NASHVILLE |DATE: MARCH 31, 2004
FROM: MITCH SCHNEIDER/LATHUM NELSON
DAVID BOWIE TRIUMPHANTLY TOUCHES DOWN
AGAIN IN NORTH AMERICA WITH HIS ‘A REALITY TOUR’;
BOWIE TO APPEAR ON ‘THE TONIGHT SHOW’ AND
‘THE ELLEN DeGENERES SHOW’ IN APRIL;
SET TO HEADLINE AN ARRAY OF SUMMER EUROPEAN FESTIVALS
DAVID BOWIE, coming off a month-long Pacific Rim tour that brought him to sold-out audiences in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Honk Kong, launched the second leg of his North American “A REALITY TOUR” with shows in Philadelphia and Boston earlier this week. BOWIE generated the kind of ecstatic response and rave reviews that have been consistent with all his performances on the tour, which began October 7 in Europe and is ultimately visiting 17 countries.
BOWIE and his band-Sterling Campbell (drums), Gail Ann Dorsey (bass/backing vocals), Mike Garson (keyboards), Gerry Leonard (guitar), Earl Slick (guitar) and Catherine Russell (backing keyboards/backing vocals)-got things underway Monday night (March 29) in Philadelphia, a city that’s been an important part of his career, as both the classic albums Young Americans and David Live were recorded there. As A.D. Amorosi wrote in his Philadelphia Inquirer review (3/31/04) of the sold-out show at the Wachovia Center:
"…the voice was his most handsome asset. It leaped effortlessly between a piercing alto (the glam crunch of ‘Rebel Rebel’), a low monotone (the Pixies' ‘Cactus’), and a baritone croon. With effortless grace, he employed that croon to sing of impending apocalypses, in the funereal medley of ‘Sunday’ and ‘Heathen.’ He also used it on metronomic love songs (‘New Killer Star’) and strummed Nietzschean laments (‘Quicksand’). It soared while he knelt before his longtime Philadelphia fans during the glitter theme ‘All the Young Dudes’ and hummed through the jungle metal of ‘I'm Afraid of Americans.’
“While the taut pulse of bassist Gail Ann Dorsey and the grandiloquent piano of Mike Garson brought nuance to creepy melodies (‘The Man Who Sold the World’), guitarists Earl Slick and Gerry Leonard created a palette that was primal and noisy, yet clean. Their razor leads and trashy rhythms provided Bowie with the best guitar sound he has had in his career."
Next, the BOWIE tour moved to Boston’s Fleet Center where 11,000 fans experienced another classic two hours-plus show, that merged material from his critically acclaimed REALITY album with pivotal songs spanning his body of work. Glowing reviews appeared today in both the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald.
"…last night's 2 1/4-hour dash through the 57-year-old musician's catalogue testified to Bowie's rare and influential feel for the fine art of invention…his enduring appeal. Bowie played to a multigenerational sea of original fans, members of the glam and goth nations, all-purpose art-school types, and tow-headed youngsters deep into their classic rock indoctrinations…’New Killer Star’ and ‘The Loneliest Guy,’ both from the new disc, marked two of the night's most mesmerizing, deeply musical moments…Backed by a crack six-piece band, Bowie was loose, suave, a bit salty, and incredibly amiable
–Joan Anderman, BOSTON GLOBE, 3/31/04
“Bowie and his super-hot sextet backed up his always stunning visual cool with a dynamic two-hour, 15-minute set…He swiveled his slim hips to the speedy groove of ’Hang On To Yourself,’ solemnly praised the healing power of music in post-9/11 elegy ‘New Killer Star,’ amiably encouraged a sing-along to ’All the Young Dudes’ and bit into the lyrics of ‘Fame’ with a grin, jerking to the chunky backbeat supplied by Sterling Campbell.
“Campbell, like most of Bowie's current band, is a veteran of several tours now, and the second-nature nuances of players who know each other well came out in the performance. Whether it was keyboardist Mike Garson's starkly beautiful accompaniment on the gorgeously sad piano ballad ‘The Loneliest Guy’ or the interplay between guitarist Earl Slick and Jerry Leonard and Campbell on the chaotic rhythms of ‘Hallo, Spaceboy,’ they were a tight unit.
“’Quicksand’ swirling into majestic harmonies, the off-kilter, haunted-house keyboards of ‘Ashes to Ashes’ marrying R&B with spook, the cathartic technofunk of ‘I'm Afraid of Americans’ ratcheting up the dance quotient and ‘Heroes’ uniting the audience.”
–Sarah Rodman, BOSTON HERALD, 3/31/04
BOWIE’s North American swing will include an April 22 show at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, where he sold out four celebrity-studded shows earlier this year (a pair each at the Shrine and Wiltern). While in Los Angeles, BOWIE will appear on “The Tonight Show” Wednesday, April 21, performing “Never Get Old,” a key REALITY track. He’ll also tape “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” airing the week of April 26.
The North American dates will culminate with two New York-area shows–June 4 (Jones Beach) and June 5 (Holmdel, NJ)-before BOWIE heads overseas to headline an array of summer European festivals. "It's the highlight of summer touring for me," BOWIE related to Jon Pareles in a New York Times Sunday story (3/14/04) about the sprawling European summer festivals. “The atmosphere is always highly charged and exciting, the outdoors venues in Europe extremely beautiful, the weather unnervingly good."
For more information and tour dates, visit www.davidbowie.com <http://www.davidbowie.com>.
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