The return of The Thin White Duke…
The latest stop on David Bowie’s A Reality Tour was a thrilling evening for the locals at the Starlight Theatre in Kansas City last night.
There were a couple of setlist surprises, the first being the non-appearance of I’m Afraid Of Americans, a song that has been performed at almost every show on the tour up to now. The second being the debut of the classic title track from David’s 1976 album, Station To Station. BowieNetter steve_o summed up the significance of this addition to the set in a message board post:
Just got back from the show in Kansas City, and let me say it was INCREDIBLE!!! I saw him in Austin last week, and I thought nothing could top that. Boy, was I wrong! When he said, “We would like to do something very special for you tonight” and pulled out STS, I almost flipped.
My friends who went with me are casual Bowie fans, but I tried to explain to them how MAJOR it was that he was performing that song. I don’t know if they fully understood my enthusiasm, but they were happy for me. I’m just glad that he FINALLY pulled that song out of the attic and played it once again. Bowie rules.
BowieNetter alorindanya chose a good show to see David Bowie for the first time, and you can read her account of the evening after the officially-confirmed 27-song setlist, also supplied by alorindanya:
Kansas City May 10th 2004
01 Rebel Rebel
02 New Killer Star
03 Battle for Britain (The Letter)
04 Cactus
05 Fashion
06 All The Young Dudes
07 China Girl
08 Pablo Picasso
09 Fame
10 The Loneliest Guy
11 The Man Who Sold The World
12 Breaking Glass
13 Be My Wife
14 Hallo Spaceboy
15 Sunday
16 Heathen (The Rays)
17 Under Pressure
18 Days
19 Changes
20 The Supermen
21 Ashes To Ashes
22 Quicksand
23 White Light, White Heat
24 “Heroes”
(Encore)
25 Station To Station
26 Suffragette City
27 Ziggy Stardust
Kansas City review from alorindanya:
This was my first Bowie concert, so I was highly impressed beyond my expectations. First off, I got to go to the SpookyGhost concert on May 9th and yes, Spooky did say “It’s good to be in Kansas.” David happened to bring up the subject of the incorrect statement (although he didn’t come to the show himself, as far as I know), but he easily got us to forgive the Irishman.
One of the funniest moments of the evening was when David was handed a handkerchief from someone’s hotel room and David said something along the lines of “I have one of these from every town I’ve toured in.” But the person indicated they wanted it back and that they only wanted David’s sweat. David looked at them like they were crazy at first but went ahead and wiped his face on it, then handed it back. He then laughed into the mic and said (you can quote me directly on this statement. It was so funny, I immediately wrote it down) “That’s singularly the most ludicrous thing I’ve done all tour.”
At another point, David started to mention how he was going to do one of his older songs and gave other various details of which I cannot remember, but the crowd went wild. David gave an impressed smile and said “Kansas City knows their shit!” I was so happy to hear him say that, and later in the show he said that the band thought we had a “nice little town.”
I feel kind of bad because this was my first time EVER hearing Station To Station ANYWHERE. David let us know ahead of time that it hadn’t been done in years and the only way I could tell that he was a bit shaky was that he looked to the floor A LOT (which I’m supposing indicated he had the lyrics on paper somewhere down there). But EVERYTHING about the entire night was so awesome. The weather couldn’t have been nicer (it was supposed to rain all day), and as far as I could tell, David and the Band were FLAWLESS!! I can’t wait to see him again in concert in Columbus, Ohio.
Thanx for that alorindanya, glad your first experience of a Bowie show was such a pleasant one, but could it have been any other way? I don’t suppose that’s you in the picture above, is it? };-)
Speaking of pictures, BowieNet members can view more from last night’s show by clicking on the image above.
A Reality Tour continues tonight at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis.