Wow! Another monster night to follow up the concert we'd all heard about from Los Angeles two nights before. Met up with old and new friends alike in the line, which had been building since before 9 a.m. Strangely enough, the 3-4 people right at the front chose to go straight to the first rail and stand, rather than down the front in the pit. Well, their loss, our gain :)
Waiting For The Man
D.S. had had a "close encounter of the Bowie kind" earlier in the day at City Lights Bookstore, so we quizzed him on Bowie's book buying habits: "sex, drugs and religion". D.S. also told us he mentioned that it was an amazing setlist from Universal Amphitheater the other night, to which Bowie replied:
"Where did you hear about that? Teenage Wildlife?!?"YES!!! Confirmation that the man does browse the right Web sites :-)
Anyway, on to the concert itself. Once again, Helen2 managed to get in toe-tickling distance, and Ramona, Robot Monster, myself, Carolyn and Sorrow to the left (Reeves' side). Patti was one row back, center stage, and Marianne and Susan were to the right. It turned out that things appeared to be much rougher on the right than on the left tonight (with one girl trying to climb on stage during Little Wonder, and having to be restrained by some Teenage Wildlifers, since the security at the Warfield is somewhat lacking due to the paucity of room at the front behind the barrier). Perhaps, it was just the sight of Robot and myself head-banging in the front row, which kept everyone away from our side.
After an hour and a half of the DJ drum 'n bass (you need your earplugs to save your ears for Bowie during this, and preferably a suit of body-armour if you're standing right in front of the bass speaker as Robot and I were). An 18 year old punk girl behind us was proudly telling everyone that it was her birthday today... she even had a sign made up, and then further behind her was some guy who continually called out "Ziggy" at quiet points between songs (perhaps he was placated by the finale of Moonage Daydream :)).
On with the show
Enough of the crowd description... Bowie appeared alone with his 12-string around 8:45, and began his customary Quicksand (note: perhaps Bowie should rerecord a new version of Quicksand with 1997 lyrics "Immersed in Crowley's uniform of symmetry?? ;))
Introducing himself, he said
"Hello, my name's David. And yes, I'm a Lithuanian."Don't quite know where that one came from :) (As a couple of readers have pointed out, it probably came from the scene in "The Man Who Fell To Earth" where Newton brings the professor into the spaceship.)
He then told us
"Tonight we're going to do some old songs, some young songs, some you know, some you don't know, and some you probably won't even like!"This was followed by "Always Crashing In The Same Car". This was my first time hearing it live, and it was very faithful to the original album version. At the end, Reeves broke into the very familiar opening guitar chords of "I Can't Read", and Robot next to me went a little wild :) Bowie's voice in these first few songs sounded a little strained, particularly with the long sustained vocals, but as he warmed up, he seemed to get better (and he also popped a pill midway through the first set, which we hadn't seen before).
His comment after "I Can't Read" was...
"I don't know if you have deserved that one...and noting that it was the first time that it had been performed live (well, if you don't count Tin Machine and the Bridge Benefit :)) As others have pointed out, that trio of songs is really amazing in their juxtaposition - read the lyrics and think about Bowie's self-portrayal in all 3 of them, spread out over 18 years from 1971 to 1989.
Early On
"Queen Bitch" got everyone up and kicking. David gave us a special treat with the intro to the next song. With just him on acoustic guitar, he told us (paraphrased)
"Someone sent me a record of some of my early songs the other day, from 1966. And I was listening to them and realised that the songs you write when you're young are very revealing. For example, there was this song I wrote back then, and the verse went something like this"Strumming at a frenetic pace, he then sang
"Can't help thinking about me, can't help thinking about me, I can't help thinking about me"We in the front row were just cracking up. He continued with
"And I think the chorus went something like this.Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me...
Now doesn't that tell you something about what goes on in the mind of a young artist?
Finishing his little diversion (yes, we appreciated it David!), he told the crowd, "Hope you've got a few minutes" with a sly smile on his face. The bluesy "Baby, What You Want Me To Do" intro led on to "The Jean Genie", and "Panic In Detroit". Bowie then dropped his guitar, and went just for the microphone to the new remix version of "I'm Afraid Of Americans". Those who saw the written setlist at LA told me that it said "NIN Reznor #2 Americans", and indeed this sounded very Reznor-like.
"Look Back In Anger" was without incident (unlike the previous San Francisco show), although Bowie misplaced it as being a song from 1976 :) The band intro started with Reeves, with Bowie telling the audience
"Reeves lost the will to live once... Actually, he misplaced it. He left it behind the sofa."Poking fun at Reeves who tends to talk back off-mike, Bowie noted
"Man who will not speak in mike not to be trusted"Bowie took another light-hearted jab at Mike Garson too, introducing him as the man who played on Aladdin Sane over 20 years ago.
