A Bowie Celebration

March 17, 2019
Capitol Theatre
Clearwater, FL

By Michael Yanko
Rock Legends Photographers

I am a huge Bowie fan so when I heard about a Bowie tribute at one of our favorite venues, I was all in. As we got closer to the date I found out that this wasn't just your ordinary tribute band. The members were mostly made up of musicians that performed, recorded, and co-wrote with David Bowie!

The show consisted of many Bowie hits with some deeper cuts mixed in as well as "All the Young Dudes" which was a crowd favorite.

The band featured former Bowie longtime band members: Mike Garson (keyboards and MC), Earl Slick (guitar), Carmine Rojas (bass), and Charlie Sexton (guitar and vocals), plus Bernard Fowler (vocals) (Rolling Stones), Corey Glover (vocals) (Living Color), Lee John (drums), Naia Kete (backing vocals) and Imani Elijah (percussion/backing vocals).

The continuous set consisted of 20 songs and hearing these songs reminded me of what a great composer Bowie was. Sexton sounded the most like Bowie, but Fowler and Glover each did an excellent job of making the vocals their own without losing the emotion of the original lyrics.

Garson, who had been with Bowie for over 30 years, opened the performance with "Bring Me the Disco King" with Fowler on vocals and then the rest of the band joined them on stage for "Rebel Rebel."

The band played several of Bowie's hits with Fowler before he was replaced on stage by Glover for "Young Americans." The rest of the evening was a rotation on vocals between Sexton, Glover, and Fowler, with Glover also sharing some songs with Sexton and Fowler. The very appreciative crowd in the near capacity Capitol Theatre was eager to sing along and both Fowler and Glover held out their mics to support their enthusiasm.

Slick and Sexton did an extraordinary job handling the guitar work and they seemed very comfortable jamming together.

Some concerts seem like they drag on forever but this one flew right by. Every song was performed to perfection and I'm sure Bowie would have approved. If you get a chance to see this tour I highly recommend it!