FAN CONCERT REPORTS
Canada, Ottawa, Kanata
Corel Centre
WordPerfect Theatre
(Friday 2nd April 2004)
Report: Ottawa
From: The Gouster
Great night, great show. I agree it was much better than Montreal in December. Everybody was in to it. A braver set than I had previously thought, it wasn't all crowd pleasers. He said that for every song the crowd didn't know, he'd play one that they would. He was rambling at one point about taking a ride through strange territory, nervous until you recognized a street, and then a house. Then he said you'll recognize this house, and they played 'Ashes To Ashes', with that little bit of interpretive dancing.
There was also a comical interlude about the set, he said that the designer had suggested a forest motif, lots of trees. Replete with many F words, he pointed at those branches hanging upside down at the back of the stage. He joked that there used to be 20 branches either side, being on the road so long had taken it's toll! He told us that Gerry was a Micropaleontologist at Trinity College, Dublin; threw it all away to go on the road with the man. Not to be pedantic about the Stylophone bit, after saying that it was the British challenge to Moog's synthesizer, he played a snippet of 'Space Oddity', and in full tease mode, the first line of 'Golden Years'. He also had a little dig at radio, saying that he'd gone apeshit when he first heard 'The Man Who Sold The World' on an early visit to North America; he joked that he still goes ape when he hears anything on the radio now. Winding down the car windows, and yelling "hey that's me on the radio!" A brilliant night, the Ziggy tunes rocked, his voice was great, the band were all together.... simply unforgettable.
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Report: Ottawa
From: Annon
What a show! It was definitely the best show I've ever seen (I've seen him in Montreal in December and Area2 in Toronto).
I personally found it stunning. Bowie was full of energy, the band was playing awesome, and the atmosphere was great. The re-addition of The Motel was a great surprise, and I loved the setlist. An all-round brilliant return to Ottawa.
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Report: Ottawa Review
From: Robert
A long and tremendous evening, zillion times better that the Montreal December concert (but of course he hadn't had flu before the show this time, and his voice was at excellent state tonight!). 3 hours of Bowie in splendid form.
The Band was really in the mood, I think they had a really good unity.
If you look carefully, it's exactly the same setlist as in Toronto plus 6 songs (The Motel, A New Career In A New Town, Be My Wife, I've Been Waiting For You, Blue Jean and Changes).
The crowd was really enthusiast, I feared the worst during the Polyphonic Spree in term of crowd reaction, being used to the extraordinary mood of the Montreal Crowd (Joie de vivre, you don't get that in Toronto! lol!), but I was happily surprised, the people cheered Bowie the moment he hit the stage til the end of the 3 hours.
Now why longer? I guess, as mentioned before on this site, the setlists are already written before the show, they probably reflect Bowie level of energy of the day. Of course, it could be shorten if things go rough, but honestly, besides the encore where they (Bowie and band) have time to chit-chat offstage and give technical advice to stage crew (sounds, light, video) etc, I think the core of the show is always written before. Maybe we got Blue Jean and Changes more than you did ion To because of the crowd, a big MAYBE, but the other 30 songs were supposed to be there anyway.
Beside, infos about the yesterday show: Obviously, Mister B is enjoying himself on the stage, and as usual, he chatted a lot with the crowd, joking about doing a 6 hour show, Gerry Leonard being a university teacher who had to quit the job for the tour (he was joking), laughing about rockers who yelled in the microphone, saying also that the Polyphonic Spree (they were 25 on stage, but really enthusiastic and the music was kind of good. Actually, more the performance than the music got my attention) were in the crowd and were going to distribute free lemonade to everybody, but warn us not to drink it (The Polyphonic Spree were all dressed in a white robe, and looked like a the California Jim Jones Moon sect, who all died in a ranch drinking a poisonous lemonade in the late seventies).
By the way, if you look carefully at yesterday's set, 50% of the show is comprised of 5 Ziggy songs, 5 Heathen songs and 5 Reality songs.
Last word, Bowie seem so energetic on stage, even the songs I usually find blame on the album (like Looking For Water, Never Get old or Hallo Spaceboy) were fantastic on stage.
As he sang the last lines of Ziggy Stardust, I thought 'Ok, this was the last concert I will have seen of my life' because I can't believe he'll go on a big tour like this again passed the age of 60. But sure the future albums will still be thrilling!
(A Reality World Tour: North American Leg)