KENNETH ANDREW & THE ODDITIES
Bowie lives on at the Orange Cafe
Screeches of 80’s guitar open the quintet’s set as they resolve to the familiar opening chords of “Space Oddity”. It’s a fairly faithful yet powerful cover with more distortion adding an edge and finishing the song in a burst of 80’s power rock. The set continues and it soon becomes clear Kenneth Andrew and the Oddities take their name and song choice from David Bowie, as they continue with “Ziggy Stardust”.
The band also dresses the part, their clothes looking like they have been preserved perfectly from the 80’s. A special shoutout to the beautiful 80’s rock hair of the guitarist that just makes his solos that much better. The keyboardist can’t quite match him in style but does instrumentally, stealing the show on “Life on Mars” with his piano sound and otherwise providing strong support. Kenneth Andrew himself presents a good copy of the thin Duke, both in voice and dance moves.
“Rebel, Rebel” involves the crowd the most, getting them sloshing around in the mud of the Orange Cafe and chanting the chorus back at the band. The next song “Life on Mars” falls a little flat, mainly due to the style of singing but they bounce back quickly with “We Can Be Heroes” to end with. Overall, it was a pleasant set presenting slices of Bowie played in the rougher style of his Diamond Dogs days
