The National/Local Natives, October 11, 2017 at the Hollywood Bowl

The National aren’t the draw for us that they used to be, only because we’ve seen them so much, and most of those shows have been the most special we’ve shared, but it still can just take a nudge to get us to go out and see them again. We had even already seen them play the Hollywood Bowl already, another one of the best shows, and going out on a weekday night is usually a challenge. But we also wanted something to commemorate our anniversary, and we could make a National show into a special night (with the bit of relationship trivia that we could have met the night before we did at a National show we both went to). I got the tickets on Seatgeek (for probably around the base price, which might have been more about the lateness of the event and some poor soul having to drop their price just to get rid of them). It should have been a draw on its own to have openers Local Natives -- one of Carla’s bands before we met (and who had been at my bachelor party in Austin) -- but we were still good enough with them to only get there halfway through the set (and missing Daughter before them). The National did the usual show, mature: moody music dialed down to not too excitable but comfortable and occasionally more than a little demure, but it was also when I realized I wasn't as excited about them as I once was. I hadn’t kept up with the new stuff, maybe even two albums back, and they leaned harder on what they could assume an audience newer to them could expect. My hope is always for anything from Boxer, and while this set had a couple from that, this was about the last time they’d play anything as old, or anything before High Violet (which also at the time was a bit of a disappointment, if only because it wasn't Boxer). It’s not fair to judge them on their reticence for their former selves, but the difference between old vs. new stuff was stark, especially when they were what they were building was weaker than the foundation that enabled them to keep it going. If bands aren’t over the trend of playing whole albums and The National need a new shtick to mount another tour by playing Boxer in its entirety, you know I’d be there. In the meantime I'd acquaint myself with new efforts in the hopes that an old tune will pop up or that an album will do well overall.  For this they still had plenty of good tunes, ideally the best plucked from the scattering of material they’d done since last time, but it was all a bit too cold to not be warmed by familiarity. Downer music can take a bit to get into, and it can be worth it, but the first time can start at a distance. Though the other side to it is that we still love them and it’s plenty to discover progressively later, and enough to get ready for the inevitable next show, even without being a landmark in our relationship, though there’s no reason to not make it a new one. (And a shout-out to Chris who we ran into there and marked the occasion by remembering it was our anniversary.)

The National’s set-list:
"Nobody Else Will Be There"
"The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness"
"Walk It Back"
"Guilty Party"
"Don't Swallow the Cap"
"Afraid of Everyone"
"Born to Beg"
"I'll Still Destroy You"
"Turtleneck"

"I Need My Girl"

"Secret Meeting"

"Conversation 16"
"Slow Show"
"England"
"Bloodbuzz Ohio"
"Carin at the Liquor Store"
"Day I Die"
"Fake Empire"
"About Today"

"Pink Rabbits"
"Mr. November"
"Terrible Love"

Local Natives' set-list:

"Past Lives"

"Wide Eyes"

"You & I"

"Dark Days"

"Who Knows, Who Cares"

"Coins"

"Ceilings" (with Aaron Dessner)

"Fountain of Youth"

"Sun Hands"

