David Bowie and Catherine Russell – © AP Photo/Mark Lennihan.
Leading us on and on and on…
By all accounts (and there have been many), David Bowie stole the show at last night’s Tribeca Film Festival show at Battery Park. Looking devilishly sexy in red and brown, our man left a big impression on the BowieNetters who mailed me with their reports, and everybody was blown away by new additions to the band, Gerry Leonard and Catherine Russell.
As David told us yesterday, the set consisted of five songs, ‘China Girl’, ‘Slow Burn’, ‘Afraid’, ‘Lets Dance’ and ‘I’m Afraid Of Americans’…but I wasn’t there to witness it, so I’ll leave it to two BowieNetters who were. The winning contributors are EoS and BreakingGlass (happy belated birthday H2), who have both earned themselves a signed promotional ‘Heathen’ poster. Thanx to everybody who did send in a review, sorry we can’t post them all, but I do think you should still post them on the MBs anyway.
Those of us that missed last night’s show may still get to see some of David’s performance as part of a documentary to be broadcast on May 24th on MTV in the USA. Anyway, over to EoS and BreakingGlass…Ladies first (Cries of “she’s no lady”, etc!)
Total Blam Blam – (European Correspondent)
——————————————————————————————————————————
Ok not too good at these things as it all becomes a blur after I leave but here goes.
David opened with China Girl, the band sounded amazing, absolutely love the addition of Gerry Leonard (but then I am a huge Spooky Ghost fan). David then went into a wonderful version of Slow Burn, much more guitar than is on the radio edit and it sounded beautiful. His voice was really strong and absolutely soared through the high notes with ease. Then came Afraid which totally rocked, if I wasn’t waiting with bated breath for Heathen before this I am now camping out on the doorstep of Rebel Rebel to get it as soon as it is released!
Let’s Dance was next, the new version with the slow sexy start, with Slick on acoustic guitar, heaven! This song really showcased Gerry. Last but not least was I’m Afraid of Americans, which as always was a real winner. The crowd were having a blast.
Now I will address what is maybe the most important thing, LOL. What did David wear, how did he look??? Can you say stunning? His hair was hanging in his eyes and he had on a red bomber type shirt or jacket, hard to tell from where I was standing, could have been leather but not sure. Reminded me a lot of the look from the Heroes era. Really gorgeous.
So there you have it, he looked and more importantly sounded fantastic, and I am counting the days to Roseland to see more. Thanks for a great night David and look forward to many more this year, you made a bunch of Bowienetters very happy tonight.
H2
——————————————————————————————————————————
“I’ve got believers (kiss-kiss)” – © REUTERS/Mike Segar.
David looked FAB!!! Ok? I know that’s what you wanted to hear first, so I just had to get that in up front.
After a great bit of Sailor, introducing himself to the audience as our neighbor, in need of a bit of sugar and suggesting we stop by for tea, the band kicked in and Sailor became pure 100 per cent Bowie. China Girl started the set, in the hard-boiled, guitar-blastin style. Slow Burn followed – Slick blazing away, and Bowie’s voice a thing of utter beauty (yer gonna love this one live, kids!). Afraid came next, complete with Plati pulling out the mini-strat!
Now up to this point, Gerry Leonard (in a pale-blue suit – perfect lol), was either not mixed up far enough, or was simply adding voltage to the rhythm chords. I absolutely love this guy, but started to wonder Slick would be too much for him to break thru. Silly me. Let’s dance (slow intro version) followed, and Gerry was brilliant – adding his wonderful atmospherics throughout. Sterling’s break in it was amazing, and then Gerry did a trademark ‘spooky’ solo til Slick lit it up. We’re talking truly great stuff here.
I’m Afraid of Americans closed the set, again showing how potent the Slick/Leonard pairing is. Gail was kickin some serious ass, as always. Plati is the best damn rhythm guitarist I’ve heard in years, and Garson adds such a twisted elegance. Thought the 2000 band was good? Well wait’ll ya hear this one!
But the best part was seeing and hearing all this incredible music in the company of such wonderful friends – and I’ve got Sailor to thank for that (and Helen2, who slipped me a 20 for saying it).
Bring on Roseland!
XO’s
EoS
——————————————————————————————————————————