DAVID BOWIE
ROSELAND
SONG LIST
FRI. JUNE 16, 2000
Wild Is The Wind
Life On Mars
Golden Years
Changes
Stay
China Girl
Survive
Absolute Beginners
Ashes to Ashes
Rebel Rebel
Fame
This Is Not America
All the Young Dudes
Star Man
Man Who Sold The World
Under Pressure
Station To Station

Seven
Thursday's Child
The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell
Hallo Spaceboy

Ziggy Stardust
Heroes
Let's Dance (with "samba" intro.)
I'm Afraid of Americans
NOTE - Click here for pictures from New York.
My report on the shows is below.
- DEmerson
6/00
DAVID BOWIE
ROSELAND
SAT. JUNE 17, 2000
Cancelled due to laryngitis.
DAVID BOWIE
ROSELAND
MON. JUNE 19, 2000
Wild Is The Wind
China Girl
Changes
Stay
Life On Mars
Absolute Beginners
Ashes To Ashes
The Jean Genie/Love Me Do
Cracked Actor
Little Wonder
This Is Not America
Fame
All The Young Dudes
The Man Who Sold The World
Station To Station
Star Man
Hallo Spaceboy
Under Pressure

I Dig Everything
The London Boys
Heroes
Let's Dance (again with "samba" intro.  Thomas Dolby joined on stage for Heroes and Let's Dance)
I'm Afraid of Americans
Not a review really, just my thoughts on the shows: As the crowd anxiously awaited David's arrival on stage Monday night (made all the more anxious after Saturday's cancellation and concerns over whether THE VOICE would be there) I glanced around Roseland and for some reason thought of the line from Because You're Young, "What are they hoping to prove, what would they like to find?"  Indeed, what WERE we all hoping to find?  Clearly this was more than just a "rock show."  People didn't fly in from all corners of the globe just for a good night of music.  Obviously it has a lot to do with the magnetic pull that Bowie - the coolest guy on the planet - has. When someone shouted out "You're the king David" at one point, no one in THAT room anyway was going to differ.I decided it wasn't like seeing the Stones for instance, where by virtue of them still being able to get out there and play somehow makes us feel good about our own selves being survivors, or a Springsteen taking us back to our Glory Days.  No, an evening with Bowie - with or without the big "hits" - may bring back great memories, but it shouldn't really be about nostalgia ("ahh, those crazy glam-filled days of the 70's"). It should be, as it always has been, about something more. For me, it's about seeing the man I consider to be the greatest artist of our times still pushing the envelope, melting us with the voice, thrilling us wth his moves, (and I should add where does Rolling Stone get off saying Bowie can do everything but dance?  I'm as straight as they come and I'll say it again, the man has the sexiest hips in the world!).and continuing to take us to places we never knew we wanted to go.  I could go on - "But how were the shows" you ask?  I think I shall focus on Monday's show, because as great as Friday's show was, only on Monday did I myself "go over the edge" into that delirious zone and start to break an honest sweat.

So when Bowie finally took the stage on Monday, I couldn't believe that he again opened with Wild Is The Wind! Here we're wondering if he can even talk, and he breaks right into one of his most challenging (and beautiful) vocal workouts.  I'm sure I wasn't the only one in the crowd nearly in tears.  You could really feel for the first few songs the crowd hold its collective breath, trying to hear any signs of wear and tear.  And the signs were there at times, but I was amazed throughout the show how often he DID go all out on certain passages. Incredible.

Stay started to pick things up nicely, as I suddenly saw Bowie doing this funny little, what I called "The Sailor Dance." Really quite a unique skill of his, to go from being completely charming/goofy one second, and then instantly he goes into sharp as a knife cool just by grabbing the mike stand. More goofiness follows with his announcement that he has to leave the stage for a minute due to all the water he's drinking for his voice, and the band plays an impromptu Jean Genie, which is OK, and then he comes back out and starts playing harmonica (I think the first time I've seen him play harp in 26 years of seeing him!) and suddenly we're in serious jam mode, with even a snippet of Love Me Do thrown in for good measure.  This rocking vibe continues for one of the two best songs of the night (for me anyway) with a version of Cracked Actor that was just so damned heavy I never wanted it to end.  I decide then that one of the difference between Monday's show and Friday's, is that on Monday, the band - and Earl in particular - picked it up a notch and turned the amps to 11. Friday DID have Rebel Rebel though, and a better version of All the Young Dudes that was like a religious experience.. Plus Ziggy!

The image that really stays with me though, from the entire two shows, was the start of Station to Station on Monday night.  As Earl begins the feedback over the locomotive, Bowie stood there in a bath of white light, almost in silhouette.  He then started waving.  Up toward the balcony? To the past? To the future?  It was just an amazing moment, quite theatrical and yet subtle.  Then as the riff begins in earnest, he turned to the back of the stage, almost as if to begin the transformation into the man we had come all this way to see - the Thin White Duke.

Bowie played a lot with his image Monday night, as he always does.  But there was one side of him that was quite new.  Consider that in a room with 3,000 very hip, very cool, and - in many cases anyway - some very beautiful people - that Bowie is cooler, sexier, more talented than the whole lot of us without his even trying.  But this was the one time I've seen him, where he really DID have to try.  Our "rock god" is human after all, and we love him even more because ot that. With the whole voice thing, you could really feel the human side - the will, the struggle, and finally - the triumph - as "the European Cannon is here."

Some other thoughts. Hallo Spaceboy was the other song on Monday that totally blew me away.  On Friday's show, as much as I like Earl I really missed Reeves particularly on that song. But Monday it was just a glorious, throbbing, wailing tidal wave of white noise.

Which bring us to the band.  Again, I think the band probably had to pick it up on Monday - like "our star player is hurting guys, we need some points off the bench tonight" type of thing.  Garson and Gail are without a doubt tremendous.  Emm and Holly are without a doubt the two sexiest women I've ever seen, and they sound great too. (Had to say it). Sterling Campbell on drums and Mark Plati on rhythm guitar tie the whole sound together nicely.  Then there's Earl. He looks cool, he rocks, he didn't solo quite as much as I would have liked, but hey... great to have him back. As some have said (Total Blam Blam in particular, whose journal entries I enjoyed almost as much as I envied) - best band ever?? Maybe.  The Spiders still remain, at least emotionally, the touchstone, and I still think I prefer the Earthling line-up, but this band is pretty God damned hot alright.  They have the best singer in the world too.

Thank you David Bowie - for everything.

- DEmerson
June 21, 2000
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