Blondie/Garbage/Sky Ferreira, July 9, 2017 at the Hollywood Bowl

It's taken me years to come to the harsh realization that Garbage never got as far as they deserved, that they never played the very biggest venues and even occasionally were still an opening band, but it was still a surprise and perplexing that they never played the Hollywood Bowl. Maybe they could have pulled off headlining it back in the day, but especially now they had to be part of a shared bill, especially when they were still moving forward instead of chasing some '90s nostalgia thing that never hit as hard as the' 80s thing did (for better or worse). Putting Blondie on that bill might have split the difference between the two eras, but it was still two bands that made for a great show, even if a person weren't obsessed by one of those groups. There was never much reason to go out of the way to see Blondie, especially when they hadn’t shown up on festival line-ups, but they're probably a bucket-list band. But really, they were just extra frosting for seeing Garbage. Garbage by this point had probably gotten around to every venue in L.A. (if not the world, the tour dogs that they are), but playing the Bowl isn't usually about the size of the crowd that place can pull but connecting to the history, majesty, and notoriety of the most noteworthy performing space in the city, if not the world. Garbage probably appreciated that, at least, if not for the fact that they still had the pull to make it there, even if they weren't heading the bill. It's always a place threatening to envelop whoever's on stage but Garbage could trot out their hits and hold their own. We even got a song I didn’t know yet (the opener, a single, noting how they weren’t touring on a new album for this show). It might have been just another tour stop for Blondie (the band, not just Debbie Harry (as some radio DJs haven’t even gotten right)), who out-veteraned Garbage, and maybe they had even played the Bowl before, back in their heyday, but they still held up a good show, strolling through their hits while having the confidence in their new stuff (off Pollinator; not strong enough to continue their string of having a #1 hit in multiple decades) to play it alongside. It might have been inconsistent but with as many noteworthy songs as they have, there's only so much they can do in a tour through their history. “Hanging on the Telephone” was probably a gimme, though welcome (as my main reason to see them, even if it was just them), and they didn't bother giving it a lead-up by playing it early in the set, but they had enough other, more-recognizable songs, even if those weren't necessarily better. “Dreaming” wasn't a big hit, yet they left it to the end, a bit of a mellow lead out, but we left before it (during “Heart of Glass”), on a more spirited note (and just wanting to beat the exiting crowd). “Voices Carry” might be one of the most perfectly-recorded songs ever committed to tape, a song so exquisite that covering it should be a perilous risk, but Sky Ferreira (there without a recent release, probably just to pop up to play the Bowl) did her best to make it work. In a live setting its performed imperfections could be overlooked, as well as the guarded admiration in making the attempt, but as part of a set that didn't need to stick by an opener, and who we just happened to see when going in early after our picnic with Jen (who I arrived with, taking the shuttle over from Lankershim), Vanessa, Dave, Liz, and Liz’s family outside, it amounted to a novelty, albeit pleasant, for a nice evening at the Bowl with some rock from the eras.

Blondie’s set-list:
“One Way or Another“
“Hanging on the Telephone“ (The Nerves cover)
“Fun“
“Call Me“
“Rapture“
“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35“ (Bob Dylan cover)
“Fragments“ (An Unkindness cover)
“Long Time“
“Atomic“
“Too Much“
“Heart of Glass“
“Union City Blue“
“Dreaming“

Garbage’s set-list:
“No Horses“
“Queer“
“#1 Crush“
“Empty“
“I Think I'm Paranoid““
“Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)
“Special“
“Cup of Coffee“ (with Inara George)
“Even Though Our Love Is Doomed“
“The World Is Not Enough“
“Stupid Girl“
“Only Happy When It Rains“
“Push It“
“Vow“

Sky Ferreira’s set-list:
“24 Hours“
“Ain't Your Right“
“Guardian“
“I Blame Myself“
“Voices Carry“ (’Til Tuesday cover)
“You're Not the One“

Kraftwerk, September 18, 2016 at the Hollywood Bowl

Jen sometimes has extra concert tickets, and I like going to concerts with Jen, and we didn't have anything going on on a Sunday night, so I was in for seeing Kraftwerk. I wouldn't have planned on the show because I’ve never been much familiar with the group, but I knew they were influential enough to be something I should know (and with the cred of having Kim Deal more excited to see them than play with the Pixies at Coachella). And it’s hard to come up with an excuse to pass on a Hollywood Bowl show on a summer night (and then so many friends and so much cheese beforehand). Every cool (almost cold), angular song seemed at least familiar, as most of their stuff has been appreciated and lauded then mined and swiped and sampled for longer than I’ve been alive, leading up to “Computer Love” which has been outright stolen by Kanye and Coldplay, just to name two (and my entry to the original, and more than one Google search to dig up what cover the newer acts were playing). The vaunted 3D aspect of the show could have been cheesy and even tired for any other group, surely not a component that would at all be necessary for a concert, but for them it worked. It was a visual for four German dudes who didn’t move from their synthesizers, without even the energy of a drum-kit, and making it extra-dimensional gave the show another level, and actually kinda cool to watch, though it could far too easily be overdone if everyone else wanted to try to make it work (and the paper glasses were a nice souvenir). I can’t tell if there was much deviation from the studio versions of the songs, especially when they could have had all the music tracked ahead of time, so I don't know what seeing them in concert had really done, save for being in their presence, but I can now say that I paid respect to our ancestors and heard the originals performed by the originals, who are still active and moving (except in concert) and iconic enough to get to play the Bowl a decade after their last recorded effort (or a generation and a half if that was considered a token)).

