Me & Mr. Jones
It’s been a slow start to the new year and decade. The middle of January closed out the holiday season on a freezing Friday night at the Tribeca Rooftop for our staff holiday party. Then I went around the world in a day during the NY Times Travel Show at the Habits Center. At the end of January I was a witness to the crowning of the Diva de Espana. Finally, I ushered in Valentine’s Day with a double header, Bria Skonberg at Carnegie Hall and the Dope Jams Valentine’s Day Ball at Public Records in Brooklyn on consecutive nights. I was on cloud nine making up for lost time seeing my friends Jen and Saasha in the same room together for the first time since Christmas night in 2016. But the joy from Saturday night wouldn’t last long, set adrift this week by a short staffed office, external negativity and a string of calamity. I needed something to cheer me up.
I found myself in a familiar place, the restaurant Pangea on 2nd Avenue. I went to see my friend Raquel Cion perform her one woman show in tribute to her idol, David Bowie. And so it was on a drive-in Saturday for Me & Mr. Jones: My Intimate and Personal Relationship with David Bowie. I found out about the winter residency of shows back in December. With the January dates off limits due to the staff party and March being too far away, February felt just right.
With the gin and tonic and my lemon tart at the head of the table, the lights go down just after 9:30 PM. The opening riff of “Moonage Daydream” rings out and Raquel comes in through the crowd in a gown that’s a cross between his “Life on Mars” video and the cover of his 1973 album, “Aladdin Sane”. She began with the first memory of school days where her fandom would conflict with her school’s dress codes.
To say that she and her connection to David Bowie is inseparable is an understatement. As the show continued, she takes the audience on a journey through her life and how intertwined he is with it, from scalping tickets to his Serious Moonlight tour, to seeing the film Cracked Actor during his Thin White Duke phase on the big screen, being on the verge of tears during the Chicago run of the David Bowie Is exhibit, the joy of hearing of his 2013 album “The Next Day” and the sorrow of his last days.
There’s a deeply personal moment in the show, when she tells the audience of her breast cancer diagnosis at the end of 2015. Not long after that, he passed away. One could feel the heartbreak as she leaves the stage during “Dollar Days” from 2016’s Blackstar with the anguish served by her band’s extended outro.
After one final costume change, it was time to let loose. The riff to “The Jean Genie” begins and it’s not long before I’m singing along to every word. The stomping riffs gave way to the timely, prescient paranoia of “I’m Afraid of Americans” as the show ended. She came back for an encore, just herself and her pianist Karl Saint Lucy for 1971’s “Life on Mars”.
Though this was the third time I’ve seen her show, the passion is there as if was the first time by. Raquel’s command of the stage anchored by an ace backing band and a mix of Bowie’s best known songs and obscure choices makes for an entertaining evening to please newbies, superfans and those in between like me. As I went over to hug her, it was the first time I’ve smiled in a week.
The winter residency has two more dates at Pangea on March 13th and 14th. If you’re in NYC, I highly recommend going.
I wish the song could go on forever and it was alright as this night was really quite out of sight.
