The Diamond Dogs' David Bowie Tribute concert will explore the late singer's musical legacy.If you go
› What: Diamond Dogs: A David Bowie Tribute, with HardRockLover: A Prince Tribute opening.› When: 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20; doors open at 8 p.m.› Where: Revelry Room, 41 E. 14th St.› Admission: $10.› Phone: 423-521-2929.
Eric Scealf was a teenager pioneering Chattanooga's 1970s punk-rock scene when he first encountered the musical supernova, David Bowie, who was introducing the world to his Ziggy Stardust stage performances.
Scealf reveled in the raw visceral heart of punk, often leaving the stage at the end of a show exhausted and bruised. He wasn't sure he liked the Ziggy persona and stylized approach to performance, even though Bowie cited punk great Iggy Pop as an influence.
"I kept coming back to Bowie's music and listening to it and hearing greatness in it," Scealf says. "And there's greatness in every stage of his career. It doesn't surprise me that millennials are connecting with his music. Future generations will be re-interested in him. Look at [last year's] Blackstar video that Bowie made [at age 69], and you see that he was creative, doing amazing work."
Scealf will offer a tribute to Bowie with a show at Revelry Room on Saturday, Aug. 20. He'll be joined onstage by guitarists Richard Tate and Scott Courter, drummer Bob Courter and bass player Mike Courter, with Terry Montford playing keyboard and congas, and David Lescher sharing lead vocals. They will present Diamond Dogs: A David Bowie Tribute.
The world lost another rock icon this year when Prince died. The opening act is HardRockLover: A Prince Tribute Band.
Bowie had secured rock icon status when he died this January. He left a remarkably rich and varied legacy. Scealf's tribute will explore all the stages of Bowie's amazing career.
Scealf promises a unique approach onstage that will evoke the glam-rock years, the Berlin Trilogy era, the electronic- and industrial-influenced '80s and '90s and what Scealf fondly calls "underground Bowie." The latter refers to the years when Bowie, a senior citizen, returned from a decade-long musical hiatus to create extraordinary and innovative new music.
"There are Bowie songs most people have never heard because only people who sought them, really searched, ever found them," Lescher says.
He and Scealf say the lighting will play a large role in highlighting the changing timescape of Bowie's music. Instead of typical LED lighting, can lights from the 1970s flushed with a red tone will illuminate the stage for that era, giving the audience a sense they've traveled back through a time tunnel. The Berlin years will have a blue cast to the lighting, and underground Bowie will be in luminous white light that Scealf described as "ethereal."
And, Scealf promises, "the show will end with a surprise."
Contact Lynda Edwards at ledwards@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6391.