Let's Dance

Friday night was the first Dwayne Gretzky residency at The Horseshoe Tavern. This cover band supergroup has been playing Fridays in February for the past couple of years. As they have grown in popularity, you have to make a bigger effort to get in. But it was a bit mad tonight. I got there 15 min before door and the line was 200 deep. When doors open at 9 pm, there were probably another 200 behind me.Things were looking dodgy for a while as they started to hold up the line for people on the guest list but I finally got in around 9:45.

Why the hoopla? Each Gretzky residency show comprised of a special "theme" set and their usual smorgasbord set. Tonight, it was their tribute to David Bowie. First up though was opener Midday Swim. It may have been their biggest crowd but they had a good pop sound including We Got The Feeling and She Has Time that went over well.

The members of Dwayne Gretzky came out all glammed up with glitter, make-up, and snazzy duds in tribute to the circa Stardust era. The audience roared with their first song: Space Oddity. From there, it was a huge set of Bowie classics, probably close to 20 songs. In many ways, it was better tribute than Holy Holy's a few weeks ago. For one thing, rock'n'roll is a "young man's game" and Dwayne Gretzky has never phoned in a performance. But mostly it was the variety of Bowie songs they played.

Like Holy Holy, they did plenty of old classics including Life on Mars, Ziggy Stardust, Changes, and Suffragette City. But by not limiting themselves to early Bowie, they also did great covers of Fame, Heroes, Modern Love and China Girl. The breadth of songs allowed every member (even those who normally just played bass or drums) plus several guest singers to have a go. The set ended with a vigorous sing-a-long to Young American. I was debating my decision in that long line but it was worth the wait.