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October 14, 1999
Paris, France
Encore
This was called a mini-concert. The poster at the ticket booth said that David would only play for 45 minutes. Around 1000 people were in attendance, a combination of 700 ticket holders and about 300 invited guests, many press people and record company folks.
The tickets had gone on sale the day before, and along with the tickets, each buyer was given a wrist band which must be worn to obtain admission. The fan wrist bands were yellow. More on this later....
The club was comfortably full, the limited tickets and large number of press people created a more casual event than could have occurred in such a small place. People stood in a main floor area perhaps 100 feet long and 50 feet wide.
The show started about an hour later than the promoted 20:00 time. Mike Garson came out and sat at the two keyboard stand, put on his headphones, and played a few notes to himself from both the top stage piano and the bottom synth. In the center of the stage was a music stand with a thick book, a small music light, and a mike stand. About two minutes later db came out, wearing a simple long sleeve blue pullover shirt and brown slacks.
The lone piano opened the show, and David did a beautiful rendition of Life on Mars. About two thirds through a few synth notes were added on long sustain, but in general this minimalist treatement was reminiscent of the Quicksand openings of most Earthling concernts. David's voice was strong and the rendition was the best I have heard from this song.
The band joined on the stage after a moderate applause. David introduced them in stages over the next few breaks, but they were:
Background vocals: Emm and Holly
Guitar: Page Hamilton
Drums: Sterling Campbell
Second Guitar: Mike Plati
Bass: Gail Ann Dorsey
Piano and Keyboards: Mike Garson
David said this was not really a concert, more an exhibition. Wild applause at that. He then spoke a bit in French, but said he really need to speak in English, "you wouldn't mind that would you?". Not much response to this, but then he introduced part of the band and said that if he had to explain something complicated that Emm would take center stage and perform an interpretive dance. He asked her to come center stage and explain he welcomed everyone, she did a few dance moves and then returned to her stage left mike stand. Wild applause again.
Thursday's Child was played with Page doing bit stronger guitar over the top than on the recent SNL appearance. It was kind of like the rock mix on the single. I think this song benefits from the live performance more than many.
David than said that this was the first time "ever, ever, ever" they were going to do another song from "hours...", Something In the Air. No applause sadly (except from me and a few people in the front). It was brilliant, this song is a live classic living up to every bit of the potential it showed on the album for performance. The crowd was somewhat enthusiastic.
At this point David introduced some of the band. He said of Page "He used to be from Helmet, but you're not anymore, are you?" Page nodded agreement. Its obvious they have a great rapport, more on this later.
David looked down at the set list and said "Why did I put all the hard ones at the beginning?" He then introduced Word on a Wing "This one is from the Station to Station album". A beautiful rendition!
David introduced the rest of the band except Gail.
He said "I am going to play a very old song, from 1966. You won't know this one. It's the first song I ever did under the name David Bowie. Don't worry, its short. Its called I Can't Help Thinking About Me." Again, limited recognition applause, a pretty good version, it was fast.
David introduced Gail. This was a very fun and interactive exchange where he quizzed her with three questions. one was about British government, one "Who was the lead singer of the Vandellas (someone yelled it but I think she knew anyway and answered Martha Reeeves), and the final one "What was all that noise in your hotel room last night?" He quickly changed this to "What is the next song we are going to play", but Gail never answered.
Then came China Girl, a great version sounding raw and Iggy Pop like. What a delight to have that song back in the repertoire.
David put on an acoustic guitar, as did Mark Plati, for Always Crashing in the Same Car and Survive. The Always Crashing version he played was fleshed out considerably from the Earthling tour, with the background vocalists and the three guitars adding great substance. I loved it. Before playing it David said "This is from the Low album, which is from more than twenty years ago" He then did a quick bit about an old husband and wife in bed talking, and finally played the song. Survive was was pretty true to the CD.
In the next break, he said "I wrote this next song in 1974. Its about watching videos to learn about sex." Then followed Drive in Saturday. The girls "doo wopped," as did David who made himself laugh and he missed a few words at the start of the second verse.
