TALENTED CHILD
I LIKE YOUR FACE IN THE CROWD

Remembering My First Bowie Show


Everybody remembers important firsts - first date, first kiss, first home, first love. Well February 5th 2004 was an important first in my life. It was my first Bowie concert. Such an event is no small enchilada for a fan who has been tracking this rocker's career for some nine years. Two weeks before the show, I started having trouble sleeping - I was so excited!

My fanship and dedication have never been a question. Needless to say I was going to try as hard as I could to use this concert to my full advantage. Armed with a load of Bowie Fan Site (BFS) fliers, a huge red poster, and Speed of Life: EVENT COVERAGE lanyards a trio including myself hit the streets towards Dodge Theater.

After finding our seats my good friend Kerri and I returned to the foyer to mingle and pass out fliers (and look for stage doors!). Somewhere between meeting fellow BWWers and Labyrinth freaks it hit us: we were in the same building as Bowie was! When the hunt for "Staff Only" doors came up fruitless we decided that after the show we would return to where we saw the tour buses and wait patiently.

We returned to the auditorium in time to hear a few of Macy Gray's songs. The woman has got soul and funk, but I could do without her lyrics and big hair. Durring intermission I caught up with two grand Bowie-impersonarters: Ronnie and Marc. We chatted and they agreed to meet us after the show for a photo shot to add to SofL.

As soon as the auditorium darkened and the sounds of the harmonica sweetly playing "Heroes" filled the air, my friend and I leaped up out of our chairs and stayed standing for the rest of the night. We were in for the best night of our life:


01 Rebel Rebel
02 New Killer Star
03 Looking For Water
04 Fame
05 Cactus
06 All The Young Dudes (with audience participation)
07 Reality
08 China Girl (with audience singing first part of song!)
09 A New Career In A New Town
10 The Loneliest Guy
11 The Man Who Sold The World
12 Hallo Spaceboy
13 Sunday
14 Under Pressure
15 Life On Mars?
16 Be My Wife
17 Days
18 Ashes To Ashes
19 I'm Afraid Of Americans
20 "Heroes"
(Encore):
21 Hang On To Yourself
22 Five Years
23 Suffragette City
24 Ziggy Stardust


After the show we were left stunned and amazed. It had been an all most two hour set and we felt like we could have gone on for many more hours (despite Bowie's voice beginning to sound tired). There had been jokes made:

"All right you're famous now! What? Oh it hasn't been fifteen minutes yet? You want your fifteen minutes of fame?"

"I remember one of the first times I came over to America back in the 70s for a tour, and I heard a song, one of mine on the radio. It was kind of like: 'AAAHHHH!!!!!' I wanted to roll down the window, krank it up, and be like 'That's me! I did that!'"

Antics were peformed, not the least of which Bowie dancing with a rose in his mouth. Or pointing out people who weren't dancing and making them feel guilty. It just didn't seem like the night should be over yet, and to our grand delight it wasn't. We headed out for the tour buses.

Dedicated fans can and often do crazy things. We found the stage door and security (bless their hearts!) told us that if we wanted to see Bowie we would need to go to the other side of the barricade and wait. A goth couple stood debating with us. We plunged through the chill to the other side of the barricade. A hand full of about twenty fans stood shivering in the cold. We joined them, found pens for everyone to share in case of autographs, readied our few precious camera shots that were left, and positioned ourselves.

After watching a pizza get delivered, getting smiled and waved at by Mike, ignored by Kat and Gail, we were ready for Bowie. At 11:35pm, he came out. We yelled with all our might "David! Come on over here! David! Sign for a minute! Over here!" Cameras clicked, feet shuffled, and voices shouted louder. He dodged a security guard and smiled huge and gave us a huge one arm wave. For a split second he was in the open and then security urged him into the tour bus. That was as close as I've ever come.


Talented Child
February 2006.