Kraftwerk’s set-list:
“Numbers“
“Computer World“
“Home Computer“
“Computer Love“
The Man-Machine“
“Spacelab“
“The Model“
“Neon Lights“
“Metropolis“
“Autobahn“
“Geiger Counter“
“Radioactivity“
“Electric Café“
“Tour de France“
“Tour de France Étape 1“
“Chrono“
“Tour de France Étape 2“
“Trans-Europe Express“

“The Robots”

“Aéro Dynamik“
“Planet of Visions“
“Boing Boom Tschak“
“Techno Pop“
“Musique Non Stop“

Blur/Courtney Barnett, October 20, 2015 at the Hollywood Bowl

A friend of mine said some years back that if you were a Britpop fan (presumably from the ‘90s), out of Oasis, Suede, and Blur, you loved two of those but not all three. It’s stuck with me since then and I’ve found reasons to argue then not argue it. My love for Oasis is well-documented, but there’s some Suede stuff I don’t connect to, so I always figured it was them and that would automatically make me a Blur fan. But in considering most of their stuff I’ve had since early on, I can’t always be excited about listening to it. Some of it I’ve just gone with putting it on and took my fandom for them for granted. Looking at it closer, there were probably singles that I really liked, but some I hated (in particular “Boys & Girls,” which has taken me years and a Pet Shop Boys cover just to tolerate), and a lot of other material that doesn’t always move me. I’ve even seen them before, at a pretty lackluster show that wasn’t necessarily representative of what they built their name on, but Graham also wasn’t with them at that time, so they could get some slack, but provisionally. So all this could explain why I didn’t jump on getting Blur tickets for their Bowl show and would have been cool with missing it, but then Rachel came through with an extra on a free night and I went, almost like it was just any other show. It wasn’t a guarantee that I would have considered any show a bunch of my friends were going to, but being Blur helped. I rode over with Jen and the bunch of us got together before and picnicked, like usual for a Bowl show. Courtney Barnett opening was more of a draw than Blur themselves, and a coup of an opener, near her initial height, and should have been a big deal on her own. But part of her appeal is her slacker aesthetic and that’s hard to translate to such a massive space as the Bowl and she couldn’t fill it, especially with folks just wandering in and too cool and/or British to be taken over by her catchy songs about very pedestrian topics. It didn’t work but anyone could chalk it up to being the wrong venue for her and wishing to go back in time to see her at a more appropriate club (or, even better, a bar, if that could even happen) (and, for us, seeing more than just the second half of her set). Blur finally did their thing, even making a showing of putting in songs from their newest album, The Magic Whip like this was just another tour stop for an album so successful that everyone would want to hear the new stuff. They only did two shows in America, here (pulling a Tuesday night) and New York, so it could be assumed that this could have been a big deal for all the fans in the western half of the country, and a presumed showcase of new stuff might not sell well for those who are obsessed enough to only want classic stuff. And the new singles (if they even had any) didn’t catch on enough here to get more to fill the Bowl with, by my estimation from the cheap seats, about half full, and even most of those present lethargic at best, if because of L.A. cool or these fans not being the teeny-boppers they once were and were more content to stand back with arms crossed and hoping it would pick up and they would get more out of it than the just-enough that the band wanted to passively offer (even with Graham). We were dancing, helped when they wisely jump-started it with “There’s No Other Way” early on, even if that didn’t do anything for the field of empty seats where we were. No mention of Gorillaz, unless Damon’s lack of spirit could be attributed to having to drag along his old band when he could have played to more with the new, more energetic stuff by the ones who weren't Blur. If there’s an explanation for how Gorillaz got bigger in the States than Blur, it could be that he had contributors that actually still wanted to do the stuff, and material and a brand that could move with the time and stay fun and cool, instead of some stodgy English blokes with no big hit songs except for the “Woo Hoo” one that was completely unlike anything else they did and which had already been played to death and lost to the generation that would make them stars here. Not the show to polish their legendary status (if only somewhere else in the world) but the other show wrapped their series in less than a week and they could move on from whatever obligation they had, just like the States would go on with them only being a footnote in popular music from somewhere else. As for me, I got the Oasis side-projects and started getting more out of Suede.

