A Tribute To David Bowie featuring Barbacoa At Radio Bean January 22, 2016

Words by Tim Lewis.

I had a great time seeing music last night at Radio Bean. After Davie Bowie died I has hoping some local musicians would get together and play some of his music. Last night, Barbacoa teamed up with Lowell Thompson and a few others to honor some great songs. There were no keys or horns, it was just two guitars, bass and drums, so all of the songs had a surging blues rock feel. Lowell and Bill Mullins played mostly rhythm guitar, with Bill taking some serious leads now and then. Kirk Flanagan;s bass drove the songs and Jeremy Frederick‘s drumming kept the pace fast and rocking. They opened hard with a killer Suffragette City and then followed with a gorgeous Starman. Bill sang both of those nicely. For the third song they brought up Heloise and she sang a freaky version of Moonage Daydream. As the song wound towards it’s conclusion Bill played a wicked lead part. Instead of the Mick Ronson effects laden original, Bill played the solo pretty clean and it sounded amazing. Kirk stepped to the microphone next to sing a lovely Space Oddity and Lowell did the countdown part. Bill took the vocals for a rocking Ziggy Stardust and a mellow but cool Lady Stardust. Amanda Gustafson came to the stage next and they played a fun version of Jean Genie. Dressed in a tux, she had a great Bowie attitude in her look and the way she sang the song. Lowell followed by singing The Man Who Sold The World and Bill had another stunning solo. Really, I was transfixed. They kept on rocking as Bill sang Hang On To Yourself. Amanda came back to the stage to sing Changes and Heloise joined with backing vocals. The full audience helped sing along too. For the rest of the night Amanda and Heloise sang backing vocals from the side of the stage. Up next Bobby Hackney Jr. belted out a rocking Rebel Rebel. James Kochalka came to the stage for a fun version of Let’s Dance and performed an obscene Major Tom poem before he left. Heloise came back to center stage for a rocking John, I’m Only Dancing. Bobby returned to sing Heroes and gave it the full ROUGH FRANCIS treatment as he screamed out the lyrics at the end. The night wrapped up with everyone in the club singing along to All The Young Dudes. What a great night of music and a fitting send off to a great man who inspired a lot of people.

https://youtu.be/TDSki4YOD_s

https://youtu.be/jyqkVUNS4CE

This post was originally published by Tim Lewis at his personal blog, https://timstriangletribune.wordpress.com.