I’m Back From Suffragette City
OK – So, once again, I have updated my all-time best concerts list. David Bowie just kicked John Mayer’s taping at Austin City Limits down a notch to #3, claiming the #2 position in all his “Thin White Glory.”
Yep. I am very fortunate to say that I was one of the folks at tonight’s David Bowie concert at Austin’s coolest outdoor venue, The Backyard. I don’t know what else to say, but “wham bam thank you mam!”
Robert and I headed down to the venue early enough to get good parking and then we got lucky and bumped into Mr. Chris Petkus, my very dear friend from my former job at Apple. (Chris and his lovely wife, Kelly, are the couple who gave me the “Tempo Of Terror” that made the Broken Spoke tour possible. May that car RIP.) Chris was attending the concert with another friend of mine from Apple, the very beautiful Katie Pruitt. (Who just happened to be playing pool with none other than Luke Wilson the night before. Go Katie – I hope you broke his balls! DOH!) So, anyway…The laidback line was easy to hop into. We waited a few minutes and the gates opened. The show was general admission, as are most of the shows at The Backyard, and after a couple of drinks and some merchandise browsing, we settled on a location a little step to the right of the stage, pretty damn close. I would say 15-20 feet from the stage, max.
Very shortly after, we were enjoying the lovely sounds of David’s support act, The Polyphonic Spree. For those of you not in the know yet, these guys are headed up by former Tripping Daisy leader, Tim DeLaughter, and it’s essentially a shitload of people on a stage, singing, playing everything from a harp to a therimin! I bet you’ve seen the VW/iPod commercial featuring their song. Anyway…They rock. I love them! They have lots of energy and hey…They’re TEXANS! They did a great set that ended with a quick nod to Bowie by singing some lyrics from “The Memory Of A Free Festival” and then closing it out with a HARP solo. Very nice.
Very quick set change.
Enter David’s band, which included some of his long-time players (*see Chris Petkus for full bios!) and then of course…Mr. Bowie himself.
For a guy who was born in 1947, he looks great! He came out in a thick corduroy PURPLE jacket with tails and FRINGE! HA! Very cool. He gave a quick hello and then just kicked into “Rebel, Rebel” and man it rocked! From that point on, I really couldn’t say what the exact setlist was, but I do know that there is a site that keeps up with them and when I looked at the one from the last show, it is VERY close to the ones he played and the order. If you care to see, it’s here at BowieWonderWorld.com
I had not looked at any setlists prior to going in detail, but by the time he was heading off before the encore, he hadn’t played a thing off of Ziggy Stardust, which is, of course, my favorite record. It literally changed my life the first time I heard it. I remember looking at the back and noticing the “To Be Played At Maximum Volume” label and thought…hmmm…OK? And boy am I glad I did. Anyway…He came back and claimed that the staff at the venue allowed him some extra time (who says no to Bowie anyway, right?) and that they would play some 15-20 minutes more. Then it was all Ziggy from that point on. In the order from that setlist I linked above too, and holy shit, I was REALLY moved. Well, OK, I was moving the whole friggin’ time, but I was moved tremendously during “Five Years.” That album came into my life during a particuarly black period and it really helped to get me out of it and back into the swing of life. So, needless to say, I was very pleased to hear it, especially under a gorgeous Texas sky and with the beautiful trees as the backdrop at The Backyard. He ended the night with Ziggy and of course the place was just going nuts.
I must say that his attempts at humor with the Austin crowd wasn’t flying too well. He has a very dry sense of humor I think. I loved his jokes. He made puns all along the way. I was very fond of the whole “bats, flying squirrels, televisions, and elephants” joke about how he didn’t know Austin was famous for bats and he had been in town for the last two days and was at the park on the first day, down at Town Lake, (which was also a cute joke…”Let’s name it…………Ugh…..Oh…..Town Lake! That’s original!”) and discovered the bats as they emerged for their nightly feeding.
During the talk of Town Lake, I wondered aloud to Chris, “you think he will talk about Stevie Ray Vaughn?” After all, the statue is right there, kinda hard to miss. And recently on DavidBowie.com I read a snippet of a question a fan asked about SRV and his first official response in years. Unfortunately, the snippet was just that, and it’s a costly move to join his site, so I didn’t get to read the full response. If someone knows where I can find it, please post it in the comments. But anyway…Chris nailed it, as he did most of the first 4-6 songs on the list. “Nope.” he said. And then he proceeded to rock out like a school girl. (as most of us were the whole way through! And by most of us, I mean everyone but my friend Josh, who just kinda swayed. But he was busy checking out girls I think…Anyway)
But quite honestly, I am not sure I will ever be able to say that I have seen such great concerts in such a short time. Since February, I have seen Particle, Rufus Wainwright for the 4th time (still waiting for the picture that some kid took of us after the show – hey kid! SEND THAT PIC TO ME! I gave you my card! AND I took your pic for you! But here’s the blurred cell phone version that my friend Bo took below.), SXSW (which included several!), Prince (number 1 on the list by the way after he knocked John down to #2…Poor John)ANDIndigo Girls!! GEEZ!!
I love my life tonight. God is being extra nice to me lately. Thanks God!
I am pretty stoked about Friday’s gig in Corpus Christi. If you’re near the area…Get out there to SWELL on Friday and let’s kick it! If you wanna go and need a ride, hit me up.
Well, it’s WAY past my bedtime…AGAIN.
All the best to you and yours!
Until a local news outlet posts pictures from tonight’s show, I found these online:
Did I mention the robes up there when I talked about them? I don’t think I did. Yes, they not only wear the robes…they SELL them now too. For $40! They joined Bowie for a song called, “Uncle Floyd” where they came out in colored robes. I liked those better!
And now for the blurry Rufus pic I promised you earlier!
OK – The Austin Chronicle has a review of the Bowie show. Here’s a pic from the show that I saw:
~Kia
NAKIA.NET