Blur’s set-list:
“Music Box Instrumentals“ (PA intro)
“Go Out“
“There's No Other Way“
“Lonesome Street“
“Badhead“
“Ghost Ship“
“Coffee & TV“
“Out of Time“
“Caravan“
“Beetlebum“
“Thought I Was a Spaceman“
“Trimm Trabb“
“Tender“ (outro: "Don't fall for Trump/He's such a chump")
“Parklife“ (with Fred Armisen)
“Song 2“
“To the End“
“This Is a Low“

“Stereotypes“
“Girls & Boys“
“For Tomorrow“
“The Universal“

Courtney Barnett’s set-list:
"Avant Gardener"
"Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go to the Party"
"Small Poppies"
"Depreston"
"Elevator Operator"
"An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless in New York)"
"Dead Fox"
"Pedestrian at Best"

Smokey Robinson/L.A. Philharmonic, July 4, 2015 at the Hollywood Bowl

The 4th of July show at the Bowl is always an option for the holiday, and I always look forward to seeing who will be playing there that night because it’s not only often a possibility but the show on that night is always a great event, sometimes not even for the main performer (we saw Josh Groban one year, remember) but for the fireworks and the grand event of one of the best nights of the summer in a place where they make such a big deal out of it.  There’s also the attendant picnic before, or even during, the show, even if it’s been just me & Carla, but even better when we have more of our drinkers' group out.  This year, Rachel offered tickets from her LiveNation contacts and we were in.  We got a good-sized group out, with the usual great food and wine to share before the show.  The performance by  the philharmonic has become pretty rote by now, though still impressive, as any performance by such a magnificent and large orchestra can be, but the fireworks are still a sight, even if they’re the same every year, and this coming from a fellow who is not easily impressed by a fireworks show.  This year's musical performance was the Smokey Robinson, and even though it didn’t completely matter who was playing as long as we were seeing a 4th of July show, it was still great to witness a living legend.  He’s slower than he probably was in his hey-day but he still has plenty of moves, and enough hits to pack a show with songs that every person knows and enough swagger to make ladies swoon.  Unfortunately, his set seemed far too short, even shorter than most bands get in sharing a bill with the orchestra.  It’s hard to complain since we’re there for the whole night and not just one performer, but at least it was enough to get in and out without it dragging.  We probably wouldn’t see Smokey on his own (at least not without our parents), and seeing a truncated show in place of a full one was a mild let-down, but seeing the man while he’s still with us, along with friends and fireworks and wine and the rest on such a slendid summer night, was great for another holiday.

