(2021) David Bowie - At the Kit Kat Klub (Live New York 99)


Review:
David Bowie at The Kit Kat Klub (Live New York 99) captures his invitation-only performance at the intimate New York venue on November 19, 1999.  The gig was recorded and filmed for the Liveonline.net website and later issued as a promotional CD. It’s likely that playing the Kit Kat Klub had some personal resonance for Bowie.  He was inspired by the original London production of Joe Masteroff, John Kander, and Fred Ebb’s musical Cabaret as was referenced in the recent David Bowie Is museum exhibition.  When that musical returned to New York in 1998, it was housed in immersive fashion at the dilapidated Henry Miller’s Theatre, a once-plush venue that had seen better days.  Designer Robert Brill transformed the entire space – a Broadway theatre turned porno house turned disco and back again – into the Weimar-era Kit Kat Klub depicted in Cabaret.  Though Cabaret moved to another theatre with a fascinating history, Studio 54, after just eight months, the deliciously debauched Kit Kat Klub remained in use. The concert mixed by Mark Plati features Bowie with the accompaniment of Plati on guitar; Gail Ann Dorsey on bass and vocals; Page Hamilton on guitar; Sterling Campbell on drums; Mike Garson on piano, keyboards, and synthesizers; and Emm Gryner and Holly Palmer on background vocals.  The twelve tracks on David Bowie at The Kit Kat Klub include classics from both the seventies (“Life on Mars?,” “Changes,” “Always Crashing in the Same Car,” “Stay”) and eighties (“China Girl”) as well as new songs in which an energized Bowie clearly relished performing.  “Thursday’s Child,” “Something in the Air,” “Survive,” “Seven,” and “The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell” all hailed from Hours, his then-most recent album which was released under two months before the Kit Kat Klub date.  (This series’ title also derives from Hours and its song “Brilliant Adventure.”)





Tracklist:
01.Life On Mars?
02.Thursday’s Child
03.Something In The Air
04.Can’t Help Thinking About Me
05.Always Crashing In The Same Car
06.Survive
07.Stay
08.Seven
09.Changes
10.The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell
11.I’m Afraid Of Americans


Media Report:
Genre: rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits