REVIEW: Live On Mars - The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Tribute acts can be strange things, delicately balancing somewhere between karaoke, mildly camp mimicry, and touching accolade. How well acts find this balance can be a bit of a lottery but when done right ‘tributing’ can reveal itself to be a really credible art form. From the Clone Roses to Oasish to Fake That, Manchester has a colourful reputation for both stunning and shambolic music icon tributes thus, after much acclaim, Alex Thomas’ visit to Manchester has really been a much awaited inevitability.

'Live On Mars' celebrates the best of iconic pop hero David Bowie; his music,artistry, style and showmanship. 'Live On Mars' fuses sound and vision to portray the essence of Bowie, his alter egos and creative muses. It is a star-studded set list including: 'The Jean Genie', 'Space Oddity', 'Life On Mars', 'Ziggy Stardust', 'Heroes', 'Ashes To Ashes', 'All The Young Dudes', 'Let’s Dance', 'The Man Who Sold The World', 'Changes', 'China Girl', 'Fashion', 'Moon Age Daydream', 'Fame', 'Starman', 'Rebel Rebel', 'Sound And Vision', 'Modern Love', and 'Young Americans'.

Bowie was an artist who blazed a trail of musical trends and pop fashion across many decades. Even those who claim to be ‘not much of a Bowie fan’ will find they know most of the words to many of his songs and recognise many of his outrageous alter egos.

Having been a huge Bowie fan for as long as I can remember, a show such as this, for me, could easily be a resounding hit or a cringeworthy miss. Alex Thomas’ performance carries a truly uncanny likeness to the legend. Every rasp and breath has been carefully matched to Bowie’s iconic tenor. It is very easy to suspend one’s disbelief; particularly when the performance is so perfectly synced with archive performance footage of Bowie himself. Thankfully Thomas refrains from garishly appropriating any of Bowie’s many style personas and instead simply presents himself as slick, understated and cool in a black waistcoat, shirt and trousers.

The music is accompanied by large projections of interview footage, archive performance footage, iconic photographs, and other animated accompaniment. There are moments when these visuals add an effective emotive dynamic to the performance, particularly the film work accompanying ‘Young Americans’ and ‘Fame’, but ultimately most of the time it comes across a little odd. The slideshow images of Bowie sometimes make it feel a bit like we’re at a funeral. I think what the visuals do allow however is for Thomas to recreate Bowie’s music with incredible accuracy whilst letting the image of Bowie speak for itself. In this sense the show feels respectful and authentic.

The Bridgewater Hall is a strange choice of venue because whilst the music was lively and energised the audience quite simply was not. The large seated auditorium of the Bridgewater Hall although beautiful does not exactly inspire a party atmosphere. You could tell the audience were itching to get on their feet but instead, through the whole first half, they just nodded along awkwardly. Thankfully however all inhibitions fell away in the second half and by the time ‘Lets Dance’ reached its chorus everyone in the building was on their feet.

'Live On Mars' is a simple, classy and dignified tribute to one of the greatest music stars of the last century. Thomas and his band more than deserve their end of the night standing ovation.

Reviewer - Oscar Lister
on - 18/11/18