3.5 Hours at Bowie Ball

By Michael T

The fifth annual Bowie Ball put another feather in the gloriously large hat of Mr. Deryck Todd. Bowie Ball was created by the new nightlife impresario only a few years ago and seems to be growing to epic proportions with every passing year. In recent years, the party has been held at the legendary rock club Don Hill's in Tribeca and the fabulously mismanaged Santos Party House.

This year's festivities took place at Le Poisson Rouge, better known for classical and jazz concerts. Now, before you can think "smooth jazz" while watching Amadeus, LPR does have a fantastic stage and above average sound and lights. So Todd's choice made total sense considering how performance-heavy Bowie Ball tends to be. Not to mention Justine D does the bookings at that join, and she knows a thing or two about rock ‘n’ roll parties, if I do say so myself.

As one entered the former Life space, you were greeted and mistreated—just kidding!—by door legend Thomas Onorato. It must be stated, that the weather was pretty crappy that evening, never a good thing for parties that require scantily clad costumes and hairspray. Seriously though, shitty weather can put a serious dent in one's party turnout. However, upon arrivial at 12:30 the party was packed and Rickey's glitter was everywhere!

By that point, I had already missed the first set of performers, plus some fashion show with way too many designers to mention. I was not fretting, though, since Mr. Todd kept the more "high profile" performers for the later shows.

May I say that there were some fresh and unlikely faces involved at Bowieball this year alongside the usual suspects. Formika, Keanan Duffty and yours truly belong to the latter and Kevin Aviance, Our Lady J and the Kiki Twins with the former.

Mr. Aviance gave a fierce, powerful performance to Bowie's faux R&B classic "Let's Dance." Aviance, of course, was dancing atop dangerously high heels with serious-cinched corset and white mo-hawk—literally the icing on top of the chocolate cake!

Other showstoppers were Michael Cavadias, a.k.a. Lily of the Valley, doing a jammed up version of “Young Americans,” adding an extra layer of authenticity by including three back-up singers, a sax-player and dressing Bowie-esque circa ‘74/’75.

The man of the hour, Mr. Todd, did a splendid version of "Lady Grinning Soul" off of Aladdin Sane. The ensemble Mr. Todd chose was…interesting: gold glitter pants, blue shirt, a black witch hat and a huge Halloween orange wig, parts Tina Turner, Labyrinth

and the orange monster from the Bugs Bunny cartoons—you know, the one that gets his nails done.

Moving right along, Miss Guy focused his tribute on Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie in full kimono drag. Michael "Mistress Formika" Jones sang a very somber version of “Space Oddity” whilst in futuristic Road Warrior regalia, featuring some bizarre head piece, fishnet mask and thigh high leather boots—all in white, mind you.

Some of the more "kooky" performances that evening came courtesy of Miss Saturn and The Daisy Spurs. The former performed a rather hysterical number with hula hoops and plenty of sass to Bowie's glam show-stopper "Jean Genie." The Daisy Spurs performed in typical fashion: Lot's of energy, but more than a tad disjointed. The four piece back-up band rocked throughout, however.

My one major complaint about this year's Bowie Ball was the music. Now, granted, I did not hear the entire set from the front room DJs, but I did manage, sadly, to catch a hip-hop song or two! Simply horrendous and completely inappropriate! If that wasn't stomach turning enough, I had the misfortune of hearing Lady Gaga on the main floor. Thank God I'm not a hemophiliac as I surely would have bled to death at that moment, even without cutting myself! Nevertheless, these faux pas were few and far between.

Let's hope that these "stylized" and "sexually ambiguous" events will bring back some much-needed glamour, excitement and, more importantly, rock ‘n’ roll to NYC nightlife, once again.