The Sound and Vision of David Bowie ‘26: Concert Review

The Sound and Vision of David Bowie
Concert Review
The Cutting Room, NYC, 1/10/26

There’s a scene in the movie Sinners where one of the main characters, Sammie, who is loosely based on Robert Johnson, begins playing music in a juke joint. He is so skilled that he summons the ghosts of music from the past and the future, transforming the juke joint into a kind of vortex. The patrons go from dancing to communing with souls across space and time.

I felt that way on a few occasions during the annual Sound and Vision of David Bowie concert in New York this year, on the (unmentioned) 10th anniversary of Bowie’s ascension to the ranks of the blackstars. The concert has become an annual tradition, organized by Bowie alumni Henry Hey and Mark Plati and featuring other musicians, most of whose careers intersected with Bowie’s and all of whom are very good.

So, rather than build up to the moments of transcendence, I’ll jump right in with the pinnacle moment: Gail Ann Dorsey singing “Lazarus” with Donny McCaslin on sax. Of all the songs from the 31-song set, this was the only one that would have been impossible to see Bowie perform himself (his version was released long after Bowie stopped touring and shortly before he died). But “Lazarus” is as much a McCaslin song as a Bowie song, and what he can do with a sax is as distinctive as what Bowie could do with his voice. Dorsey, who had been with Bowie for years, had trouble keeping it together through the opening line, “Look up here, I’m in heaven,” and could not suppress the tears after McCaslin’s extended solo, which summoned the spirits.

At that moment, the entire crowd at the Cutting Room was transported somewhere else. Time stood still, moved backwards, and leapt forward. We, much like the patrons in the movie’s juke joint, were, for a time, protected from all the monsters closing in on the outside. At the end of the concert, Henry Hey said, “we need more of this,” and I knew what he meant. Bowie’s music served as a vehicle for doing what music does for people, which is to reinforce our interconnectedness and general humanity.

OK, I have to remember that this is a concert review and not a sermon, and I have so far commented on a single song. But “Lazarus” was one special moment in a night of such moments. Guitar genius Gerry Leonard performed with Dorsey his arrangement of “Loving the Alien.” Bowie performed this stripped-down acoustic version of the 1984 song with Leonard late in his touring career. It sounds as if it were from Heathen rather than Tonight and again has a spiritual quality to it.

So, too, did Sophia Anne Caruso’s performance of “Rock ’N’ Roll Suicide.” Perhaps the show’s biggest challenge was in figuring out what to schedule after multiple songs that would have ended any other concert. What could possibly come after “Rock ’N’ Roll Suicide?” (On this night, it was “Starman,” performed by J. J. Appleton.) Not by coincidence, I scheduled the second part of my interview with Caruso for release on the same day as the concert. During that interview, she spoke of how, in preparing to perform the song at an earlier time, she sketched out what each line meant to her (see embedded image). This speaks to part of Bowie’s enduring appeal—he asked us to assign our own meaning to his works. This is what the musicians did at this concert, and what we in the audience did, too. Oh no, love, we’re not alone, not in this regard, anyway.

There were so many moments like this. I’m not a skilled enough writer to do the whole show justice. The challenge is presenting a representative sample of the evening without overwhelming the significance of any particular performance with volume. Where to stop? Everett Bradley’s near-perfect “Fame?” He and Catherine Russell teaming up for “Under Pressure?” Henry Hey taking a turn at vocals for “Oh! You Pretty Things?” Sophia’s embodiment of “Lady Grinning Soul” or her ownership of “Star?” Or maybe the special guest appearance by Gerry Leonard’s musical partner, Suzanne Vega, for “The Man Who Sold the World,” or Jim Boggia leading the ensemble in the closing performance of “Heroes?” Actually, the one song that prompted an involuntary “oh” from me was “Station to Station,” also performed by Boggia. If everything is special, then nothing is special, but in this concert it seemed like everything was special.

I’ll mention one other sequence—Dorsey (again) and Mark Plati joining forces for a set of three songs, accompanied by nobody else. The songs were “This Is Not America,” “Always Crashing in the Same Car,” and “Dead Man Walking.” When Plati was a guest on my show in 2024, he mentioned “Dead Man Walking” as one of the works he was most proud of among those he did with Bowie. At the time, he talked about blending elements of the song together until it became a coherent whole on the album, but on this night he and Dorsey took it in the opposite direction as an acoustic number, like Bowie and Reeves Gabrels sometimes performed it live.

OK, I lied. I’ll mention something else—the new song for the set (meaning new to the concert), “Diamond Dogs,” performed by Appleton. “Diamond Dogs” is Bowie’s version of a dystopian world after the kind of cataclysm predicted by “Five Years,” following events along the lines of those described as happening in “Panic in Detroit.” In the year of the scavenger, the world of Bowie’s “dogs” is upside down and fallen apart. The song functions on the album as the beginning of a nightmare that ends with the masses crying out that they want Big Brother. Hmmm… I wonder why this song was added to the setlist?

In Sinners, Sammie’s performance was magical, but it attracted the attention of a (growing) pack of vampires. Like sin itself, they couldn’t enter the juke joint and thus threaten its patrons unless invited in, which, in the end, was inevitable. The sense of safety was an illusion born of ignorance. Nobody on the inside had any idea of what was lurking outside. But for a while, they had reached a higher plane. So had we.

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Below are the performers, listed in alphabetical order. The names in bold link to an interview I conducted with the musician. For those of you whose names are not in bold, look out, I’m coming for you!

J. J. Appleton
Jim Boggia
Everett Bradley
Sophia Anne Caruso
Brian Delaney (on drums)
Gail Ann Dorsey
Henry Hey
Gerry Leonard
Tony Levin (on bass)
Donny McCaslin
Mark Plati
Catherine Russell
Suzanne Vega

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And here’s the entire setlist, in order, accompanied by the name of the vocalist. In most instances, the vocalist was accompanied by most of the rest of the band playing instruments and/or performing backing vocals:

“Modern Love,” J. J. Appleton
“Suffragette City,” Everett Bradley
“Blue Jean,” Jim Boggia
“Changes,” Sophia Anne Caruso
“Moonage Daydream,” Catherine Russell
“Life on Mars?” Gail Ann Dorsey
“Fame,” Bradley
“Ashes to Ashes,” Caruso & Appleton
“Loving the Alien,” Dorsey
“Lady Grinning Soul,” Caruso
“Golden Years,” Boggia
“Oh! You Pretty Things,” Henry Hey
“Where Are We Now?” Dorsey
“The Jean Genie,” Appleton
“Space Oddity,” Dorsey
“Under Pressure,” Bradley and Russell

— Intermission —

“Young Americans,” Boggia and Dorsey
“The Man Who Sold the World,” Suzanne Vega
“Star,” Caruso
“Rebel Rebel,” Boggia
“Let’s Dance,” Appleton
“This Is Not America,” Dorsey
“Always Crashing in the Same Car,” Dorsey
“Dead Man Walking,” Dorsey
“Rock ’N’ Roll Suicide,” Caruso
“Starman,” Appleton
“Ziggy Stardust,” Boggia
“Lazarus,” Dorsey
“Diamond Dogs,” Appleton
“Station to Station,” Boggia
“Heroes,” Boggia and ensemble

* All the above concert photos were taken by the author– that’s me!