CONCERT REVIEW: David Bowie - International Ballroom, Atlanta, GA
- Rainier Simoneaux
David Bowie has always been a chameleon. Undaunted by popular opinions and critics alike, he has throughout his career been both a trend setter and someone willing to follow the leads of others. This tour, which is currently making stops on a circuit of venues smaller than he would usually play, appears to be for the purpose of getting (re)acquainted with the twenty-somethings of alternative music culture. So when the 50 year-old rock legend appeared by himself on stage wearing a white suit in front of an audience predominantly half his age and dressed in post-goth black, he appeared to be out of his element. Had he misjudged the winds of popular music?
Bowie answered by immediately starting into "Quicksand" from the 1971 album Hunky Dory , a relatively obscure song considering his vast repertoire of hits. He sang seemingly aloof of his surroundings and accompanied only by his own acoustic guitar. By the time he reached the chorus which plaintively expresses "...and I ain't got the power anymore," nothing could have been further from the truth than those lyrics. Bowie had the entire venue under his spell. Wrapping up the song with the addition of his four piece band, Bowie seemed to revel in the applause it garnered.
Evidently impatient and not willing to be predictable, the band launched into a surprising cover of the Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man" - another reference to his early career and also his friendships with Lou Reed and Andy Warhol. Amidst swirling Factory-esque video projections, Bowie belted out the classic as if it were one of his own, while the band's interpretation acknowledged the songs origins with a cacophony of syncopated feedback.
From here Bowie settled into his main works, choosing to stay mostly within new material which he fortified with some older hits that appealed to the younger crowd. Bowie even did a "cover" of Nirvana's cover of his own "The Man Who Sold the World" (somewhat like a post-modern version of Velasquez's famous painting "Las Meninas," wherein the viewer is the subject of the painting) in his efforts to connect with his new found audience. Using multi-media effects, a high-powered light show, large stage props (including large beach ball-sized eyeballs which soon found their way to the audience, ala Journey 1979) each song became a well choreographed performance. All of this would have detracted from the music had it not been for the supporting cast Bowie assembled for his latest album, Earthling , and ensuing tour. Co-songwriter Reeves Gabrels' guitar worked scorched through each composition but reached its ebb during "Looking for Satellites," definitely one of the highpoints of the evening. Gail Ann Dorsey laid the foundations with the bass lines and vocal accompaniment which included covering Freddy Mercury's part in an updated version of "Pressure" so well that I thought it was dubbed (who would have thought a female could emulate him so convincingly?) The drummer/loopist (?) and keyboardist provided the rhythms with bass\snare dance beats, anthemic rock licks, and Prince-ish funky twists. But this was very much Bowie's show.
Commenting on his own threads, Bowie introduced the song "Fashion" by remarking, "It's not people who are famous, clothes are." Such a statement is not surprising coming from one who has made a living of assimilating popular culture into his own, and perhaps just to emphasis that he too had influences (some of them the same as those of today's alternative music scene), he finished the evening with a unbelievable cover of the Velvet Underground's "White Light, White Heat." David Bowie is a consummate performer but as slippery as mercury.
