David Bowie: 4/27/1990

David Bowie! I almost don’t need to say anything more, do I?

This is my ticket stub from the one and only time I got to see Bowie live. It was on the Sound and Vision tour which featured the great Adrian Belew on guitar. The show in Miami was the first stop on the North American tour and it was nothing short of mind-blowing.

I went with my then girlfriend Joyce. We had decent seats with a great view of the stage. Bowie opened with “Space Oddity” and it was one classic hit after another for the entire show.

The tour was being promoted as the last time Bowie would be pulling from his older catalog of music, and although I really liked Tin Machine and Bowie’s other later works, it is still the older music that really speaks to me. Some of the songs that really stood out for me were “Life on Mars,” “TVC15,” “Ziggy Stardust,” and “Ashes to Ashes.” But without a doubt, for me anyway, the high point was the last song of the encore, which might be my favorite Bowie song of all time: “Panic in Detroit.” Wow – I’m getting chills just thinking about it. My mind was definitely warped by the end of this concert.

I never had another chance to see Bowie, and it does not seem like I will. I would definitely have paid to see him again, even if he was not doing all the older hits which comprised this concert. He was one of the great rock and roll stars, and I feel really fortunate to have seen him live.

“Ziggy plaaaaaaaaayed, guitaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!”