Carnegie Hall, March 31, 2016
Cyndi Lauper opened the show with a rocking version of "Suffragette City." You can tell she sings the song loudly while driving her car, and like most of us doesn't know the actual lyrics when it comes time to sing it in front of others.
Glenn Gregory and crew did their best-ever performance of "Width of A Circle."
Robyn Hitchcock lent his perfect voice to "Soul Love" and made it sound as if his was the original.
How can one woman be so hugely talented, brilliantly enthusiastic, and humble all at once? You should have seen Laurie Anderson perform "Always Crashing In The Same Car."
Gogol Bordello blew "Breaking Glass" out of the water. Two of the sexiest unattractive guys in the business were mindbogglingly good!
Debbie Harry could not hide her happiness singing "Starman" and she led the audience in a sing-along.
Joseph Arthur's experimental version of "TMWSTW" will not be appreciated by some, but he really was amazing.
Mountain Goats doing "Word On A Wing" made me cry.
J.Mascis performed his personalized version of "Quicksand" with Sean Lennon. It's the version that he originally recorded for Dinosaur, Jr.
Bettye LaVette was, perhaps, the most polished of all the performances and delivered her soul shaking version of "It Ain't Easy."
Perry Farrell. Perry Fucking Farrell nailed "Rebel Rebel." I don't really know Jane's Addiction and am not really familiar with any more than his name. Until now! Looking like a million bucks, and performing the feyest version of the song I've ever heard, Farrell was amazing!
Cat Power who has the voice of a mystic wowed with her version of "Five Years." Even though she seemed distracted or uncomfortable onstage, she proffered a wonderful version.
Ann Wilson did a soulful, almost Motown-like version of "Let's Dance." She danced. We danced.
Michael Stipe performed "Ashes to Ashes." I was never an REM fan. Nothing against them, they just sort of arrived when I wasn't much interested in hearing them. His political activism has been impressive; but he's become just a bit too precious for my taste and his lovely cover of "Ashes To Ashes" was really ruined by his pretentiousness. He can go now.
The Roots bailed. There was a dispute with sharing equipment with other acts, and they found the perpetrators (whoever they were) so offensive they refused to participate. The Vast Majority has their money on The Pixies as the bad guys, but coffee in the hotel lobby the next morning revealed nothing, and standing at the jewelry counter at TJ Maxx revealed less. [EDIT: Come to find out, it wasn't The Pixies who wrecked everything, it was a more significant player in the proceedings.]
The Pixies limped through a lame-ass version of Bowie's version of The Pixies song "Cactus."
My brother's back at home with his Rikki Lee Jones, but we never got it off on that revolutionary stuff. . . . Jones impressed with a lovely acoustic "All The Young Dudes."
Jokob Dylan, who has aged into a very handsome man, did his Wallflowers cover of "Heroes"!
Flaming Lips left me speechless during the afternoon sound check, and the early warning of what
would transpire in the evening did nothing to (mark this as a red-letter day) alleviate that odd notion that Dick Mac was Speechless. "Life On Mars" really came to life!
Choir! Choir! Choir! led the entire audience in a collective rendition of "Space Oddity." Amazing!
The after-party at City Winery was great!
Radio City Music Hall, April 1, 2016
Given the fact that Bowie tributes were held a single day
apart in two different venues, basically around the corner from each other, it
is impossible to avoid discussion of the venues. Both RCMH and Carnegie Hall are storied
venues, certainly two of the most famous and revered music halls in the
Americas. That reverence is where all
comparisons stop.
Now, the venue is run like a boxing arena, the staff acts
like they are managing a boxing card, the refreshments are similar to those
you'd find at a semi-pro basketball game, and the sound system is used like the
sound system for a boxing match. the
acoustics are basically ignored, if not downright destroyed by the
amplification and incompetence of the sound team.
The venue was half-empty for the first few songs, because
everyone was searched just short of an anal probe in order to gain
admittance. If you could have seen this
crowd you'd wonder why there were any searches and not a team of geriatric care
professionals to get us all to our seats more promptly.
Like all shitty venues run by shitty sports companies,
RCMH security works to intimidate the paying customers and maintain the highest
possible level of tension and intimidation at the doors, in the lobbies, and in
the seats. Staff stood in the aisles
blocking the view of people who paid hundreds of dollars to see the concert,
and they were surly when asked to move.
They were heavy-handed with the least dangerous people, and plain-old
belligerent with anyone who dared respond to them with a compound sentence
instead of an obedient grunt.
