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ART_DECADE
August 2, 2007
The only time I ever saw
David Bowie perform live At the time, I thought of
was during the "Low" this as being relatively
album tour, in 1977. late in his career, though
in retrospect it looks
This was at Madison comfortably in the
Square Garden middle... From one point
(I hadn't yet given of view, it was his peak.
up on "arena rock");
our seats were Klee's take
directly stage-right, on "Low": That's the
halfway up the side. KZSU DJ, not
"Bowie's only the painter.
This compromise had it's good album".
virtues: relatively close
to the stage (vs. the far (Being a music snob
side of the oval), and a is an art of it's own.)
relatively decent view over
the heads of the crowd.
I realized somewhat later A possible "drawback"
from looking at photos of is that we were up
this tour, that it was out of the surging
designed to be viewed from chaos on the floor,
the front: they were which is what many
performing in front of a people really go for.
wall of flourescent
lights, horizontal bands But I'd already had
of light that they could that experience with
strobe at will. my "first concert":
Of course, it could be that HOT_SUFFOLK_FORUM
this idea sounds a lot better
than it actually was, and
we were happier looking at
those flourescents from the
side.
I was talking about this
show later with an older,
more experienced girl (all of
20 years old), and her first
question was "What was he
wearing?!"
It seemed like an odd
question -- which shows
you how much I knew about
Bowie at the time...
Anyway, he was wearing
some sort of big floppy
suit (bigger than a zoot
suit, I think) -- and
midway through the show
show he did a costume
change into an identical In retrospect: this was
suit of a different color. a compromise between
Neither color was very what he wanted to do
bright: light gray and and his reputation for
dark gray, perhaps. extreme fashion.
He had to do something
weird, so he did the
most unobtrusive,
unremarkable weird
thing possible.
They did a
creditable Probably an example or the
version of rule of reversals: he'd just
"Suffragette This was a done tight-fitting, tapered
City"... big party suits in the "Thin White Duke"
hit: phase, and to avoid being
Halfway through accused of repeating himself,
the song, Bowie Throughout he went with large, floppy
stopped singing the 70s it suits.
the "Hey Man" was not
refrain, holding possible to RULE_OF_REVERSALS
his mic out to go to a
the audience, college-
letting them take level "blow-
it. out" without
hearing
Then, the band "Suffragette
slid from this City". Bigger even than
upbeat and "Louie Louie"...
energetic
popular number I don't believe
into the slow, I ever heard it
atmospheric on the radio,
track "Art even once. Bowie's radio hits
Decade" off of have always been
the new album strangely
"Low"... un-representative--
with the exception
of "Jean Jeanie".
The colored
spotlights -- E.g. "Golden Years"...
a ubiquitous
feature of E.g. "Fame", which
70s arena made it on the strength
rock -- of the John Lennon
began to connection.
gradually
drift around Or the execrable
the stage, "Absolute Beginners",
from band which was pushed
member to as part of a movie
band member. tie-in, and probably
sank the movie.
The lights
gradually Actually, the
wandered farther, early 80s
until they were "Major Tom"
sweeping around song (the
the audience, sequel to
scanning the "Space Oddity")
floor, and then wasn't bad at
the tiers of all, and
seats up to the reflected what
tremendously high Bowie was doing
ceilings. around then
well enough.
Then brought up
the houselights -- And "Sound
and Vision"
And that did it, (off of
that pulled off "Low") got
The Trick: some play as
well.
We went from a
crowd focused on a
stage and became
something else; a
group fused into one MEASURE_OF_MAN
thing, thousands of
us aware of ourselves
as a single entity. HOLY_COATS_OF_BLACK
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