I'm speechless. Of course, I must not really be if I'm writing now, so I'll get on with it. . .
The concerts started Tuesday. I got there at one in the afternoon, for the first show, with fellow Teenage Wildlifer Fernando, who lives near by my apartment. There were about five people there already who had been following The Man around on tour and knew each other. I remember TWers Robert and Cathy (Robot Monster). We hung around and talked about Bowie, Morrissey, The Smiths, Red House Painters, Stereolab, collectibles, etc. Fans slowly started trickling in. There were only a handful when the tour bus arrived with the band. Me, Robert and another fan hung around and saw the band get off. The security guard shooed us back and each musician stepped down, turned their back and went in. We sat back in our places in the line and listened to the sound check, Bowie got in there when we weren't looking. I heard he got off a van, later on. They did six songs. A nice preview of what was to come at night.
By about 6:45 p.m. anxiety began setting in. I was worried about being put in line for people on the guest list because I was afraid I'd be let in later. TWer Kelley was there to take pictures. She was worried because photographers would be let in last. I actually got in pretty quickly and signed for the photo pass and gave it to Kelley, who had to wait for the tour manager. Some fellow fans saved me a spot right up from, and I got to lean right against the barricade, in front of Gail's spot. After listening for over an hour of trendy dance music, the lights went low and Bowie sauntered out of the shadows with an acoustic guitar. He said hello and started playing "Quicksand."
Highlights, for me, included "Waiting For The Man," a personal favorite and Bowie does it so well in his new up-dated fashion, his new Earthling stuff was great live, "Hallo Spaceboy" will always be a classic for me, and I was totally surprised by "O Superman," the Laurie Anderson cover! Incredible! Bowie took a back seat while Gail sung lead. He backed her up on the chorus and shimmied and twisted through a drum & bass musical interlude. The huge horn refrain and fade-out was done through monstrous, fat notes on Gail's keyboard. She gave a comical smile as the foreboding notes just came rumbling out. During the second refrain Bowie strapped on his huge baritone sax, and boom! Wow! It was a more up-beat version than Laurie's, so I thought it would be shorter than her original of 8:00+ minutes, but it actually seemed longer. At first, I was very suspicious about what it was going to be like because I've always loved that song, but it was probably the highlight of the evening.
Some cool asides were Bowie showing off his sandals at the beginning of the show (I have a blurry picture of that). The giant eyeball balloon, in "Little Wonder." Bowie put it against his crotch and started bouncing it while wearing this devilish smile. He tossed it out into the audience and it lasted just a few seconds. Bowie covered his left eye and started screaming, "My eye! You animals!" He was lots of fun on stage, posing to "Fashion" and just being a goof. But he didn't really seem to genuinely connect with the crowd. He was still an arena performer gesturing to the audience rather than looking at individuals, though Gabrels looked at me bopping my head and sticking out my tongue and gave me a smile. At the end of the show I got one of his picks. It seems to be made of gray graphite and says "Reeves Gabrels" in capital, block white letters on one side and "The Sacred Squall" on the other.
We waited by the tour bus at the end of the show, but the band just got on and left.
It wasn't until the next night that the real magic happened! I got there a little later, this time, about 3:30 p.m. I met some more fans. RaMOANa [Corra] was there this time with Aman [her husband, David]. She was a riot. Calling herself a cyber slut for Bowie and then throwing underwear on the stage during "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" and a small, stuffed pig during "Seven Years In Tibet." It seems RaMOANa's throwing arm was a bit weak that night (Bowie should have changed the lyric to "why are these pigs sliding across the floor?"). Tia also showed up. A 19-year old, and her first Bowie concert. It was a cool mix of crowds, at both shows, except for the drunk on the first night (Bowie waved "by, bye, luv" to him during "Hallo Spaceboy" when security dragged him away after he tried to take a swing at a security guard), and a couple of teeny boppers who wanted to see a rock star and didn't care about pushing a 12-year old girl out of the way, so they could read out to Bowie (save that shit for Hanson or Marilyn Manson).
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. The tour bus arrived at a different spot, this time. We were only about four people, but, when the band started getting off, more fans started coming. I stood right in front of the bus with camera ready, and wouldn't you know it? Bowie stepped off! My first shot was steady and pretty decent. People started crowding, and I stepped closer. He was signing everything. I was holding a record (Aladdin Sane) for Kelley, so I passed it to someone who was closer, who offered to pass it to him for me, so he signed that. I got about five good shots (as you'll see), but I didn't get anything autographed. People were trying to sum up what Bowie meant to them in 10 words or less: ("You're the man!," etc.) or making requests ("Do 'Changes' tonight." etc.). I just kept my mouth shut. I'll save that when I get the interview.
He finally took the opportunity to slip away and everyone went running back in line to show off their prizes. We were like a bunch of silly kids, still trembling after the experience. It was great! I just got off at giving Kelley here signed record. She was real happy and gave me her duplicate pics of the first roll of film she snapped off last night (some killer shots in there, as you'll see).
From Outside, we could hear them doing sound check, including a country and western version of "Scary Monsters"! When we were let in, I got the same spot as the night before. The show started 15 minutes early, and Bowie said hello and asked if we were in a hurry. "Do you want a short set or a long set?" he asked. You know what the crowd said, and Bowie just laughed. He said, "Good, 'cause we feel like being here for a long time, so call your mothers and tell them you'll be late."
Throughout the show he said things like, "The longest show we've played was two hours and forty minutes. We're going to try and beat that record tonight." During the breaks he said, "This is only a bathroom break, we'll be right back."
He did three sets that night! It lasted three and a half hours!! During the end he kept waving off someone backstage who seemed to want to hurry him up, but he just kept doing song after song after song. It was . . . delectable. There was an instrumental bit with his new versions of "V-2 Schneider," "Pallas Athena," and "Is It Any Wonder," which featured an endearingly amateurish alto sax bit.
He was certainly having the time of his life, being very chatting, telling his story about taking the infamous Jimmy Page riff for "The Supermen" and then reusing it for "Dead Man Walking." He played both, the latter was an acoustic version. When he did the eyeball balloon this time, he humped it so hard it almost knocked him back, then, when he threw it out into the crowd it immediately burst on a light, overhead. "I'm such an animal!" he said, while the the scittering, elastic drum & bass solo went on. Then he pulled out another eyeball balloon and threw it out. Still, it didn't last much longer, bursting in a few seconds.
He introduced "Seven Years In Tibet" by saying, "This is 'Seven Year In Tibet' now a major motion picture called 'Seven Years With Brad Pitt.'" He also made a joke of this spray he uses to soothe his throat during performances, hinting that it was some kind of pharmaceutical by the Chemical Brothers, which included some ingredient with the initial E. He sprayed it and laughed a bit mischievously then said something like, "Oh, what the hell," and unscrewed the top off and drank it down-- a sort of hint of what the audience was in store for.
With "I'm Deranged" at sound check, Bowie did every single song he is currently doing on this tour, in one night! A nice bonus was that country & western "Scary Monsters," though we didn't see it actually performed that night.
This was a truly unprecedented event as far as Bowie concerts go. During the "All The Young Dudes" finale Bowie was practically dragging his tongue on stage and then spoke, in his high pitched, exhausted and grateful voice, saying, "Thank you" and "We went well over the three hour mark" and "We're never going to do anything like this again."
Wow. This was sure worth his skipping Florida for two world tours, over the past seven years. It was just amazing.