I’m raving mad and somewhat slightly dazed…
The second David Bowie show at the Rod Laver Arena has recently come to a triumphant close, and, as ever, Charly has kindly taken the time to make sure you lot are the first to see the set list. She also wrote a report entitled: Fifteen Marsupials and a Sheep Dog, but sadly it seems to be lost in the ether for now.
Apparently the title is a reflection of the general kookiness of David’s behaviour during this show. I pray the report does eventually arrive, as, judging by what Charly told me over the phone, there were a lot of quotes that bear repeating here.
Anyway, here’s the 28-song set list, which sees the return of a few songs not performed for a while. I think you’ll agree, the Melbournians have had pretty good VFM over the last couple of days:
Melbourne February 27th 2004
01 Rebel Rebel
02 New Killer Star
03 Fashion
04 Cactus
05 I’ve Been Waiting For You
06 All The Young Dudes
07 China Girl
08 The Man Who Sold The World
09 Pablo Picasso
10 Sound And Vision
11 Always Crashing In The Same Car
12 Breaking Glass
13 Be My Wife
14 Let’s Dance
15 Sunday
16 Heathen (The Rays)
17 Under Pressure
18 Life On Mars?
19 Looking For Water
20 Changes
21 Ashes To Ashes
22 I’m Afraid of Americans
23 “Heroes”
(Encore)
24 Never Get Old
25 Try Some Buy Some
26 Five Years
27 Hang Onto Yourself
28 Ziggy Stardust
UPDATE: Charly’s original report never arrived, so she’s very kindly rewritten it as best she can remember. Both the pictures here were taken by BowieNetter Fedup… and very good they are too.
Fifteen Marsupials And A Sheep Dog!
I don’t know what David Bowie had been sniffing before he came out on stage tonight, but whatever it was – I want some! To say he was in a chirpy, silly mood would be an understatement. He was hilarious and wouldn’t shut up. Breaking us in gently with the usual Rebel Rebel and New Killer Star, he was resplendent in the usual jeans and t-shirt declaring “Ah, Melbourne Darlings!” He announced “we’ve redecorated the set list so it’s a bit different tonight. That’s kept 30 of you happy”.
Fashion followed which was good to hear again, seems like ages, no doubt a damn sight longer for the resident Aussies. David stood at the front, shaking his head a little so that his fringe flopped down, “I shall be doing the rest of tonight’s show disguised as a sheep dog”. Ha ha, excellent. He then called out, “let me hear you say COBBLERS!” I bet the Aussies wondered what the hell he was on about.
Cactus was cool tonight, an extra long intro as Bowie just let it carry on a while before starting to sing. “You know before you change your guitars let’s think about doing Waiting For You. You see, I control the set list, they think they do but…………” After the Neil Young cover David said “I can see none of you are too grown up for a sing-a-long. I’m the only grown up here…. this side sing the chorus and this side sing the verse…… oh join in when you like”. All The Young Dudes was the result of this comical episode which always gets the crowd on their feet, if they’re not already.
David, seemingly impressed said “that was too good. Well I suppose you’d better sing the next song on your own”. Two lines of China Girl were played by the band, absent by Bowie other than him holding the microphone out over the audience. He signalled for the band to stop playing and the crowd kept singing. “Do you know, you’re the first audience that knew how to sing that”.
He then proceeded to tell us as about their trip to Healesville (the local wildlife park). He was apparently amused by grown ups cuddling wombats and such like (thoughts of me cuddling Koalas in Brisbane the other week sprang to mind). Two cuddly animals made it onto the stage, courtesy of the lovely Julie from Sydney (aka: iwishiwasiman2). David responded “I’m being rained on by Australasian animals”. (in Aussie accent) “David Bowie was hit by 15 marsupials and lay unconscious on the stage for the rest of the show. Thankfully he had a very talented audience who would sing the rest of the songs for him.”
Bowie announced that he was gonna do 4 songs from Low but said we shouldn’t join in as this was supposed to be his moody and lonely period, it pretty much followed with the standard up to the band intro. He then started telling us about his Zappy back in New York and how the wildlife in Australia had inspired him to think of this thing with a kangaroo suit on. He started going on about how kangaroos hop and Zappy’s glide so that wouldn’t work, but other kangaroos would get jealous so it would end up in a bloodbath. What???
The band intro lead them into Under Pressure and a couple of more familiar set songs before Bowie engaged in some amusing banter with Gerry. “You know, the other one that they know” which the two went round in circles over before Bowie declared “Oh fuck it, let’s give it a go. He was right, we certainly did know Ashes to Ashes, only too well.
The set ended fairly normally but no White Light White Heat tonight. Five encores was a bit more like it. Never Get Old was a welcome return to the set, been too long since he did that one. My personal favourite on the new album. Try Some Buy Some seems to be a regular one that he enjoys at the moment and the last three Ziggy songs.
What a great evening and way to end my tour of Australia.
A Reality Tour continues at the Supreme Court Gardens in Perth on Monday March 1st.