This show has insatiable fans of David Bowie and Kate Bush covered

The Band Who Fell to Earth (named after Bowie’s 1976 sci-fi film “The Man Who Fell to Earth”), formed and led by Atlanta musician Allen Welty-Green, has been performing Bowie’s extensive repertoire, from Ziggy Stardust to the Thin White Duke, for 13 years around Atlanta. Their third lead vocalist (and first female), Atlanta actor and singer Christina Leidel, joined them in 2024.

The Hounds, who have some musicians in common with The Band Who Fell to Earth, have only been around for two years, with Audrey Gamez channeling Bush’s multi-octave soprano range and memorably choreographed dance moves.

Tribute bands frequently try to look like, as well as sound like. the originals they are honoring, but Leidel, who performs with her long red hair loose, doesn’t pretend to be male. Bowie, who was bisexual and sometimes dressed as a woman, would no doubt approve of a woman fronting a Bowie tribute band.

“To me, the music transcends gender,” says Leidel. “Bowie was such a master of reinvention, he would be supportive of our reinventing the presentation of these songs from a gender perspective and exploring new angles to them.”

As a young girl, she discovered Bowie the actor as the Goblin King in “Labyrinth,” then followed with a deep dive into his music. When Welty-Green contacted her about stepping in as Bowie after the departure of two male lead singers, she made a playlist she could rehearse to on a long car trip she took with her husband Rob Clark, a research scientist at Georgia Tech.

It contained all her favorite Bowie songs, she says. It was 59 hours long. It’s not clear if she is kidding.

“One of the things that I’ve always loved about him and his performing and his music is that it’s so theatrical. He’s a storyteller, he’s a character builder. And that resonates with me, coming from the theater world,” says Leidel, whose resume includes the title role in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” at Actor’s Express.

“A lot of people focus on his image and his presentation,” says Welty-Green, “but for me it’s the way he’s reinvented himself musically.”

Credit: (Courtesy of Jay Hudson)

Credit: (Courtesy of Jay Hudson)

Meanwhile, on Facebook, Atlantan Audrey Gamez had been noticing the craze for jukebox musicals like “Beautiful” about Carole King, and fan-girling on Kate Bush, whose music she had recently discovered.

Bush, who was always more of a niche musical artist than Bowie, received an enormous boost in awareness when the Netflix show “Stranger Things” used her song “Running Up That Hill” on its soundtrack in 2022.

“Just kind of tongue in cheek,” she says, “I posted, ‘When is somebody going to write the Kate Bush musical and cast me in it?’”

To which Welty-Green replied, “Be careful what you wish for!”

The Bowie band comprises Welty-Green on keyboards, Kath Fidler on sax, Rob Dwyer on guitar, Bill Sommers on drums and Jeff Tyson on bass. Welty-Green, Dwyer and Sommers also play in the Hounds of Love and are joined by Marva Rodriguez (who also plays in a Heart tribute band) on keyboards and additional vocals.

Since the dual bill is a celebration of pop music history, it’s appropriate that it’s at the Avon, which has one of the crazier histories of Atlanta buildings. Built in 1924 as part of Avondale Estates’ Tudor Village, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been home to Avondale Estates City Hall, a post office, a movie theater and a boxing venue.

But its claim to fame over the years is as a music venue. It hosted Elvis Presley in 1956, R.E.M., the B-52s and the Allman Brothers Band. Nowadays it books mostly tribute bands, sometimes of the real musicians who used to play there decades before.

CONCERT PREVIEW

The Band Who Fell to Earth and Hounds of Love: David Bowie and Kate Bush Tribute

8 p.m. Saturday, June 14 at Avon Theater. Tickets: $25-$35. 106 N. Avondale Road, Avondale Estates. avon-theater.com