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Celebrating David Bowie - The Olympia, 15th Jan

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  • 16-01-2018 6:21pm
    #1
    johnnykilo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,158 ✭✭✭


    Just wondering did any of you head along to this last night? What did you think?

    For me it was an amazing line-up of musicians but due to a combination of being a Monday in January and being broke from Christmas I didn't go.

    There was f-all promotion done for this too which was kind of strange, only heard about it by chance a few weeks ago. In the last couple of weeks there was some mention on Nova and a few posters around but a really poor promotion in general.


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    #2
    Wooderson
    Registered Users Posts: 1,898 ✭✭✭Wooderson


    Sting’s kid ruined it.


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    #3
    Rothko
    Registered Users Posts: 12,846 ✭✭✭✭Rothko


    Definitely not much promotion since this is the first I've heard of it.


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    #4
    innuendo141
    Registered Users Posts: 1,039 ✭✭✭innuendo141


    I was supposed to go on Monday, but work stuff came up. I was in London for the gig on Friday and it was great. Not so much because the performers were spectacular (vocals wise) but because the crowd around us were so so up for it, that there may as well have been no singers. Garson is an absolute demon on the keys.


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    #5
    johnnykilo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,158 ✭✭✭johnnykilo


    Wooderson wrote: »
    Sting’s kid ruined it.

    Oh yeah, that's who that was. Thought the name on the poster sounded familiar alright. Care to elaborate?


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    #6
    poundhound
    Registered Users Posts: 1,064 ✭✭✭poundhound


    I was there and thought it was incredible. Ive seen Bowie numerous times over the years and as a result have never been interested in seeing tribute acts.
    However this wasnt a tribute act.
    The attraction for me was the inclusion of Bowies former band mates.
    Carmine Rojas on bass (with Bowie 1983-1987)
    Gerry Leaonard on guitar (with Bowie 2001 - 2004 and 2012)
    Adrian Belew on guitar (with Bowie 1978-1979 and 1990)
    and the legendary Mike Garson on piano (played on over 20 Bowie albums and according to him has played over 1000 gigs with Bowie).
    I had no idea who some of the "world class" session musicians were, or indeed singer Paul Dempsey. Joe Sumner and Angelo Moore (Fishbone) also shared the vocals and did a decent job. Ultimately the band rocked.
    The setlist was fantastic and the show flowed flawlessly for 2.5 hours.
    Garsons solo on "Aladdin Sane" and Belews guitar solo on "Boys Keep Swinging" were highlights.
    While I thought Christy Dignam did well on "Five Years", I was disappointed that Imelda May, Glen Hansard, Sinead O'Connor and Bono decided to pay tribute to Shane McGowan on his 60th Birthday in the NCH on the same night, rather than join in the celebration of all things Bowie.
    However I really enjoyed it.


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    #7
    Juanner
    Registered Users Posts: 22 ✭Juanner


    I really enjoyed it. Thought it was great to see some of Bowie's guys in action and the three main singers did a decent job. Angelo Moore was fantastic - he brought a lot of energy to proceedings while the other two - Joe Sumner and Paul Dempsey, while less attention grabbing, were good. At times I thought Sumner seemed a little out of sync with the band but his 'Little Wonder' won me over in the end. Dempsey, looking more like he belonged in a Bryan Ferry tribute band, wasn't particularly showy but handled the likes of Let's Dance and Golden Years well. I was surprised to see Adrian Belew smiling and singing as much as he did. For some reason I thought he'd just be playing so that was good.

    Christy Dignam did an excellent 'Five Years' too. I don't know much of Aslan's music but he certainly seized his moment. Pete Holidai was less memorable - although it's hard to muck up All The Young Dudes and the crowd did most of the heavy lifting anyway!

    It might just be me but with 3 main vocalists, those 2 local guests and vocal contributions from Belew, Gerry Leonard and Angelo Bundini as well, it might have been more interesting to have a female singer in the mix instead of one of the 3 main vocalists. Would have been interesting to hear a female take on some of the material.

    I could've done without Mike Garson's 'improvised' song at the start of the encore. And the encore themselves were a little flat after all that came before it. But the Heroes finale was a rousing way to end the night.

    It had a decent sized crowd considering how poorly it was promoted and the Mondayness of the whole thing was evident. Took a while for the crowd to find its voice. If it was on a Friday night it would've been spectacular.

    But overall it was a very good presentation of Bowie's material. What struck me afterwards was, after 2 and a half hours, there was still so many very well-known Bowie songs that they'd skipped. He really does (did) have a very deep catalogue of hits.

    If they came back I'd go again.


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