David Bowie
(ISO-Columbia/Legacy)
When it comes to the art of live performance, it doesn't much better than David Bowie. His concert albums, namely 1978's Stage, the mind-blowing 1983 soundboard boot Serious Moonlight from the Let's Dance tour featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar and the recently re-released Santa Monica '72 (not to mention the legendary soundboard of the Thin White Duke show at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island from 1976, which will be made officially available as the second disc of EMI's forthcoming deluxe edition of Station to Station later this year), are all absolute must-haves for any fan of Bowie's indelible onstage persona and killer backing bands.
And if you are of the elite appreciation group of Bowie's late period material, you will definitely want to include A Reality Tour into the aforementioned fray. Culled from an excellent mobile studio recording captured during the Thanksgiving week stop at the Point in Dublin, Ireland, during the tour behind Bowie's great 2003 album Reality, those in search of an essential overview of the Duke's four-decade career need look no further. It does tend to favor material on both Reality and his equally essential 2002 title Heathen, perhaps a little too heavily for some people's tastes (both albums take up 11 of the 33 tracks here). But fans of those records will enjoy some electrifying versions of such new Bowie classics as the Reality epic "Bring Me the Disco King" and the surprisingly top-notch cover of the Pixies' "Cactus" from Heathen, not to mention quality live renditions of such great tunes as "Sunday", "Heathen [The Rays]", "New Killer Star" and "Never Get Old". The minor cult of those who swear by Outside, Bowie's industrial-minded 1995 reunion album with one-time key collaborator Brian Eno will certainly appreciate the inclusion of two of its key tracks, "Hallo Spaceboy" and "The Motel", in the mix here as well, in addition to his unsung pair-up with Trent Reznor "I'm Afraid of Americans", which appears on his misunderstood 1997 dance album Earthling.
However, the rest of this jam-packed 2-disc set is loaded with nothing but vintage Bowie nugget after vintage Bowie nugget. Everyone from the casual fan to the astute Ziggy scholar will find great joy in this set list, which takes the scenic route through the man's storied career to feature both smash hits like "Changes", "'Heroes'", "Fame" and "Ziggy Stardust" and deep album favorites like "Five Years" from the Ziggy LP, "Be My Wife" and "Breaking Glass" from his 1977 Berlin masterpiece Low and "Fantastic Voyage" from 1979's Lodger, not to mention his first MTV hit, Scary Monsters' "Ashes to Ashes". You also get to hear Bowie the songwriter give his own spin to songs he penned for his pal Iggy Pop, namely "Sister Midnight" from Pop's 1977 solo debut The Idiot (which Bowie recorded as "Red Money" for Lodger) as well as that album's "China Girl", which Bowie turned into a major hit in 1983. Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes" was also played, and it really always did sound much better as a strictly David Bowie song. He even does "Under Pressure", with his longtime bassist Gail Dorsey singing the Freddie Mercury parts (and quite excellently, mind you).
The CD version of A Reality Tour (the DVD of this show at the Point was released in 2004) also contains three bonus tracks not featured on the film, "Breaking Glass" and "China Girl" along with a version of "Fall Dog Bombs The Moon" from the Reality album. This is definitely some of the best live Bowie out there, and well worth a revisit in the CD format.
Standout Tracks: "Fame", "Cactus", "Be My Wife", "Under Pressure", "Ashes to Ashes" RON HART