Pixies/Gogol Bordello/Cat Power, September 28, 2014 at the Hollywood Bowl

Pixies have played every other venue in L.A., if not the rest of the world, that when they play a new place it doesn’t seem like fresh exploration so much as checking off another one from a list.  Playing the Hollywood Bowl should be a big deal for any band, even one who has been around the world so often, but for them it just seemed like an obligation.  It’s almost like it must be something in their contract to not play a stage they’ve already been, even if they don’t sell it out.  It would have been a momentous occasion to see them there if they hadn’t already tried to wear out their welcome everywhere else.  As such, we didn’t rush to get tickets.  We might have even skipped the show, having already seen the best of what they have (and more -- or less -- at Coachella that year), even when they switch up the set-list every night (making a case for seeing them multiple times) but now mixing in new stuff that didn’t need to be experienced more than once (or at all).  It was the under-card of the event that had us, and when the drinking kids were going to make a night of it, we figured we might as well be in too.  We tried out a new picnic spot and didn’t hurry in to see Cat Power.  It’s great that they got her for that show and I count myself as a fan, but anyone would know that her demure angst wasn’t going to electrify the place.  And indeed it didn’t.  What is a welcome, intimate listen through headphones on a bad day doesn’t convey the same energy in such a big setting.  Her festival-appropriate performances with her Southern-blues band fit her, but that night was back to the quiet confessional that just wouldn’t get anyone on their feet.  But if an opening band is a warm-up then she was good enough if she had to be.  However, there’s also the risk of an opening band eclipsing who they’re opening for, and anyone who hires on Gogol Bordello to play before them hoping to retain their audience clearly don’t know what they’re in for.  Gogol Bordello explode any line-up and it’s up to the other bands they play after to catch up, if they can.  It was either lack of forewarning, straight stupidity, or another sign that the Pixies really don't care to let such a band go on before them, but it was a selling point for us.  The gypsy-punks of Gogol Bordello are a hand-grenade dropped in the middle of a crowd, maybe a little more new-school than the oldies coming to see the Pixies would expect but it’s more of an effort to resist an explosion than to let it take you over.  Rock music is rock music.  Gogol Bordello can fill any time-slot, whether it’s their show or for another band, and they blow it up in their own unique way without a challenge.  Even the open-air lack of confines couldn’t pin them down that night, as ever.  They bring it all on the stage and don’t take anything back with them.  Eugene even started with wearing a button-down shirt -- yeah, quickly gone.  It could have been easily forgiven for any new fans to jump ship from the Pixies to the Bordello that night, especially when the former wouldn’t bother to attempt to recapture the energy of their (second) openers.  The Pixies were and are as sturdy as they ever have been.  They’re a good band, proficient enough with the great songs of their past, not matter how many times we’ve heard them and seen the band (as unavoidable as they’ve been with festivals and shows since their reunion, now running much longer than their original incarnation).  Like any other band, it’s up to their front-person to set the stage and their presence -- or lack of it -- can make or break a show.  Frank Black Francis is famously a turgid presence and generally no one seems to care.  Early on in the reunion he was still shredding his voice and might even engage the audience (though any effort was leagues beyond what he used to).  Now he seems like this whole reunion thing is just dragging out and he would rather be anywhere else doing anything else.  At one point we could have been happy that he was out there with all of them together doing those songs we love so much but it’s been so long that it seems like they’re going on with it just because they don’t want to have to be annoyed by their lives when they’re not being the Pixies (the spearhead of that being Black himself).  An old band could bring it back again with new songs and a renewed purpose but Black hasn’t bothered with that either; his own begrudging obligation to have to put together new stuff for the band is clearly the basis of any of the new tracks, and they clearly did not refresh or energize them.  Even bringing on Paz didn’t enliven anything.  More than any other time, Kim's absence was felt, as a counterweight to Black's apathy if nothing else; we can get over her not being with them anymore -- we know she can go on to other worthy stuff (and maybe she’s the smart one for getting out while the getting was good) -- so we won’t hold it against Paz.  She could get some sympathy for being the one person excited to be up there.  Joey and Dave try as much as they can but without guidance for a leader then they’re just going through the motions and pinning it up as another shift to punch; it can only be draining to have to have a leader who hasn't cared in years.  Dave even noted that that day was an anniversary of their first album being released -- an auspicious occasion and one to be celebrated (even if it surely was only by coincidence on the same night that they had to play the Bowl) -- but the fact that it took the drummer to announce it when the singer -- the guy that everyone is listening to -- couldn’t be bothered just showed how apathetic some of the disparate parts could be (as if it needed to be further emphasized).  It wasn't a bad set, even with the new material, but it was fairly standard, as maybe it was supposed to be playing such an important show, even if that was lost on the band.  It was what anyone would expect, no surprises, probably just the standards that Paz knows.  It could be imagined that the rest of the band finished the show and went home like it was any other night and any other show, that they might or might not have even wanted to do.  We in the audience left the show and went home, a shame the night couldn't mean more for us since it didn't mean much for them.