"He's the guy who played that potty piano solo on Aladdin Sane. You know, I never really cared much for that, but once it's on record, what can you do?"Gail was introduced as the "Duchess of Dorsey", and Bowie name-checked a few friends in the crowd, including our very own D.S.
It was back to the familiar setlist now, "Seven Years In Tibet", "Battle For Britain" (with Mike playing a little bit of Time on the outro), "The Man Who Sold The World", "Fashion", and then reintroducing "Voyeur Of Utter Destruction". Bowie made the most of his miming, particularly for the line "Research has pierced all extremes of my sex", which was accompanied by nipple-twisting and grimaces of pain :)
At the end of Voyeur, Bowie noted
"A lot of people have asked me what the song is about, and it's actually about Francis Bacon. Not the one from Queen Elizabeth I times, but the painter"Bodyparts
"Looking For Satellites" (Ramona and Robot almost put his eye out with their spinning UFOs ;)), "Stay", and "Under Pressure" followed. The by-now customary Gail kiss at the end of Under Pressure and intro was accompanied by a little more tonight, with David saying:
"Hasn't she got a lovely pair of lungs? They're two of her more outstanding bodyparts"Particularly appropriate since Gail was wearing tight leather pants, and a snug-knit sleeveless top, which revealed some of her *ahem* other bodyparts, rather well. Bowie noted this with a little discussion on the "three things you need in rock 'n roll". Unfortunately, I forgot the first one, but he said
"The second, is spirtual inspiration, and third, a perfect pair of breasts. Isn't that right Gail? Oh excuse, me. Duchess. Beg your pardon ma'am."The rocking final trio of "Hallo Spaceboy" (unfortunately the moondust was confiscated :(, but Marianne's Roswell alien puppet got in a lot of good dancing on the stage during this number), "Scary Monsters" (yes, the microphone sucking technique was apparent tonight), and "Little Wonder" got the crowd going, particularly one woman on the right hand side who tried to climb over the front row and get onto stage. Perhaps, she'd heard the roadie's admonition from the other night "Whatever gets thrown up on stage belongs to the band".
Now, the Warfield has very little space between the front of the stage and the barrier.... with all the sound equipment there, there's not enough room for security to sit. Instead, they sit over at the side, which meant that when this woman tried to climb on stage, it was left to some fellow Teenage Wildlifers to restrain her until security got there! Wily old David saw her coming, and just turned his back on her. Then, when she got returned to the crowd, David turned directly to her, and said "Well, hello there!".
Release the balloons!
During the extended portion of Little Wonder, David released his balls, eyeballs that is. He holds them in rather phallic style as he brings them up to the front, and then gives a maniacal grin as he throws them into the crowd. Tonight was a charmed night for the eyeballs; they lasted way beyond their usual life span, and in fact, both came back up on stage a couple of times. At one point, they ended up in the same corner, hitting against each other, and David noted "Oh look, they're fighting each other". It wasn't until almost at the very end of the song that they eventually popped, and David timed it perfectly with the explosion, exclaiming "Ow, my eye!", and putting a hand over one eye. Then the other popped in quick succession, and he said "Oh no, the other one!", and put his hand completely across his eyes. It was all perfectly synchronized!
Welcome to the Jungle
The encore break only lasts a couple of minutes... and tonight, the encore started with the Moby version of Dead Man Walking, followed by The Last Thing You Should Do, and V-2 Schneider (with Bowie blowing on his big bass saxophone). For a moment, the crowd must have thought they were back in the pre-concert DJ phase, as those heavy drum beats rippled out of the bass speakers.
Jumping back from 1997 jungle to earlier years were "White Light, White Heat", "O Superman" and "Moonage Daydream". Some paper planes mysteriously appeared during "O Superman" (gee, I wonder who threw those :)), and Bowie tonight caught a glimpse of them, and smiled ;) I'm going for bigger and better planes tonight! Helen2 caught a number of pelvic thrusts right in her face during Moonage Daydream ("in out!"), to accompany her earlier toe-tickling.
The roadies gave us a little tease at the end of "Moonage Daydream", by leaving the lights down for longer than usual, engendering hope of perhaps a second encore, but after about 30 seconds, the lights went up, and it was time to go.
P.S. A special mention to Ted from Virgin who managed to arrange for a free GA ticket to ease my pains over my BASS ticket fiasco.