Arcade Fire and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band will team up to lead a second line for David Bowie this Saturday, January 16.
The two bands and other mourners/revelers will meet at Preservation Hall in the French Quarter at 4pm to kick off the parade, which they have dubbed “Pretty Things.” According to a Facebook event page, the groups have requested that attendees come dressed in their “best Bowie outfit or something more strange.”
As you almost certainly know, Bowie passed away on Sunday, January 10 at the age of 69 following a lengthy battle with cancer. The iconic, often ineffable, rocker released his final album, Blackstar, only two days earlier. The record’s meditations on death and the unknown were–in many ways–Bowie’s final parting gift to his fans, as well as further proof of his genius. After all, who else could so successfully turn their own death into a groundbreaking piece of art?
Arcade Fire are no strangers to Bowie either. The musician appeared on the band’s 2013 album Reflektor, and he famously joined them for a rousing rendition of the their now-classic showstopper “Wake Up” at the 2005 Fashion Rocks concert. You can watch a clip of that rendition–one of Bowie’s last public performances–below.