We went to the Scion party at the Roxy tonight for three very good reasons: 1) It was a tribute to David Bowie; 2) The Scion party with Biz Markie and Grandmaster Flash was a lot of fun; 3) The parties are always free.
Given that this was a Tribute to David Bowie and there were several DJs named on the e-flyer, we figured it would be a bunch of turntablists messing around with Bowie records all night. We were wrong.
Shortly after Carlos, Juan and I arrived and realized that there is no way anybody without connections will ever get to sit in a booth at the Roxy, the DJ finished his first set and an oversized funk ensemble took to the stage. I thought I saw this happen on One Life to Live yesterday and was quite convinced that my fascination with the soap opera had prompted me to imagine that I was actually trapped inside Llanview, PA. Yesterday, during the typically cheesy nightclub scene, Vicki's alter Nikki tricked her daughter Jessica to go to the car with her, where she then forced Jess to let out her alter, Tess. Right then, as I watched the rhythmless attempt to "get funky," as the MC said, I hoped that I too could split and that my alter, Diz, could take over and start shrieking across the club. Alas, I remained wholly Liz and wholly bored. Such was the extent of our boredom that Carlos and I started making up My Space profiles for everyone within our vicinity and Juan began messing around with his phone.
"He's updating his My Space profile," Carlos whispered.
"No way! Is that really what you're doing?" I asked Juan.
I fell for the joke.
The David Bowie tribute turned out to be million-piece funk band plus a handful of singers. "Rebel Rebel" does not lend itself to such a genre. "Fame," "Ashes to Ashes" and "Sound and Vision" do, but, we couldn't get into it and left.
I told the guys outside that, in all honesty, I can't think of a David Bowie cover that I really love. I like Bauhaus' rendition of "Ziggy Stardust" only because its an acknowledgement of the similarity between Peter Murphy and Bowie. The band's original work is infinitely better and, as far as Bauhaus' covers go, "Telegram Sam" is far superior.
"It's his voice," Carlos said. "When someone has as distinctive a voice as David Bowie, it can't really be covered."
He's right. Regardless of whether or not a person can hit every note in the given Bowie song and regardless of what stylistic changes they make, it will always sound like karaoke because there just isn't that twinge where it sounds like his voice might crack and he might fall to the ground pleading "Can you hear me, Major Tom?"