Bowie, Burlesque And Bands! Oh My!!
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 8, 2015 9:30PM
Today is David Bowie's birthday, and while there was sadly no surprise announcement of new music from the man as happened two years ago, there is plenty of reason to celebrate! Bowie is still top of mind for many Chicagoans after a record breaking exhibit based on his personal archive just left the MCA earlier this week. Instead of mourning that loss, we urge you to celebrate the man instead at the Bowie Birthday Bash taking place at Metro tomorrow night.
The evening proves to be an attack on the senses, providing entertainment from a number of artistic disciplines, an exercise in variety we're sure Bowie would approve of. For us the main draw is headliner Sons of The Silent Age, a couple of musical legends specializing in playing Bowie covers. The band is led by Chris Connelly, which is fitting. While he is primarily known for his work in industrial acts like Revolting Cocks, much of the man's early solo work found him being favorably compared to Bowie. In fact this writer depended on Connelly's Whiplash Boychild to get his own Bowie-esque fix in the early '90s when the Thin White Duke was still a bit adrift artistically. Connelly formed Sons Of The Silent Age a couple years ago with drummer extraordinaire Matt Walker and the group plays only occasionally so this is a rare opportunity to catch them in action.
Opening and playing the music of longtime Bowie pal Lou Reed is another supergroup of sorts including actor Michael Shannon joining Robbie Fulks and Jason Narducy. We're looking forward to Shannon's performance being more Bug than Zod, though if you combine the two you do get a pretty close approximation of Reed!
But Bowie is more than just great music; he's about interpretive movement (he was a mime!) and playing up the sensual edges of performance. So Angela Eve and Eve's Parlor Extravaganza is just the troupe to do that. We hesitate to call them burlesque, since Eve's productions strive to break expected boundaries. But we suppose it's that constant reaching in to the upper reaches of space to expand her art that makes Eve the perfect way to kick the evening off. And DJ Heaven Malone—who deserves much credit for his help organizing many of the Bowie events over the past few months, and has been the constant soundtrack through most of them, will be keeping every nook and cranny before, between and after the other acts filled with music connected to Bowie.
The evening is sure to be even better than fantastic; it'll be positively glamtastic.
The Bowie Birthday Bash is Friday, Jan. 9, at Metro, 3730 N Clark, 8 p.m. $17 advance / $21 door, 18+