David kept on the guitar, strummed around a bit, and said "this one's an old one". It was a huge surprise when the chords resolved into Changes. (Did the Seinfeld bit on SNL start this thought process?) It was a good version, with the real treat being Mike Garson's piano over the top of the mix. He is soooo good.
Then came Seven, which was introduced as an acoustic song from "hours...". Pretty straight version.
(I see others remember Seven as part of the encore. It may be, I did not take notes until after the show)
At this point the band left, there was the typical removal of a mike and the set lists to imply the set was over but the house lights stayed down. David and band came back after about two minutes of applause.
He looked at this watch and said "We are only supposed to play for 45 minutes, but you wouldn't mind if we went a bit longer, would you?" Applause. He said "OK, but we are just going to do twenty minutes, we have a couple of obscure songs, and old one and a new new one."
To introduce Repetition he said "This is one of my favorite songs. It's from Lodger." Applause. "Oh, I guess that's from all you closet Lodger fans." Repetition was played with a lot of energy and David made fists at the appropriate "hitting" cues in the lyrics.
David called for his acoustic 12 string, put it on, and said sort of half to himself "The night would not be complete without an obscure song." No applause, but no real gap either. He started strumming "Width of a Circle!!" Applause of recognition followed, and he said "Naw, I was just teasing you." Then the synth strings came in on top of the acoustic guitars that he and Mark were strumming for the I Can't Read. This version was very interesting. The instrumental part was almost identical to the long version Ice Storm single, but the words were the vintage Tin Machine ones with the "Andy where's my fifteen minutes?" line. It was GREAT! I have always liked the moody Ice Storm music but the new words just seemed less able to evoke the remorse and isolation that David always mentions in connection with this song. On the other hand the fast acoustic strumming of the 1996 versions never seemed to match the lyrics in the break. This is the winner of versions, let's hope for a good quality version we can all own from some source.
Then came "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell" which David introduced by title. It was thunderous. For the first time that evening, the hall filled with hard rock sounds, the bass vibrating, etc. David's voice was low in the mix, and got lower during the distorted bits, but it was a great rocker more electric than the Letterman one, for example.
Finally, he introduced a song from "Diamond Dogs about you", and played Rebel Rebel. The crowd came alive and swayed back and forth with their arms. An electric version similar to the SNL performance. David quickly thanked the crowd and left, and about two minutes later the house lights came up.
It was a great show.
It was slow getting out of the few doors back to the metro station. I finally got to the metro platform to go back to my hotel. I had been standing for several hours and sat down, noticing the person next to me had an orange wrist band. I attempted to ask him why his wrist band was orange and mine was yellow in French, and mercifully he answered in English (he said I asked how he turned his hand from yellow to orange for me). Anyway, he was from the UK entertainment press and was heading to the Virgin Music party given after the show. I told him I was a big Bowie fan, and it was my birthday (it was!!) and I was so thrilled to spend it in Paris and see db. He invited me to the party.
This was held at Man Ray, a restaurant owned by Johnny Depp and others off the Champs-Elysees. The restaurant / dance club was reserved that evening, and slowly from around 11 PM it filled with music industry people and lots of journalists. Around 12, spotlights came on and in came Mark Plati, Mike Garson, Page, Sterling, and David!! They largely stayed in a private area (some gained entrance, but not many, and it seemed you need to both be part of the press and good at explaining yourself in French).
By coincidence though, we had sat at a small table close to this VIP area, and so I watched the band for about two hours eating and unwinding from the show. Its clear that David and Page are getting to be good friends, they joked, talked most of the time, smoked together, etc. Sterling and Mike talked, and Mark talked to the people that gained access to the space next to the table. He also appeared to be taking a lot of digital pictures, and every now and again people would pose with the band members.
The VIP thing ended around 2, and I left (the party was still going strong, an amazing event). The metro had closed and I walked back around three miles to my hotel. It was one of the best db concerts (and birthdays) I had ever had!!
