new, plus a few standouts from last year’s brilliant return-to-form, Reality…Guitarist Earl Slick added thickly textured riffs and wails in ?New Killer Star,? surprisingly gutsy chording in ?China Girl? and a rock ‘n’ roll gunslinger’s attitude throughout. Keyboardist Mike Garson built a cathedral of haunting, jagged chords for ?The Loneliest Guy? and flashed his distinctive solo style–tumbling, spiky harmonies like barrelhouse Stravinsky–on the eerie masterpiece ?Ashes to Ashes.?”

–Marty Hughley, PORTLAND OREGONIAN, 4/16/04

“The Bowie show–that maestro of musical reinvention–will go down in the annals as a moment of perfect communion with an artist who, like Neil Young, has rediscovered his enjoyment and ours with it?Bowie is not one of those dinosaurs who do the rounds of the concert halls, trotting out a handful of historic hits for nostalgic fans. And to prove it you need look no further than the release of Reality. The artistic energy of the rocker–who sang ?Never Get Old?–is intact. As is his charisma, his perfect blend of sophisticated elegance and youthful exuberance, his way of moving and mocking rock-star clichés–while, at the same time, incarnating them perfectly?The immortal ?Rebel Rebel? was unleashed with the same fury as ?New Killer Star? from his most recent album?The playlist was not quite the same as that of Montreal in December. There were an additional three songs (26 in all) with the supreme ?Ashes to Ashes,? ?The Man Who Sold The World,? ?Suffragette City? and ?China Girl? alongside brilliant new tracks like ?Sunday? from the album Heathen, a cover version of the Pixies? ?Cactus? and rarer gems like ?Starman,? ?Hang On To Yourself? and ?Quicksand? from the album ?Hunky Dory??Two hours and 15 minutes after launching the concert with ?Rebel Rebel,? Bowie left the stage–going back to his eternal youth. Leaving his fans overwhelmed and overjoyed.”

–Gilles Carignan, LE SOLEIL (Quebec), 4/5/04

“Bowie and a six-piece band pumped out a brilliant concert that was half hit parade, half musical adventure to places few have gone before?Highlights included ?Never Get Old,? appropriately enough, and the beautiful ballad, ?The Loneliest Guy.?”

–Mike Ross, EDMONTON SUN, 4/10/04

“…Bowie left no doubt as to his confidence in his body of work and his ability to nail it live. And, as one of rock’s greats, he delivered as promised.”

David Barton, SACRAMENTO BEE, 4/19/04

“His voice was impossibly rich, all that it’s ever been despite decades of wear, going thin and youthful on early tunes and filling up to a velvety roar on the sophisticated songs of his later years…The show reflected the staggering variety of Bowie’s career…”

Starshine Roshell, SANTA BARBARA NEWS PRESS, 4/21/04