Summer at the Bowl

Although we're now officially into Fall, I've decided it's not too late for a Summer recap. While it may result in a somewhat sloppy haphazard presentation, I'm going to let the photos in this post do most of the talking. Unless otherwise noted, these pix were taken by Becky with our far from perfect Olympus FE-170 digital camera. And now, without further ado, here are a few selected highlights of the 2008 Hollywood Bowl season:

R.E.M./Modest Mouse/The National May 29th, 2008


The National trying to make the best out of having to play in the daylight. This is truly a thankless gig, as virtually no one in LA can make it to the bowl by 7 on a week night. We arrived about halfway through their set, and I can't say I was all that impressed.

Becky and I clearly not as enthused as the Modest Mouse Fan on his feet behind us.











Still, though, I had to admit being pretty excited at seeing ex Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr playing with them:








Finally, it was time for the main event. R.E.M. thrilled the audience by kicking off their set with "Pretty Persuasion" from their 1984 album Reckoning. I've had my ups and downs with R.E.M. over the years, but there was something thrilling about hearing Peter Buck playing those notes on his signature Rickenbocker guitar. Below is video (sadly, without sound) of the band's stripped down acoustic performance of "Let Me In" from Monster:



Overall, R.E.M. really delivered, and I still maintain that Accelerate is one of their very best records.


Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers/Steve Winwood June 25, 2008

Becky is a longtime Tom Petty fan, so we ponied up some serious dough to get pretty decent seats for this. Neither one of us really cared about Steve Winwood, though, so we got to our seats just as he was finishing his set. Fortunately, later in the evening, Winwood and Petty would join forces on the only two Steve Winwood songs that anyone ever needs to hear, "Gimme Some Lovin'" and "Can't Find My Way Home". Tom Petty took the stage and announced "We're here to rock Hollywood", and then proceeded to do just that. See if you can find him in the blurry photo below:













July 4th Fireworks
Spectacular:
A Ball at the Bowl with the Dodgers
July 3rd, 2008


Just over a week later, we were back again for one of the Bowl's patented 4th of July fireworks shows. This has become an annual event for us, generously sponsored by my Uncle Dave. Seriously, I have a very large extended family, and every year, Uncle Dave buys tickets for any and all who want to go see the fireworks show at the Hollywood Bowl. He pays for these tickets out of his own pocket. To say that this is incredibly generous is putting it mildly. Photos below.

























Obligatory notes on the 4th of July program at the bowl:
The theme was the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers, which meant that they trotted out Tommy Lasorda to work the mike for a few minutes. Love him or hate him, Lasorda's a born entertainer. He kind of upstaged Randy Newman, to be honest.

A bunch of random Dodgers past were also paraded across the Bowl stage, which was okay, I guess.

Be that as it may, the 4th of July fireworks at the Hollywood Bowl are some of the best you'll ever see. Worth the money, worth the wait.

And finally, from a couple of years ago, yours truly pictured with the man behind the madness, Dave Beard, who's a man not afraid to wear flag antennae if the occasion calls for it:






Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds/Spiritualized/Cat Power 09/17/08

For a bill my friend referred to as "the Heroin All-Stars", this was a surprisingly rocking show. Cat Power opened, and this was the first time I'd seen her since her famously "troubled" club days. The rumors are true, and she's definitely performing with much more confidence these days. She even got down off the stage and walked along the edge of the pool circle at the bowl, which is something that I've never seen anybody do at a show there. Sadly, original material was in scant supply, but the parade of covers included one of "Fortunate Son", which is a song that I never seem to get tired of.

Spirtualized ably filled the middle slot with a muscular, stripped down approach, although their lyrical focus seemed limited to either songs about drugs or songs about God. Overall, though, Jason Pierce and Company held my interest and did their job, which was to get us ready for the main event.

And what to say about Nick Cave? The guy just walked out on stage and completely owned it from the very first second. Shifting effortlessly from new material like "Dig Lazarus Dig" to piano driven ballads like "Into My Arms", Cave and the Bad Seeds displayed their virtuosity again and again. If you've only heard Johnny Cash's version of "The Mercy Seat", do yourself a favor and seek out Cave's original. Ending the set with a blistering version of "Stagger Lee" from his album "Murder Ballads", Nick Cave showed that at 51, he hasn't lost a step.

Beck/Spoon/MGMT September 20th, 2008

Due to some technical difficulties, and in the interest of posting this end of summer round up before Christmas, I've decided to forgo uploading my usual crappy cell phone pix of the Nick Cave and Beck shows. This was a great bill to wrap up the summer season. Openers MGMT clearly had a lot of vocal supporters in the crowd, and while I was a little luke warm to their set, I've sinced listened to their album, Oracular Spectacular, and really enjoyed it.

Spoon delivered a rock solid set, complete with the occasional live horn section embellishments. My only complaint is that they should've ended with "The Underdog" (from their Ga Ga Ga Ga LP) instead of the less compelling tune that came after it.

From the moment Beck took the stage and began his set with "Loser", it was clear he and his band were in a crowd pleasing frame of mind. Covering material from nearly every phase of his career, the set was taken to an even higher level by bringing on a full orchestra to accompany some of the more somber tunes from Beck's Sea Change album. Add to the fact that this orchestra was conducted by David Campbell, (Beck's pappy) and this show was a prime example of a local boy making good.