In situations like this, the most poorly behaved patrons
are empowered because the tension is so high.
Hence, people are up and down, switching seats, arguing with the staff,
generally acting like 10-year-olds.
For the record, Carnegie Hall treats every patron like a
patron. They are polite, the mood is
calm and exciting, the enthusiasm is palpable, everyone gets to their seats
quickly, nobody gets hit, few people experience any conflict, and the place
hums like a music venue would hum.
The house band tonight, like last night, was Holy Holy,
the band formed by original Spider from Mars, Woody Woodmansey, and Tony
Visconti, Bowie's long-time producer and friend. The vast majority of acts played with Holy
Holy as their band.
Ann Wilson opened the show with a soulful rendition of
"Space Oddity." It became (I
think) an unintended a sing-along.
Holy Holy then performed their amazing version of Bowie's
8-minute epic "Width of a Circle" from the Man Who Sold The World
record. Glen Gregory belted out the
vocals, guitarists Paul Cuddeford, James Stevenson, and Tony Visconti nailed the
performance, Terry Edward blew his heart out on sax, Berenice Scott's flawless
keyboards flowed, Jessica Lee Morgan's backing vocals filled-in the entire
background, and Woody Woodmansey's drums rocked like mad. The crowd went crazy (while the rest of the
crowd continued to file in).
Jakob Dylan, who the previous evening performed his
version of Heroes, treated us to a lovely rendition of
"Sorrow." My goodness, he is a
handsome bloke, isn't he.
Since security was so bad, this was the moment I was able
to get my second date into an unused seat next to me, so the three of us were
together. It's sort of embarrassing to
arrive with two dates and have one person sitting elsewhere. I mean, really! What's the point of having two dates to
escort if you are not escorting two dates?!?!?
As we were settling back in, Esperanza Spaulding delivered
a physically and vocally flowing rendition of "If You Can See Me"
from The Next Day record. Lovely,
really, quite lovely. In every way.
Nashville sensation Ron Pope and his band did a version of
"Moonage Daydream" that started like a Country Soul hit from 1968 and
burst into a slow, soulful rendition that was more energizing than the crowd
gave it credit or honor. Again, the
crowd problems are venue problems, not people problems.
Kyp Malone (TV On The Radio) performed a haunting version
of Bowie's amazing "Bewlay Brothers" and although his phrasing seemed
cock-eyed at times, I still wept when he sang: "My brother lays upon the
rocks he could be dead he could be not, he could be you. He's Camillian
comedian, Corinthian and caricature shooting-up pie-in-the-sky . . . "
J. Mascis (Dinosaur, Jr.) was joined by Sean Lennon, just
as he had the night before, to perform the Mascis re-write of
"Quicksand" that appeared on a Dinosaur, Jr. CD in the mid-1990s.
Michael Stipe (*sigh*).
Stipe is brilliant, he knows his stuff.
Sadly, he regularly breaks Rule 62 ("don't take yourself too damn
seriously"). He has created a
stunning remake of "Ashes To Ashes" that he performed with the lovely
Karen Ellson. An amazing re-make. Breath-taking really. But, he has become a
caricature of precious pretension and it's impossible to watch as he
dramatically acts out (seemingly) his pantomime of addiction; and this was the
second lowest point of the show - a real downer. He's just impossible and if I never see him
again it will not be too soon. Listen to
the recording, but avoid looking at the pompous ass hat he has become - it will only
encourage him. He's one of the reasons
rock and roll is dying. Actually, he's
just turning it into rock and troll!
The once-dynamic and now-pedestrian Pixies offered (for
the second night in a row) the loe-light of the evening. They delivered a mechanical, perfunctory, flat, un-creative
version of Bowie's version of The Pixies song "Cactus." Listen to the records. Or not. Maybe they'll go away now.
Joseph Arthur (RNDM, Fistful of Mercy), is really a very
talented guy, and his idea about performing "The Man Who Sold The
World" probably looks great on paper, and I can imagine that his
explanation of it is downright exciting; but it takes longer to set-up the song
than to perform it, so he loses the audience easily.
I think it was at this point that an altercation transpired in the back orchestra, on the opposite side from our seats. Security was probably thrilled, because this justifies their shitty security paradigm.
Fasten your seat belts!
Polyphonic Spree is a huge band and singing group from Texas. Bowie loved them and referred to them as
"The Pretty Polys." They
performed "Slip Away" from Heathen, which they have performed live
with Bowie in the past. They did a
beautiful job and blew the roof of RCMH by breaking into "Memory of a Free
Festival, Part 2" to conclude their performance. The place went wild!
