BowieBall @ Le Poisson Rouge, 12/17/11
BowieBall was back with a bang this year at Le Poisson Rouge, due to overwhelming demand – mostly from Bowie fanatics and the Lower East Side’s androngenous glitterati – many of whom might have otherwise been at home dancing in front of a mirror like Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs. Of course, I felt immediately out of place because I had left my silver space jumpsuit at home and my face wasn’t spritzed with glitter or decorated with a bolt of lightening – but the night of music and performance art did prove to be nothing if not very groovy and entertaining.
An homage to the one and only legend David Bowie on his birthday, the show was hosted with humor and reverence by Deryck Todd and featured various performers covering classic Bowie songs or alternatively doing performance art pieces to remixes of his songs – that is to say, we saw several striptease dances, but please don’t ask me if they were by women or men. It’s a weird position to be in for me when I don’t know if I should take pleasure in seeing bare breasts or marvel at the advance of modern science – but that is something I can talk about with my psychiatrist.
The performers brought different styles and all put unique imprints on the Bowie classics we have come to know and love. For me, the highlight of the show was the tight sound of the house band that had been put together for the event. They were made up of Matt Katz-Bohen on guitar, Jimmy Caputo on bass, Ben Ritter on keyboards and Dave Purcell on drums. They held the show together by not missing a note and would have done The Thin White Duke himself proud.
I was also lucky enough to catch the performance of Rebel Rebel by Andrew Watt- a young rock and roll talent whose style and energy reminds me of a young Roger Daltry. Whenever I hear the old ‘rock is dead line’, I am happy to accidentally stumble onto someone keeping the flame alive.
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