Greatest David Bowie live performance?

Santa Monica Ziggy was so amazing. It sold out on hype, people really didn't really know the tunes yet. A song like Changes would start and nobody applauded in recognition - it was that new. My girlfriend and I were sold, and road trippedit the following weekend to an Francisco, and the week after that to Phoenix. The hype didn't carry to those less-in-the-loop towns and the halls were far from sold out. Winterland (SF) pulled in about 800 of its capacity 5000 and the Celebrity Theater (PX) had only about 200 souls scattered among its 1000 seats. Best shows of my life. I filmed a bit of Phoenix on my Super 8. Here's a clip:

https://www.facebook.com/DavidBowieFanClub1970s/videos/10200513959864991/

 

Some of the biggest hedonists of the 70's and 80's celebrating the death of one of rock and rolls biggest hedonists...the Lord's prayer was probably too little too late

 

Wow, did they purposely pick the safest recordings for the LP Stage. Bowie seems to having fun and there's an energy here lacking on the official release.

 

I've never been able to find it on Youtube - maybe my searching skills suck! - but at least once or twice at shows I saw, Bowie did versions of "Sunday" and "Heathen" back to back and segued into each other.

I never was wild about either song individually, but together, they worked like gangbusters!

Actually, "Heathen" on its own was much, much better live, even without "Sunday" attached. I loved the visual of Bowie marching out behind Gail Ann...

 

This just popped up youtube last week Not a performance but a rehearsal. It's cool to see them working things out.

 

Pretty sure I was at this one - fits the timeline of who I was hanging with. And yes, "lackluster" is how I remember it. Saw him three other times though, and two are among the best shows I've seen. The best of them was this performance at the Electric Factory, 1997.10.4. Judging from this one and the Ft Lauderdale tour, he must've been energized doing Earthling on tour. Moonage Daydream which ends the show is downright killer.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-DmDSagaA4

Mark

 

This thread reminds me of what I've felt for decades: Bowie was the best live performer in rock history.

People can claim otherwise if they want - they're wrong, but they can make the claim!

 

I think there were plenty of good shows in 1990, and the other Philly shows were fine, as I recall. There was just one - the second night, maybe? - that seemed blah to me.

The 1996-97 shows were very good, though. Bowie kind of had his butt handed to him in 1995 in the US, as those crowds were there for NIN and he wasn't ready for that. I think he felt he had something to prove after that!

 

Rubbish dancer though

 

Right there! For me.

 

You told David Bowie you thought he phoned it in?! haha!! how'd you gently broach that?!

 

Honestly, I don't remember. As I recall, it seemed like a natural part of the conversation.

Bowie was responding to a letter I'd sent, and in the letter, I'd critiqued the 1990 show. That meant I said what I liked and what I didn't like.

I think I made the comment about "phoning it in" when we got to the "what I didn't like" part of the letter.

I doubt I actually used the term "phoned in" - I probably said that he seemed distracted during the show or something like that.

Bowie didn't mind - as I said, he blamed the band! He said he thought the band was "off" that night and that affected him.

The only time I remember Bowie seeming a bit "gruff" during our chat was when I made some requests. I'd included these requests in the letter itself, and they were pretty off the wall - stuff he'd never play during a hits tour.

Still, I could dream! He looked over the list and laughed a bit.

When I asked if he might play any of them, he seemed a bit irked and told me how tough it could be to rehearse/learn new songs during a tour - he stated that even something as simple as "White Light" (which was added mid-tour, IIRC) was difficult to get down.

He didn't seem mad - just a bit annoyed!

I think I said to him that I didn't really expect them to learn new songs but I thought maybe they'd already learned/rehearsed some of them and just hadn't played them yet.

That thought process makes no sense - we were already 4 months into the tour - but hey, I was 23 and even dumber then than I am now!

 

He segued the two songs at at least one of the Tokyo shows in 2004 (maybe both shows). Worked really well, I agree.

 

And our man smoking his Marboros as ever. Amazing that his voice held up so well through the years with all the fags he got through. And amazing he should smoke during a performance (or a rehersal in this case). As someone who's been to Drama school, I can tell you that it's really not a good idea: that once you've warmed your voice up (and Bowie did warm up his voice, unlike, say Macca), you'd be bonkers to contract your vocal chords with a cigarette.

 

I saw him in Boston in 1997. From the moment he opened with Quicksand I was totally blown away. Also, every show I saw from 2002-2004 was amazing (I still can't believe he opened for Moby and he played the Fillmore in Denver.) The 1990 show was good but not as good as his later shows were for me.

 

I was chatting with him one time before an August 1997 gig in Nottingham, when he asked me which songs I'd like to hear. I suggested "Waiting for the Man", as I knew that the band had rehearsed it back in May of that year, but hadn't played it on the tour. Lo and behold, it was in the set at the following gig, in Dublin.

I think that if I'd asked for something off the wall, he wouldn't have followed up on my request. It also helped that I'd promised to give him a copy of a rare German CD single (people don't always realise that he was a big collector of his own stuff), so he probably wanted to keep me sweet

 

He definitely became rubbish. When I saw the Reality in Dublin DVD, I remember thinking, "Jeepers! Why can't he move anymore?? He a mime artist for ****'s sale!". His movements then compared to, say, Serious Moonlight or 1978 were clumsy and very, very ordinary. Great DVD apart from that!

 

I was there

 

I was at that first Tokyo show and he did "Sunday" into "Heathen".

 

Yeah, my requests were a bit more - shall we say - esoteric!

I still remember that he laughed when he saw "Teenage Wildlife" on my list - and then 5 years later, he played it regularly!

Who had the last laugh there, Dave????

 

Interview with Gail Ann Dorsey:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...sey-he-altered-the-course-of-my-life-20160125

 

I've only seen him live once (see below) and that will qualify as greatest for me.



Peter Gabriel was on the bill too. Amazing.

 

Thanks, a treasure.

 

The first of those I was standing next to you, the second one I'd travelled with Mark Adams. Prior to the gig I had my last sit down conversation with DB. It was the last time we ever spoke, though I did catch his Glastonbury set the following year (June 25, 2000), which was an awesome way to finish my Bowie live experience, which started with the rather less good Glass Spider at Wembley, almost exactly 13 years previously, June 20, 1987.

 

Stressed in what way?