Stardust in the Wind

Iconic singer David Bowie died this past Sunday. By coincidence, a Bowie tribute band was already scheduled to play this Tuesday. So what may or may not have been a low-key affair became a sold-out night of people both anxious and hyper. Tribute band was also a bit misleading as it was headed by bassist Tony Visconti (a producer for Bowie) and drummer Mick Woodmansey (a "Spider from Mars" who played on his early albums). As Visconti later pointed mischieviously, "we're the real deal". They both spoke about David Bowie and urged the audience to celebrate loudly his music.

In the beginning, this was a bit of a hard sell since the band played the album The Man Who Sold The World in its entirety. Only the really hard-core fans enjoyed these obscure cuts. But the mood picked up half way in with the hard Running Gun Blues till the eponymous song. After a few more words, they covered more familiar tunes from the early Bowie catalogue. Finally, the crowd joined in on classics like Five Years, Changes, Ziggy Stardust and Life On Mars. The two song encore ended the night with the earnest Time and the rocking Suffragette City. Lead singer Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17) didn't quite have Bowie's unearthly timbre but he performed admirably. Perhaps showing their age, the harmonized guitar solos got tedious. The songs themselves remained outstanding.