Review - A Bowie Celebration at Bimbo's (3/8/20)

Mike Garson of A Bowie Celebration @ Bimbo's 365 (Photo: Kevin Keating)

San Francisco is often jam packed, and arguably one of the more difficult places to find parking. And Bimbo's 365 is in an especially problematic end of town for us car driving folk. I've missed entire opening bands before, while driving endlessly thru the streets of San Francisco, looking for a place to park for a show at Bimbo's. But this past Sunday night, I found a cherry spot mere feet from the venue. Sure we could chalk that up to it being a Sunday night, or the Coronavirus madness going around – but I'm choosing to attribute it to David Bowie Magic™. That same Bowie magic that's carried by Mike Garson and the Bowie Celebration tour currently traveling across the US, keeping the memory and songs (and magic!) of David Bowie alive.

Like the previous tours, A Bowie Celebration is spearheaded by Mike Garson, Bowie's long time piano player who we were fortunate enough to speak with a few weeks ago, and that you can find here. Mike's joined by several other Bowie alumni – Gerry Leonard and Kevin Armstrong on guitars, Carmine Rojas on bass, and Alan Childs behind the drum set. They're joined by Joe Sumner (you might be familiar with his dad's band, The Police), Juno Award winner Sass Jordan, and Corey Glover of Living Colour fame.

A Bowie Celebration @ Bimbo's 365 (Photo: Kevin Keating)

Instead of a collection of Bowie hits, this year the band is playing the albums Diamond Dogs and Ziggy Stardust front to back, plus a smattering of other goodies as the show encore. While previous runs included a wide variety of Bowie hits, this year's tour is a show for the die-hard Bowie fans. The singles like “Diamond Dogs” and “Rebel Rebel” get played not where they sonically might fit best on a rock show set list, but as songs two and six of the night – right where they land on the album track listing.

The Ziggy Stardust portion of the show starts off with the classic drum opening of “Five Years”, and concludes with the epic “Rock N Roll Suicide” – which, perhaps coincidentally, works quite well as a show ender. (Or we could chalk that up to more Bowie magic that continues to exist in the world.)

Unlike the show two years ago at the Regency Ballroom, which you can find our review of that show here, the Bimbo's show didn't include any surprise guests (unless you count Sting hanging in the audience, watching his son give a stellar performance). The only back-and-forth is among Sass, Joe, and Corey as they trade off singing different songs throughout the night.

Mike Garson of A Bowie Celebration @ Bimbo's 365 (Photo: Kevin Keating)

Mike Garson leads the show, telling stories about various songs and his time working with David. Mike takes a couple of extended piano solos but otherwise the spotlight is equally shared among the rest of the band.

One of the differences on this year's tour is how often Joe Sumner sings lead, jumping out front and nailing the high notes in songs like “Starman”, running through the crowd, belting out “Hang On To Yourself”, and throwing high-fives to the crowd...so much for Coronavirus concerns! Joe's most charismatic moment may have been on “Lady Stardust”, delivering an incredibly sincere and heartfelt rendition of the song. Totally honest (and with as much impartiality as I can muster when talking about a Bowie tribute show), Joe Sumner shines on this year's tour more than previous years. He's singing more in quantity and quality than previous runs, and it's adding definite value for the audience.

Corey Glover (Living Colour) of A Bowie Celebration @ Bimbo's 365 (Photo: Kevin Keating)

Not to be outdone, Corey Glover delivered like the veteran that he is. Last year in San Francisco at the Warfield show, Glover had just a few songs in the show. This year he's got more time to shine, and we're very glad he does. Taking his turn running through the crowd, Corey got the audience on their feet during “Suffragette City”, a highlight of the show for sure.

Sass Jordan had the honor of singing “Rock N Roll Suicide”, the last song on “Ziggy Stardust”, wrapping up the album portion of the evening. Jordan has a very Aimee-Mann-meets-Janis-Joplin quality about her stage presence, nicely contrasting with her stage mates, and adding a new dimension to the evening.

The later part of the show included a handful of Bowie classics and at least one deep cut. Mike Garson introduced the song “Lady Grinning Soul”, a track Bowie may never have played live, but was handled very well by Joe Sumner. Corey Glover took lead vocals on “Young Americans”, and owned it in no uncertain terms (Glover may very well be an underrated frontman, even after leading Living Colour for three decades). All three singers took turns singing “All The Young Dudes” to wrap up the main set, which was another personal favorite.

Gerry Leonard of A Bowie Celebration @ Bimbo's 365 (Photo: Kevin Keating)

The encore started with Gerry Leonard doing a medley of “Loving The Alien” and “Andy Warhol”. He was then joined by the entire band for “Aladdin Sane”, and the evening wrapped up with all three singers trading off verses of “Heroes”.

Whether you're a hard-core or casual fan of David Bowie, do yourself a favor and catch this show when they come to your town. The tour's taking a bit of a break in the wake of the Coronavirus epidemic, but check out their site here for updates and ticket news!

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