Pixies' set-list:
"Bone Machine"
"Wave of Mutilation"
"U-Mass"
"Something Against You"
"Hey"
"Gouge Away"
"Bagboy"
"Crackity Jones"
"Caribou"
"Magdalena 318"
"Nimrod's Son"
"Indie Cindy"
"Here Comes Your Man"
"La La Love You"
"Greens and Blues"
"Isla de Encanta"
"Monkey Gone to Heaven"
"Debaser"
"Tame"
"Vamos"
"Where Is My Mind?"

"Planet of Sound"

Gogol Bordello's set-list:
"Ultimate"
"Not a Crime"
"Wonderlust King"
"The Other Side of Rainbow"
"Last One Goes the Hope"
"My Companjerav
"Immigraniada (We Comin' Rougher)"
"Start Wearing Purple"

Cat Power's set-list (incomplete):
"The Greatest"
"Cherokee"
"Manhattan"
"Shivers" (The Boys Next Door cover) (With "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" snippet)
"Sea of Love" (Phil Phillips cover)

Billy Joel, May 17, 2014 at the Hollywood Bowl

I’d seen Billy Joel years ago and that was probably good enough for the rest of my life but in the time since I’d developed more of an appreciation of his catalog (even if it was still only off the first two greatest-hits volumes) and I wouldn’t have minded seeing him again.  Playing the Bowl was an event in itself, maybe even rivaling the show at the MGM in Vegas with Elton John where I saw him the first time.  He had said that it wasn’t going to be a greatest-hits set, and he could be forgiven for not going down that road yet again.  Heck, this was after how many times that he’d said he had retired.  So I hadn’t jumped on tickets but Carla knew I had some desire to go, and she knew we could make a great night of it, and that became my birthday present.  Not bad.  We jumped into Bowl-mode, getting a picnic dinner together and having time outside before going into the show, which was as full as we’d ever seen it.  The set turned out to have enough hits to satisfy us, more than half, and we didn’t feel like we missed anything by not knowing every single song, since those songs were still as solid as any other popular thing he’d done anyway.  This was more of a show by an artist, performing for the crowd that came to see him, rather than pandering to what he thought they wanted.  And that worked fine, since a master showman like himself knows just how much to dole out.  The high-point for me came early (and it would have been as great a shock as I’ve ever gotten at a concert if I hadn’t looked at his recent set-lists beforehand) that he played “Pressure,” a criminally-forgotten gem not only in his catalog but in the entire oeuvre of great rock music.  I never understood why no hard-rock band has ever turned around a cover of that song, especially back in the late-’90s when every nu-metal band tried to make their name on an easy ‘80s cover (and, unfortunately, some of them succeeding).  It came too early in the set, with Joel and his band not quite warm enough to bring much heat to the tune, but the fact it was included and that they made a go of it was enough for me.  The rest of the night might have been a typical evening at the Bowl but that’s nothing less than reliably extraordinary and special.  And if Joel isn’t going to actually, officially retire, maybe he has another series of shows like this still in him, maybe with some other hits, maybe with a pick-up band to tear down his catalog like it hasn’t already been done.


Billy Joel’s set-list:
“Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)“
“Pressure“
“Everybody Loves You Now“
“Vienna“ (audience chose between this and “Summer Highland Falls“)
“The Magnificent Seven Theme“ (Elmer Bernstein cover) (snippet)
“The Ballad of Billy the Kid“
“Zanzibar“
“The Entertainer“
“Where's the Orchestra?“
“Allentown“
“Say Goodbye to Hollywood“ (first time since the '80s)
“New York State of Mind“
“Sometimes a Fantasy“
“Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)“ (“Layla“ interlude)
“She's Always a Woman“
“Don't Ask Me Why“
“The River of Dreams“ (featuring part of "Surfin' USA")
“Scenes From an Italian Restaurant“
“Piano Man“

“It's Still Rock and Roll to Me“
“Big Shot“
“You May Be Right“ (with Adam Levine)
“Only the Good Die Young“

