QUICK SPIN: David Bowie
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 1, 2010 9:00PM
In which we take a quick look at a recent musical release.
Recorded during David Bowie's last tour in 2003, A Reality Tour stands both as a document of a master at the height of his power and as a painful reminder Bowie hasn't recorded anything since that time period. the late '90s and early '00s Bowie regained his ability to merge the expirimental with the commercial and crafted a collection of recorded output that was a throw-back to his '70s heyday while exploring new terrain. Some saw it as an artistic rebirth but we say it as proof Bowie had stopped worrying about selling albums and just focused on creating work he was wholly satisfied with.
The results of this were on full display when he took this material out on the Reality tour as his band effortlessly jumped from laying obscure deep cuts from Bowie's catalog, to the hits, the "new" classics off more recent albums including Outside, Earthling, Heathen, and Reality. We saw the Chicago stop on this tour at The Rosemonth Theatre and it still ranks as one of the best live shows we've ever seen. The Reality Tour album captures his performances in Dublin and instead of being a faded snapshot of a moment in time, this collection shines with the brilliance of Bowie's performance and the expert arrangements executed with one of his most exciting backing bands led by Gerry Leonard and including old friends like Mike Garson and Earl Slick alongside relatively new collaborators like Gail Ann Dorsey and Sterling Campbel.
After the jump see how Bowie sexes up the version of "Heroes" from A Reality Tour before allowing the song to grasp at its familiar roots to reach for its familiar heights.