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Milwaukee Journal - 14 October 1974 |
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Bowie Fans Imitate
Their Hero Campy English rock star David Bowie made his Milwaukee debut
to a sellout crowd of 12,000 at the Arena Sunday, and all the local
glitter-kinder were out and on display – scores of unisex figures in makeup
and costume paraded about in frantic imitation of their painted hero. Bowie, having discarded the elaborate Broadway style stage
show of the early part of his tour, acted out one more fantasy by fronting a
nearly all-black band and chorus in his ‘40s jive white hipster’s zoot suit,
hennaed hair and hysterical manner. Milwaukee’s hard core Bowieites, mostly bourgeois boppers
in their own idea of daring drag, unwittingly affected a New York style of
chic decadence that’s already passé in the East. Their rouged roué of a pied
piper must find all the unisex war paint in the provinces rather amusing. Indeed, the sight of a young moll with hair dyed to match
her skunk fur outfit or a purse-wearing dandy tapping his umbrella in time to
the music was straight out of Zap comic books. |
A nonsinger of the Lou Reed school, kewpie doll Bowie
worked through soul versions of “Rebel Rebel,” “Changes,” “Diamond Dogs” and
the rest unhampered by a distorted sound system – for the focus of the
Britisher’s show is on his mincing mimery rather than vocal ability, anyway,
Bowie, live, proved to be a terrible musician, but an incredibly good
impostor. Pulling out a raunchy harmonica on “Jean Genie,” Bowie
began to succumb to hoarseness, and on a slow soul ballad, revealed how
lightweight his parody-impersonation of a soul singer really was. Then it was
into some well done rockers like “Suffragette City” and “Rock and Roll
Suicide,” and the circus was over. This was David Bowie’s first and probably last appearance
in Milwaukee, part of a final American tour that will climax Bowie’s rock
career and finance a fling at movie stardom. Judging by the desperate way his
fans were trying to touch their lipsticked hero by the end of his show, he
should make it. STEPHEN WIEST |
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