Rodrigo y Gabriella/Devotchka/Lord Huron, July 14 at the Hollywood Bowl

Noa loves Rodrigo y Gabriela.  Or she just loves going to shows at the Bowl.  Maybe both.  But she invited us to go with her people for the show there and it's hard to turn down a Sunday night show at the Bowl.  Rodrigo y Gabriela don't have any hit songs but then, it's only the two of them with guitars, no vocals, and they're still utterly amazing.  Amazing enough to sell that many tickets as well as to captivate the crowd every time.  They apparently don't play mostly covers anymore, but they make up for the unfamiliarity with power, intensity, endurance, musicianship, and all-around fun.  One of the best live shows around, confounding expectations when you can't sing along.  Devotchka opened.  I often equate them to Gogol Bordello, but without the intensity of the stage show, just by the music, which I've never investigated, just what I've heard tangentially at festivals.  Lord Huron opened before them and they were pleasant enough but honestly I was riding a heavy buzz at that point just after we went in.  More than the music we saw it was an evening with friends, peaking early with a grand picnic at the tables outside across the parking lots.  Noa's friends can bring some great food.  We brought fried chicken (since it was a picnic).  It's a time that reminds anyone what a wonderful night you can have at the Bowl, with cherished friends and food and wine, no matter who's on stage -- but even better when there's someone amazing there.

Josh Groban/L.A. Philharmonic, July 4 at the Hollywood Bowl

The night before, Carla said that Dayna had tickets for the July 4th show at the Hollywood Bowl.  We didn't have plans for the holiday and I didn't see why we couldn't do it.  Dayna & Carlos are always a good time to hang out with, and there would be the fireworks and the L.A. Philharmonic and we could take a picnic.  Though we knew there was more to it than that: We know that the July 4th celebration has someone performing a concert at the Bowl that night, along with everything else involved, and the fact that Dayna didn't tell us who it was and that it didn't show up in our memory as someone notable to see, we were suspicious   But again, it could be a good time for a night out on the holiday, so why not?  Turns out it was Josh Groban.  I'd barely ever heard of the guy, much less heard his music.  We really had no idea what to even expect.  It could have been better but it easily could have been a lot worse.  The dude is a singer, singing stuff that was inspirational bordering on religious (or fully in it but they don't usually want to blatantly express that for the market).  Not really pop since it didn't have a sugary, catchy sensibility, but inoffensive and light.  There were older house-wives and maybe a few teens in the audience, so maybe his heyday was moving away from him, but the dude can sing (repeated here because it was so much about his singing), even if it was nothing I would choose to hear.  He's actually quite charismatic, to the point that I wished he would keep telling stories between songs rather than singing the songs themselves.  And while I didn't care for the Philharmonic horning in on the Hall & Oates concert we saw there on July 4th two years before, I wished they'd kept playing instead of Groban singing, though that wouldn't have been a real, full show by him, and it wouldn't be fair to judge on a truncated performance just because of the holiday effects.  And we had a wonderful picnic dinner: Dinah's fried chicken, wine, and the company of good friends.  We could have done anything that night but any event at the Bowl can be an enjoyable evening (especially if you have fried chicken and alcohol).  (And thanks for sharing your tickets, Dayna!)

Josh Groban's set-list:
"Brave"
"False Alarms"
"February Song"
"The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" (Joe Cocker cover)
"Un Alma Mas"
"Mai"
"Broken Vow"
"Hollow Talk"
"Vincent" (Starry, Starry Night) (Don McLean cover)
"Dream On" (Aerosmith cover; instrumental version by band violinist)
"Você Existe em Mim"
"You Raise Me Up"

"I Believe" (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever) (Stevie Wonder cover)
"Smile" (Nat King Cole cover)

