Settling in: David Bowie at 57 being just himself

Photos by Jonathan Castner/For the Camera

David Bowie played to a sold out crowd at the Fillmore in Denver on Monday.

By Matt Sebastian, Camera Music Writer
January 20, 2004

DENVER — It has taken a few decades — and more than a few sonic detours and dead-ends — but 57-year-old David Bowie finally seems to have settled into his own skin.

On Monday night at the Fillmore Auditorium, Bowie took the stage as himself, both literally and figuratively: there were no appearances by Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, the Thin White Duke or any other of the rocker's mythical musical disguises.

And after years of genre-hopping, Bowie's all but abandoned his dalliances with drum 'n' bass, new wave, blue-eyed soul and industrial sounds. The once shiftless rocker has, over the course of his last couple of records, honed in on a mature, art-rock sound that can be every bit as captivating as anything he's done.

Playing to a sold-out and visibly ecstatic crowd, Bowie — in phenomenal voice and backed by a crack band — offered a flawless, career-spanning evening of contrasts.

Refusing to cop out and deliver a straight greatest-hits set, Bowie looked both forward and back, not only treating fans to the expected classics (including a generous heaping of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars), but also focusing much of his two-hour show on newer, less familiar work from Reality, Heathen and even 1995's oft-maligned Brian Eno collaboration Outside.

After an understated reading of one such obscurity, Lodger's "Fantastic Voyage," a lighthearted Bowie even warned his fans as much: "We'll get to a lot more songs you know, I guess, later in the show."

Bowie later addressed this concept of duality at the end of his main set, noting that "every story has two sides" before segueing from Earthling's presciently creepy "I'm Afraid of Americans" into "Heroes," which has become his post-Sept. 11, 2001, anthem.

For the most part, though, the mood wasn't political but, rather, celebratory. An icon, Bowie and his band — featuring longtime sidemen Earl Slick and Mike Garson — treated classic tunes like "Panic in Detroit," "Rebel Rebel," "Fame" and "Changes" with a reverence that didn't prevent the songs from being deconstructed on stage.

And perhaps no single moment was as moving as the band's crack at "Under Pressure," with bassist Gail Ann Dorsey singing the late Freddie Mercury's vocals.

After years of playing in musical drag, it's refreshing to see Bowie take the stage as a confident, mature performer who clearly is having the time of his life. It just makes you wonder: What's next for rock's greatest chameleon?

The night began with a fun, slightly loopy set from frog-voiced R&B star Macy Gray, who, despite rambling on with seemingly little focus, managed to keep the crowd swaying with her feel-good anthems and kitchsy pop-culture references.

Contact Matt Sebastian at (303) 473-1498 or sebastianm@dailycamera.com.