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May 13, 2016 David Bowie By Christopher Roberts

Usually the way the A.V. Undercover series works is that bands pick a song to cover from a predetermined list, but this time Shearwater approached A.V. Club with the idea to cover the album. As Meiburg explains, he was listening to Lodger a lot last year. It’s not the most celebrated of Bowie albums, but was well-liked by Bowie himself, although he didn’t tour the album and rarely played any of its songs live. It was the final album in his Berlin trilogy with Brian Eno, following the better remembered Low and “Heroes.” (Personally, it’s one of my favorite Bowie albums.) Meiburg decided it might be fun to cover the whole album live and the band were actually rehearsing playing Lodger in January when they got word that Bowie had died.

“We were taking the album apart in rehearsals and figuring out how it worked when I received a text from a friend in the middle of the night that just read: ‘Bowie.’” Meiburg explains. “Hours later, the news was everywhere. It was a weird feeling; our little project suddenly felt much heavier, and I wondered for a minute if we should put it aside. But it was also kind of liberating. I had secretly hoped that if we did a really good job, DB might hear about it one way or another; maybe I might even get a note from him, or his people, and I could invite him to our New York show! All that vanished in an instant. Now it was just music.”

Shearwater covered all of a Lodger during a 40-minute encore at a sold out show in Chicago and the audience reaction was positive. It was the next day that they went into the A.V. Club offices to record their take on Lodger. Their version is very faithful to the original and sounds absolutely fantastic, Meiburg’s vocals not a million tones away from Bowie’s. It’s hard not to think that Bowie would’ve at least smiled when watching Shearwater’s performance.

Also, in case you forgot, Shearwater also released an excellent album, Jet Plane and Oxbow, back in January on Sub Pop. Watch the whole glorious performance below and head over to A.V. Club to read Meiburg’s full article on Lodger.

Shearwater Tour Dates:

Jun. 11 - Antwerpen, BE - Bourla
Jun. 12 - London, UK - Field Day Festival
Jun. 14 - Rotterdam, NL - Rotown
Jun. 15 - Aachen, DE - Musikbunker
Jun. 16 - Kriens, CH - B-Sides Festival
Jun. 17 - Sion, CH - Le Port Franc
Jun. 22 - Zagreb, HR - INmusic Festival
Jun. 23 - Ljubljana, SI - Kino Siska
Jun. 24 - Ebensee, AT - Kino Ebensee
Jun. 26 - Budapest, HU - A38
Jun. 27 - Vienna, AT - Arena
Jun. 28 - Munchen, DE - Strom
Jun. 29 - Münster, DE - Gleis 22
Jun. 30 - Groningen, NL - Vera
Jul. 01 - The Hague, NL - Paard van Troje
Jul. 02 - Elsloo, NL - Conincx Pop Festival