One of the greatest things about Bowie is that he has so many phases in his career, so many different sounds and styles, that his live albums capture fundamentally different visions of his music. What's your favorite Bowie live album? I've always been partial to Stage (especially the recent reissue) and the BBC live show from 2000. I've unfortunately never heard Live&Well, but I imagine I would like that one as well.

My personal favorite is David Live...which I keep coming back to over and over again.

purplethunder3121 said:

KingSausage said:

purplethunder3121 said:

My personal favorite is David Live...which I keep coming back to over and over again.

Yeah, that's some great shit. Especially the juiced up remaster from several years ago.

I buy the Ryko CDs which have great sound IMO and bonus songs.

Probably the third disc from the BBC sessions (the 2000 one).

I think he was at his peak as a live performer at that point. Just amazing singing by him and great musicianship by the band. He was always in great mood and always gave his best. I think I must have 20-25 CDs worth of live material from that era as unofficial releases. Not a bad show amidst those.

The 50th birthday party TV broadcast with all the special guests was excellent too, although at least one of the songs seems to have been lipsynced ("Looking For Satellites"). The best version of "Space Oddity" is on that one.

novabrkr said:

purplethunder3121 said:

KingSausage said:

purplethunder3121 said: Yeah, that's some great shit. Especially the juiced up remaster from several years ago.

I buy the Ryko CDs which have great sound IMO and bonus songs.

but the newer remasters of the live albums restore those albums to the way the set actually ran, with all those bonus tracks in their proper place rather than tacked on at the end like the ryko releases.

novabrkr said:

Probably the third disc from the BBC sessions (the 2000 one).

I think he was at his peak as a live performer at that point. Just amazing singing by him and great musicianship by the band. He was always in great mood and always gave his best. I think I must have 20-25 CDs worth of live material from that era as unofficial releases. Not a bad show amidst those.

The 50th birthday party TV broadcast with all the special guests was excellent too, although at least one of the songs seems to have been lipsynced ("Looking For Satellites"). The best version of "Space Oddity" is on that one.

its been a while since ive watched the 50th bday show. but i doubt it was lip synced, some of those songs from that period did have sampled backing tracks though, that included bowie vocals. that song had doubled (at least, maybe tripled) backgroud vocals from bowie. it may have given the impression of lip snycing in places because of that, but im sure he was singing live with it.

purplethunder3121 said:

My personal favorite is David Live...which I keep coming back to over and over again.

Ahh recorded live at the Tower in Philly, an AWESOME venue for a show. It was the hot spot for gigs in the Philly area for quite some time (up until about the mid to late 90s), but less and less acts stopped booking gigs there because the Electric Factory, The TLA and The Trocadero became more prevalent venues. But its been getting a resurgence recently which is great. So to put it in perspective for you, Ive been to countless gigs at the other venues I mentioned above, but only 3 (!!!) at the Tower, and 2 out of the 3 have been very recent. And its funny, those times I went to see shows there, I think about my beloved Faith No More always playing their gigs there, as well as the Diamond Dogs tour (not to mention this live album) while I look around the venue and wait for the show to start. And to see THAT tour at the Tower would have been incredible (the stage is incredibly close to the front pit with a very small amount of barricades seperating the stage and audience). Bowie always had a love for the Philly market which is part of the reason I got into his stuff (I'm only 28 years old, so obviously I missed out on alot).

savagedreams said:

novabrkr said:

Probably the third disc from the BBC sessions (the 2000 one).

I think he was at his peak as a live performer at that point. Just amazing singing by him and great musicianship by the band. He was always in great mood and always gave his best. I think I must have 20-25 CDs worth of live material from that era as unofficial releases. Not a bad show amidst those.

The 50th birthday party TV broadcast with all the special guests was excellent too, although at least one of the songs seems to have been lipsynced ("Looking For Satellites"). The best version of "Space Oddity" is on that one.

its been a while since ive watched the 50th bday show. but i doubt it was lip synced, some of those songs from that period did have sampled backing tracks though, that included bowie vocals. that song had doubled (at least, maybe tripled) backgroud vocals from bowie. it may have given the impression of lip snycing in places because of that, but im sure he was singing live with it.

It's been a while since I've watched it too as I've only had it on VHS and haven't even had the player set up in a good number of years. The two most suspect songs were "Battle For Britain (The Letter)" and "Looking For Satellites". Now that I've checked out the performances on Youtube, it's actually the first one that I was thinking about. Like you state, there are prerecorded backing vocals on used many of the songs, but on "Battle For Britain" what's presented as the "lead vocal" seems to be identical to the album version.

Agree?

KingSausage said:

novabrkr said:

Probably the third disc from the BBC sessions (the 2000 one).

I think he was at his peak as a live performer at that point. Just amazing singing by him and great musicianship by the band. He was always in great mood and always gave his best. I think I must have 20-25 CDs worth of live material from that era as unofficial releases. Not a bad show amidst those.

The 50th birthday party TV broadcast with all the special guests was excellent too, although at least one of the songs seems to have been lipsynced ("Looking For Satellites"). The best version of "Space Oddity" is on that one.

Holy hell. That sounds awesome! Hopefully he'll release that someday. I've never had a copy of Live&Well, but does that sound similar? One thing I really love about the 2000 BBC show is the setlist. It's far beyond the usual hits. And his voice is so powerful. The 1976 Nassau show that was released with Station to Station deluxe is badass. I have a boot from the Outside your that I really like, too. It's my only Bowie live boot, which is sad given how much I love him. I have hundreds of Prince boots but only that one Bowie boot.

I don't have Liveandwell eeither, I had forgotten all about it, in fact. Checking out the song list, I suppose it can't be too far off from it.

There's a whole lot of ridiculously good footage of Bowie's live gigs from the late-00s and early-00s on Youtube and other streaming services. He did so many shows for TV then. All professionally shot and the audio mixed really well. I never thought he was a stellar live performer in the 1970s (though I do like "Stage" too). As a live vocalist he just got to a whole different level in his 50s.

Stage is really good (the remastered version with the proper song flow) but that tour was the definition of self-indulgence with ignoring most of his past except a Ziggy Stardust segment. I always thought Madonna's Drowned World Tour was inspired by it (coincidentally during rehearsals she supposedly played the song Ziggy Stardust on guitar).

The Reality Live show was amazing. Incredible setlist - very long and spreading his entire career - and an ace band.

Also love the Live at the BBC he put out around 1999 or so with This is Not America, Always Crashing in the Same Car, etc.

NoVideo said:

KingSausage said:

NoVideo said:

The Reality Live show was amazing. Incredible setlist - very long and spreading his entire career - and an ace band.

Also love the Live at the BBC he put out around 1999 or so with This is Not America, Always Crashing in the Same Car, etc.

The Reality tour is the only time I've ever seen Bowie live. Great show!

I hope he tours again but if he doesn't, The Reality Tour is a great final chapter to his touring career.

But I think he'll play again