Wilco/Joanna Newsom, September 30 at the Hollywood Bowl

When a show is announced, I decide then whether I'm going to go or not and I try my best to get tickets. If I don't get tickets, I generally put it out my mind.  If I care enough to want to motivate myself to go to a show, I'll care at the beginning and make sure I have a ticket secured and I don't have to chance it later on.  It's hard enough for me to be decisive, but my deadline for deciding about a show is generally right off.  Every once in a while, though, if I'm not completely sure, I might just put it off, just to see what happens.  Usually I assume tickets are sold out after that and I don't bother with it again.  But there are times I get tickets later on, through whatever means, and I've sometimes had that fantasy about deciding the day of to get tickets and seeing what kind of deal I can get, if one at all in the first place. And I look at second-hand ticket sites just to stay up with the processes of getting concert tickets, and it's a source of curiosity to track ticket prices and see how much I could get for mine, even knowing I'm not going to sell them. Carla and I had talked about seeing Wilco at the Bowl but we kept holding off.  We wanted to see what kind of opener they would get, as they often seem to make compelling and unique combinations for Bowl shows, but adding Joanna Newsom to the bill didn't do much for us. Not that we have anything against the lady, and we both had heard of her through the years, but we knew enough to know that we weren't curious that it was going to automatically sell us on that show.  I don't know if it's a common approach to hesitate on getting last-minute tickets, but Carla is the same as I am in getting tickets first-off or not at all.  But no matter who's opening, it's still Wilco and it's still a show at the Bowl.  The day of the show I was monitoring Seatgeek (a site I found because of Consequenceofsound), which I'd checked out of curiosity for a while and the one I knew I'd turn to if I ever wanted second-hand tickets.  They're an aggregate of all the after-market ticket sites and sometimes there are some interesting deals.  There were still handfuls of Wilco tickets available and I was pawing around for some cheap ones.  It didn't matter to us so much where the tickets were, as every seat at the Bowl is a good one, and generally we just wanted to go in to the show.  I found a pair of tickets for $35 each, and I was still a little hesitant since I hadn't bought second-hand tickets from this site yet but it was inexpensive enough to try it out.  Even better, it wasn't through Ticketmaster and there weren't rape charges and hidden fees (at least not built into our tickets).  That show for under $100 -- a good deal.  I'm sorry for whoever had to let the tickets go for under what they paid for them but at least they got a bit of cash for them.  So in pretty short order we got a dinner and a bottle of wine together and had our night at the Bowl. It was also the first time we took the shuttle, that time from the Zoo, which made it a lot easier and cheaper than trying to park at the Bowl and getting stuck in gridlock on the way in and out or walking that distance from the subway.  The show itself was a standard Wilco show, which is not a bad thing at all, they just don't have the highs of sing-along radio hits or the lows of cuts from bad albums. But they still have a whole lot of songs, some of them buried on albums, and with a band who can play a well-known song as easily as an obscure one, a set-list can get wild, but this was a consistent show without a lot of surprises.  They played more from their newest album, which seemed a curious choice since it hadn't been as much of a hit for all the crowd to be as familiar with it, but the sound fit with the expanse of the Bowl.  And they played just enough from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to satisfy us, especially "Jesus Etc."  Just that song and the magic of the Bowl and Carla & I together was enough for a special evening, to wrap up the season there for us, under the stars and with our arms around each other.

Newsom was pleasant enough, and if we were there for harp music it probably would have been wonderful, but as it was it was just background music to ease into an evening of other music we could digest and enjoy more easily.

Wilco's set-list:
"Dawned on Me"
"War on War"
"I Might"
"Sunken Treasure"
"Spiders (Kidsmoke)" (acoustic arrangement)
"Impossible Germany"
"Born Alone"
"I Am Trying to Break Your Heart"
"Art of Almost"
"Misunderstood"
"Jesus, Etc."
"Handshake Drugs"
"Whole Love"
"Hate It Here"
"Box Full of Letters"
"I'm Always in Love"
"Hummingbird"
"A Shot in the Arm"

"Ashes of American Flags"
"California Stars"

"Walken"
"Heavy Metal Drummer"
"I'm the Man Who Loves You"

"Hoodoo Voodoo"
"Outtasite (Outta Mind)"

Joanna Newsom's set-list:
"Bridges and Balloons"
"Have One on Me"
"Inflammatory Writ"
"Colleen"
"In California"

"Cosmia"