A Valentine for David Bowie Orlando 2016

“A Valentine for David Bowie” | Bowie Tribute at Will’s Pub, Orlando, FL | This Sunday, February 14, 2016

by • February 9, 2016

Will’s Pub has got you covered for the mushiest day of the year in a way that won’t make you want to push that canoodling couple into a lake. To be fair, they have a damn good theme. The night will be a tribute to the deceased but omnipresent, David Bowie. You need more? Okay, grumpy cat, do your best to not shrug at this list of artists …

The Actomatics

The Woolly Bushmen

The Downgetters

Kaleigh Baker

FunkUs

David Gibbs

Chris LeBrane

Charlie Buchanan

Steve Garron

Billy Manes!

Juno Smile

Eugene Snowden

Justin Beckler

Robert English

Patrick Scott Barnes

The Young Dudes

and they say there’s more to come …

ORLANDO — Get Tickets to “A VALENTINE FOR DAVID BOWIE” at Will’s Pub Here! — $10

David Bowie Tribute Orlando 2016

David Bowie Tribute Orlando 2016

All the proceeds from the evening will go to the family of Sean Allen.

They brag to make the event a non-stop live music extravaganza. And it’s a safe bet, they will deliver. Each band will bleed Bowie right into the next; a pure and fitting symphony to a human both bizarre yet, blithe. The night will unfold memories fused to this iconic music; stories in our lives that are attached, even if distantly, to the little universes these songs hold. Maybe stories like these …

(Matthew Weller and Sarah Schumaker recount memories from their freshman year; different times, different places.)

 

SS: A college dorm room. Two hesitant, barely legals. It’s that time on campus when the plucky troubadours of the music department  swarm  the quad, their awkward adolescent sound bouncing off the brick. You’re not sure if you should … Everyone else you know has, so what’s the big deal? You squirm and the stale mattress underneath you sounds like sixth-grade camp which is exactly the last thing you need to remember right now because, if you’re honest, you still don’t feel so far from that pre-pubescent girl who only got the background roles in musicals, and pulled her bangs back so severely off her face into a small bump it would appear a tiny mole family could thrive inside. But what the hell, college was for reinvention right? And you have totally learned to style your hair more in a more desirable manner. You inhale; immediately cough. (What, did you think you were getting the story of an awkward sexual encounter ? Settle down, that’s for another time.)

The room feels like warm laundry fresh out the dryer. You are a toasty pink sock. Dancing gremlins and goblins cackle wildly in the background. Wait, what…? It’s not your imagination. It’s not the room. It’s David Bowie thrusting his pelvis through your screen in the classic film, “Labyrinth.” You’re afraid and transfixed.

I had no prior introduction to the artist before that time in 2010 and have stayed fairly ignorant to the legend until recently. It was with remorse when I heard the news of his passing that I wished I had given him a chance while he was alive. IF Nickelback got anything right, it was that “it’s not too late, it’s never too late.” You can always shop your local record store (we love Park Ave CDs) and take a drive with the past. Bowie released an album a week before he died and planned out future releases for us to water our mouths over. There is still time for me, yet.

Replace one starkly pressed mother’s quilt and other cached accouterments that litter a dorm room with another set of walls equally caked in aged angst. A legacy unfurled in one, let’s hope, less paranoid, evening of music. Freshman me, rejoice. And to the boy in the memory who gets to do the ‘Magic Dance’ with the spaceman himself, you lucky bastard. <3

……..

 

MW: My freshman year of college was a lesson in late-60s, early-70’s glam rock. And I only started really listening to this music because of my roommate, Kevin. Our three constant fixtures were David Bowie Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed — New York Dolls were a close fourth. We bonded over the dirty, underbelly that was the New York music and art scene of the late-60s. Unlike the burgeoning hippie movement that was taking hold, this culture was a more heroin-influenced. His hero was Reed. Mine was Andy Warhol (hence my site, TheVinylWarhol.com).

David Bowie Live Preview

Kevin would hand me a flash drive with a copy of Reed’s Transformer or Iggy’s Lust For Life, and I would immediately devour every ounce of the music with the culture that spawned it. This eventually led to more exposure to Bowie. I got lost in the rich story of Ziggy Stardust and was fascinated with the many characters he took on throughout his career. Deeper Bowie cuts started to trump the classics. My favorite was/is “Andy Warhol” (of course) off Bowie’s second album, Hunky Dory. In 1972, after Bowie wrote the song, he played it for Andy at his studio, The Factory. It was the first time he’d been to America and had never met the peculiar personality of Andy Warhol. I’ll let him tell you what happened:

I took the song to The Factory when I first came to America and played it to him. And he hated it. Loathed it. He went [imitates Warhol’s blasé manner] ‘Oh, uh-huh, okay…’ then just walked away (laughs). I was left there. Somebody came over and said, ‘Gee, Andy hated it.’ I said, ‘Sorry, it was meant to be a compliment.’ ‘Yeah, but you said things about him looking weird. Don’t you know that Andy has such a thing about how he looks? He’s got a skin disease and he really thinks that people kind of see that.’ I was like, ‘Oh, no.’ It didn’t go down very well, but I got to know him after that. It was my shoes that got him. That’s where we found something to talk about. They were these little yellow things with a strap across them, like girls’ shoes. He absolutely adored them. Then I found out that he used to do a lot of shoe designing when he was younger. He had a bit of a shoe fetishism. That kind of broke the ice. He was an odd guy.”

Bowie would later go on to play Andy Warhol in the 1996 movie Basquiat. 

So, what do you say? Let’s Dance. 😉

To get you started, here’s a playlist Rebecca & Tyler made for our Shows I Go To Podcast, Episode 34 — David Bowie Tribute & Festival Announcements. Play it on shuffle, or not, just play it LOUD.

ORLANDO — Get Tickets to “A VALENTINE FOR DAVID BOWIE” at Will’s Pub Here! — $10

David Bowie Tribute Orlando 2016 by Matthew Weller and Sarah Schumaker.

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