Written by: Geoff Tischman

“What I like my music to do to me, is awaken the ghosts inside of me,” David Bowie once said.

There were a lot of ghosts flying across the stage the other night at the Celebrating David Bowie show at Sony Hall in New York and every single one of them were dazzling.

The all-star eight-piece band—which was comprised of Adrian Belew, Todd Rundgren, Royston Langdon (Spacehog), Angelo Moore (Fishbone), bassist Angeline Saris, sax player Ron Dziubla, guitarist Angelo “Scrote” Bundini and drummer Travis McNabb (Better Than Ezra, The Wipers)—tore through a 30-song set that reached deep into Bowie’s songbook and evoked, in the process, the comfort and familiarity of the late singer’s timeless musical legacy.

And the results were spectacular.

Featuring space-age lighting, innumerable costume changes, brilliant musicianship and reverential musical camaraderie, Celebrating David Bowie was about as life-affirming as live music can get.

Hard to pick highlights, but “Young Americans” simmered mightily away, “The Man Who Sold The World” was nothing short of riveting and “Moonage Daydream” was absolutely perfect.

To see Rundgren and Belew on the same stage was one thing, but Moore is one of the greatest performers to ever take the stage and his table-hopping, sax playing and onstage gymnastics were beyond dynamic. The guy is a force.

Meanwhile, Langdon is an affectomg singer of tremendous range, Saris and Scrote were both nimble and cool and Dziubla blared away with melodic ease.

Truly a tremendous night.