The Donny McCaslin Group, joined by Tony Visconti, started
the opening notes of "Lazarus" and I thought I would have to get up
and leave. If you have not heard the
song, it is Bowie saying good-bye, the artist announcing his imminent death to
the world, before quietly departing this mortal coil. I whispered that I might not be able to
handle it while McCaslin blew the opening plaintiff saxophone strains. I waited and listened, and was relieved that
no vocalist stepped forward to sing: "Look up here, I'm in
heaven." The song was presented as
an instrumental. I didn't sob, but it was
emotionally taxing.
Jherek Bischcoff, Amanda Palmer & Anna Calvi then
joined The Kronos Quartet to put the entire audience in stunned silence with
their rendition of "Blackstar" from Bowie's final LP of the same
name. I really never thought I'd see it
performed live. I was, and remain,
stunned by its beauty.
Mumford & Sons performed "It Ain't Easy,"
the soul cover that Bowie inserted in the Ziggy Stardust LP. The previous night it was performed by Bettye
LaVette, so it was hard to even take this group seriously. It's a grand soul song. Mumford & Sons are not a grand soul
band. Not bad, actually quite good; but
a different cut from Ziggy would have been a better choice.
Cat Power repeated her lovely rendition of "Five
Years" from the previous night. Like the performance at Carnegie Hall, her
signature phrasing was spot on, but she seemed uncomfortable on the stage. Her work is so strong that I've never
imagined her being intimidated or uncomfortable while performing. Perhaps I am reading too much into her
delivery. She was, nonetheless, amazing.
There are as many opinions about the Rikki Lee Jones' acoustic version of "All The Young Dudes" as there are covers and
recordings of the song over the past 4 decades.
I like it. I liked it when she
was struggling to learn it. I liked it
when she performed it at Carnegie Hall, and I liked it this night. Jones is a real pro and was not afraid to
tackle a song not even remotely suited to her style or songbook. I adore her and will always remember fondly
her live performances of this glam anthem.
Perry Farrell.
Perry Fucking Farrell! How has he
been under my radar all this time? A
pure glam performance, in every sense of the word, of a pure glam anthem, "Rebel Rebel." A-fucking-mazing. Really - just breath-taking. Fey and aggressive, fun and scary, loud and
soft, all of it all at once. I can
imagine being in a chat room with Bowie the next day and him gushing about the
performance. My eyes have been opened
and I will seek the glam holy land using Farrell's road map. It's friggin' HOT!
I remember purchasing the 12" vinyl of Blondie's
single "Atomic" because it was backed by their live version of
"Heroes." It was great on that recording and it was great this
night. It was, unfortunately, during
this performance that RCMH's piss-poor sound system, engineering, or
implementation was most egregious. you
could barely hear the guitar. This was
true through most of the night, but this song has a pretty vital guitar
line. The performance was grand but the
venue continued to be an embarrassment to the entertainment industry.
OK, Flaming Lips covered "Life On Mars." Again.
In a funny, fun, silly, absurd performance. One of the principals of these Bowie tribute
concerts was candid about the collective decision to exclude particular female
artists who are out-of-favor with the most pretentious of Bowie fans, and the most serious rock and rollers. So, we had to settle for these guys pretending
to be that popular current-day girl singer known for silly, over-the-top stage
performances. I'd have preferred seeing
the excluded girl, but it also would have been OK to exclude both. I have nothing more to say about it.
If you are not familiar with Choir! Choir! Choir!, I suggest you do a little research. They
are fun. From Toronto, they do this
regular gig where the public attends and collectively sing the songs of a
particular artist. When Bowie's death
was announced, they immediately changed gears for the next performance and
posted a video of 500 people singing "Space Oddity." The video went viral on YouTube and the rest
is history. The original plan for this
night was a collective sing-along of The Man Who Sold The World, but it was
switched to "Space Oddity."
Tonight's version was better than the Carnegie Hall version. I saw people crying.
So which tribute was better?
Overall, the performances this night were superior to the Carnegie Hall
show, but the venue was so lacking, the house so poorly run, that I'll call it
a draw.
After three nights of Bowie Tributes, a group of us made
our way to Philadelphia on Saturday for the Holy Holy show at the Tower
Theater. If you have not seen Holy Holy, you need to look at their
schedule and see them when they play a venue near you.
I look forward to annual tributes to David Bowie, in New
York City.
