David Bowie One Night in Buffalo 3/24/04

I've always thought of concerts as a form of travel log.  The artist is visiting your town and the set of songs is his narrative of the visit as seen through the songs he's playing.  While the setlist may not vary night to night, the energy, the banter, the body language are all statements about what's on the mind of Thin White Duke...And hey, he's invited you along for the ride, what a deal!

"The Return of the Thin White Duke
 Throwing Darts in lovers' eyes
 Here am we, one magical moment, such is the stuff"

Stories of severe stage fright aside, I've always had the impression that once the show gets going Bowie LOVES to entertain a crowd.  After a near death spiral of cocaine abuse in the '70s, her emerged from the ashes in '82 and has released a string of successful and highquality records culminating with the most recent called Reality.  This of course all happened before a heart attack near the end of the tour sent him into retirement from which he has yet to emerge except for a few one off appearances for either charity causes or making cameo appearances with such artists as David Gilmour.

Every artist in one form or another records their shows.  This is especially true when the artist is considering a live record for release either soon or sometime after a tour has completed.  This also has the benefit of providing inspiration to the artist to deliver the goods.  And so, Buffalo was one of many dates recorded in full for consideration for the relase of a live record which was in fact released in 2010.

The expansive setlist of this show highlights David Bowie's entire career with several songs added that have not been heard in some time such as All the Young Dudes, Bewlay Brothers and Breaking Glass.  My guess is this recording was made of the sound directed to Earle Slicke's in ear monitor as the guitar is right in your face.

The Setlist is as follows:

Disc 1
01. Rebel Rebel
02. Cactus
03. Sister Midnight
04. New Killer Star
05. Looking for Water
06. All the Young Dudes
07. China Girl
08. The Loneliest Guy
09. The Man Who Sold the World
10. The Motel
11. Battle for Britain(The Letter)
12. Sunday
13. Heathen
14. Hallo Spaceboy

Disc 2
01. band introductions
02. Under Pressure
03. Reality
04. Station to Station
05. Ashes to Ashes
06. Quicksand
07. Modern Love
08. I'm Afraid of Americans
09. "Heroes"
Encore
10. The Bewlay Brothers
11. Queen Bitch
12. Suffragette City
13. Ziggy Stardust

For your pleasure, David Bowie One Night in Buffalo 3/24/04 in mp3. (apple lossless soon)