Welcome to the world of Michael T., where music is put on a living pedestal for the regular enjoyment of downtown Manhattan.
T. is a performer, DJ and club promoter who has found his niche paying tribute to various artists who may or may not be household names but who have made an impression on his life and others’. He’s been involved in or produced shows that run the tribute gamut, with a partial list that includes Elvis Presley, The Cars, The Stooges, T. Rex, The New York Dolls, The Ramones, Queen, The Cramps and, the king of this road, David Bowie.
“I always do something on Bowie’s birthday,” he notes. But this past Friday at Joe’s Pub was the debut of “Bowie: 80”, which was not another birthday show (that would be on Jan. 8, a date that Bowie shares with Elvis) but a multi-media production that dealt with that titular year of 1980, probably Bowie’s most varied 12-month period.
In that time, Bowie released the album “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps),” performed on Broadway in “The Elephant Man,” made an appearance in the film “Christiane F,” appeared on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson and released numerous chart-topping singles (the only thing he didn’t do was tour).
So 1980 was a busy year for Bowie, and it was a year that T. was fully present for.
“Of course, I had listened to Ziggy and Aladdin Sane, but that was years after they came out. I heard Scary Monsters when it was new – it’s my favorite Bowie period,” T. said.
When T. got the date for the Joe’s Pub show, he immediately started writing out a timeline and a narrative, dividing the show into different chapters and planning the costume changes and everything else in what turned out to be an ambitious undertaking.
“I picked the video clips, met with the tech people, rehearsed the band and singers. … I didn’t realize how long everything would take. It was like a mini Off-Broadway show for just one night.”
In a voice that referenced Bowie without being a slavish imitation, T. fronted a band of “a-list musicians” with a set list that combined the familiar (“Ashes to Ashes,” “Fashion”) with the less so (“Teenage Wildlife,” “Crystal Japan”) while projecting images of Bowie and related subjects above the stage.
“It’s No Game (Part One)” was staged with singer Ruco Nishino as a reference to John Lennon’s assassination, which also occurred that year (although it was not written as such).
T., who was born and raised in NYC, got his start working in various clubs in various positions. He’s been a party promoter, doorman, MC, DJ and performer pretty much everywhere, frequenting places like the Limelight, Webster Hall, the Pyramid, Jackie 60 and he was the man behind legendary parties such as “Motherf**ker”, “Rated X”, and “Oh! You Pretty Things.”
One of his first performances was as part of a trio with Miss Guy and JoJo America called “Tri-Sexual Trash” that “mostly lip-synced to glam rock songs.”
When a friend saw him perform at the Limelight and suggested that he form a real band, T. did just that with the result being “Killer Lipstick,” whose first show consisted of only four songs — one of which was a Bowie cover.
T. took a break from performing for a while, though, to concentrate on the party promotion scene. When he went back to it, he “started to do things on a grander scale,” doing tributes to the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Cabaret,” and performing with an orchestra.
Although he has written his own songs in the past, it’s no longer something that he feels compelled to do, as he finds it very satisfying to work with the vast amount of material that is already out there: “I look at a song like a script, like a story, and my job is to interpret and entertain the audience.”
The theatrics in the “Bowie: 80” show definitely point to an ambitious direction for future shows.
The audience was certainly entertained on Friday night, and that included T.’s 87-year-old mother, who gave it a thumbs up (along with his brother and aunt). T. was happy too, although he wished that he had more time to work on certain elements.
“I felt good about it,” he muses. “I felt in the whole creative process that I was doing something that I believed in and that everyone who was involved believed in it. It felt like a very strong, fulfilling accomplishment. I like the fact that I stuck with my original idea and didn’t do something more commercial.”
You can follow Michael T. on Instagram at @temichaelmt. Watch for two upcoming Halloween shows: Sally Can’t Dance tribute to the Cramps at Bowery Electric on Oct. 30 and the 50th anniversary celebration of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at The Slipper Room on Oct. 31.
