Erika Lax and David M. of NO FUN, outside the Bowie Ball, by Allan MacInnis
My wife and I had some fun times misunderstanding each other tonight at Bowie Ball X. At one point she said a girl's hair reminded her of Amy Winehouse; I thought she'd said it reminded her of a baby rhino. What? At another point, she asked me what song Mel's Rock Pile was doing, and I observed, "I'm Afraid of Americans," which she misheard as "I'm Afraid of a Parakeet;" later, when she repeated that back to me, laughing -- "I thought you said..." -- I, in turn, heard her say the even funnier, "I'm Afraid of Asparagus." (Because, you know, it makes your pee smell funny).
Mellow, of Mel's Rock Pile, was by far the strongest performer tonight, her band the most potent, especially that song and "Return of the Thin White Duke" (actually called "Station to Station," David Hathaway tells me!). She has a sinewy, muscular intensity and grace to her movements that is very compelling to watch (and a backup band that includes the Hathaway brothers of Roots Roundup; an apology is due to David Hathaway that I could not place him when we chatted!). Sadly, I did not get any photos of Mel onstage, but I got several of her doing Bowie makeup on me (and a couple of her doing makeup on others).
It was my first time getting any makeup done at the Ball. My doing so was about putting as much money into the event as I could. I'd gotten comped in, see -- because I hadn't planned to go, initially; when Erika told me she wanted to, tickets had already sold out. But getting comped into a charity event is kind of bullshit, so I made sure to spend as much money on merch and such as I could: $20 to Mel, $30 to 50/50 tickets, $40 to a Richard Katynski t-shirt. It was nice introducing him to my wife and one of my editors as "the man who made the batshirts" (courtesy of his company Future Ink Traditions, highly recommended if you're wanting shirts made -- that's Rich in the glasses below).
Having been comped in puts me in a compromised position as a reviewer: I don't feel like it would be very good form to be too cranky about things that made Bowie Ball X a little less spectacular than a couple of its past permutations. But I must say that the sound was not great last night; it may have had something to do with being seated in back with Erika, but the bass was almost always way too loud, giving everything a murky cast... though the mix of instruments for the 11-piece Asian Persuasion All-Stars was wonky, too, which had nothing to do with by being in back, because by that point in the evening, I was right up front.
The ska-inflected "Sound and Vision" that Asian Persuasion kicked off with was maybe the hardest song of theirs to enjoy, due to the wonky mix, but they were, however, just under Mel's Rock Pile as one of the evening's finest bands, also doing "TVC 15," "Fame," and "Young Americans," with the last song being one of the evening's highest points, a real delight, with Tony Lee connecting it conceptually to Mel's Rock Pile's reading of "I'm Afraid of Americans" -- since young Americans are maybe the exception to that.
I was glad to be right up front for that song: even if the mix wasn't perfect -- and with eleven people onstage, I can imagine it's a challenge, especially with such tight changeovers -- the band has such charisma, such personality that they're delightful to experience.
Weirdly, one of the other stronger bands was 20 Explosive Hits. I've said some cranky things about them on social media, having watched them on a couple of occasions at the Princeton, when I'd been there to see other bands; their musicianship is great -- especially "that guitarist from Swank," whose name I now forget -- and the covers they do are definitely, shall we say, crowd pleasers, but the crowd they please is not the one I generally choose to run with, if you see what I mean ("Stuck in the Middle With You" should be forever relegated to suburban karaoke and/or any other place I would never go near, but it's nails-on-a-chalkboard irritating at the Princeton, when you just want to see the Bad Beats, next on the bill). I wasn't taking notes as to what songs they did -- it was mostly off Ziggy Stardust, I think, including "Moonage Daydream." But they were up there in terms of quality of performance, as was Cherry Maraschino, the first band of the night, which was some sort of Preston/ Fletcher permutation.
Of course, I enjoyed seeing my friend David, doing a solo NO FUN set, which kicked off with two of Bowie's lesser-known songs, "The Laughing Gnome" and "When I'm Five," followed by one I did not know (David tells me it's "Growing Up and I'm Fine"), then a reading of "Kooks." People wishing to experience these songs and many, many more can catch David doing his full Bowie set at the all-ages Bowie Ball Pit today at LanaLou's, starting at about 5pm.
But there were nay-sayers about David's set. A friend thought it was somehow incorrect of David to choose two songs that Bowie himself had left behind ("The Laughing Gnome," especially, is an obscurity, a pre-fame single that caused Bowie some embarrassment later on, though there's no indication in the Wiki that he repudiated it). Personally I appreciated David's deep-dive into Bowie's back catalogue and find the song delightful -- with M's version being even more enjoyable than Bowie's -- but I like a good novelty tune, and I like learning things I did not know. This certainly counts.
Other people were overheard griping about David's set that it wasn't danceable, however, and there's nothing much I can say to that. The Bowie Ball has become (or maybe always was) as much about audience expressivity and participation as it is about Bowie's music. While I actually thought a couple of the bands were godawful last night -- I'm deliberately not mentioning five of the acts, two of whom I took no issue with, so as not to single out anyone for blame -- both Erika and I missed some of the more talented vets of the Ball who, for one reason or other, were not on the bill last night: there was no Danny Echo, no Daddy Issues, no Beau Wheeler, no Bad Beats, no Vanrays, no Pointed Sticks, no Ford Pier, no Orchard Pinkish, no Cass King.
Note: I am being told I really should give credit to Rat Silo, another strong band, but to do so would make it easier to narrow down the evening's stinkers (one of whom another friend thought was a high point, so like, all this stuff is subjective, anyhow). I'm trying to be politic here, folks! Let's put it this way: I'd go see Rat Silo again!
But even if I thought the performances were not quite to the high watermark set by past Bowie Balls, I delighted in seeing so many people in the audience decked out in their finest, and saved just enough battery to take a couple of snaps of the costume contest, as the evening entered it's final quarter.
Plus, what was it, $16,000 raised towards cancer research last night? Someone from the BC Cancer Agency presented Mo with some sort of plaque for all the money Bowie Balls have generated to this cause -- think they said something about it totaling $85,000 so far, over ten balls?
That's nothing to sneeze at, nor is packing the Rickshaw to see strictly local bands. Be fun to see what the Bowie Ball Pit looks like, later today... the only performer I know for sure will be there is David M.! (will there be any actual five year olds in the audience, I wonder? A kid might respond a bit differently to "When I'm Five" than an adult).
Maybe I'll see some of you there?
(photo by Erika Lax)
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