REVISITING HOLLYWOOD BOWL
Summer 2013 marks Phish’s second visit to the Hollywood Bowl, a beloved concert destination for artists and patrons tucked squarely in the heart of America’s pop-cultural capital. L.A. is my home, and the Hollywood Bowl is my backyard venue, so when we decided to run a blog series on summer tour venues, I called "dibs" quickly. It's a special place, and it's my humble pleasure to tell you about it.
The Hollywood Bowl debuted as a proper venue in 1922 and evolved organically over the decades, hosting larger audiences and shedding its iconic band shells from time to time for sleeker and more acoustically pure upgrades. While its location in Hollywood’s heavily trafficked Cahuenga Pass (along the 101 Freeway) is conspicuously urban, the experience of attending a show at the Bowl is more akin to a retreat: once you’ve climbed the hill from the busy street below and passed through the gates, you enter an open, manicured, meditative space designed to minimize sensory friction between audience and performer.
The focal band shell, especially when properly lit, has a certain Georgia O’Keefe aesthetic that inspired Pete Townsend to liken it to “a massive vagina” when he performed there with The Who a few years back. But most artists lucky enough to play there are properly reverent, and conscious of the musical giants who have delivered legendary performances on its stage, from Frank Sinatra to Leonard Bernstein to The Beatles.
If anything, I left Phish’s 2011 Bowl gig feeling as if they had been too reverent, and come up a hair short of by trying to deliver “a very special evening with Phish.” The playing wasn’t poor, but it was decidedly safe, and the muffled sound during the first set didn’t help matters much, either. In fact, the most powerful impression wasn’t musical at all but visual; Chris Kuroda’s jaw-dropping light show made dramatic use of the shell and the surrounding forest in a spectacle of tech craft and artistic adaptation.
While it’s always a good idea to keep expectations in check, anyone who would mistake past for prologue doesn’t know Phish very well. Having cleared the novelty hurdle in 2011, and with Trey having since performed with the L.A. Philharmonic (who makes their summer home at the Bowl), it’s a good bet that this year’s engagement will be noticeably looser and more confident.
While you can find a wealth of helpful information at http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/, here are some tips.
GETTING THERE
Plan ahead. Driving to the Bowl and parking at the Bowl are probably not your best option, because it’s spendy, and because you’re likely to get stacked in (unless you pay even more for VIP status).
If you must drive, there are neighborhoods within walking distance where parking is “discouraged but legal." Hint: consult your favorite digital map and let your eye wander south and east.
You can take the Metro Red Line to Hollywood and Highland, too, and then walk about a half mile north on Highland to the venue.
There’s a $5 shuttle bus that runs from the North Hollywood Metro station and drops you right at the door.
There are cabs as well, but taxi service is hardly abundant in Los Angeles, so you’ll need to call them, not hail them.
PARTYING THERE
The Hollywood Bowl encourages patrons to bring food and alcoholic beverages to its regular season events, but alcohol is not permitted at leased events like Phish. You can bring alcohol to the picnic areas just outside the gates, but if you are caught trying to sneak alcohol into the amphitheater you will be asked to discard it or finish it. Food and beverage vending is diverse and plentiful inside, but also predictably pricey.
Security at the Bowl is hardly omnipresent or draconian. They’re not looking for reasons to eject people, so don’t give them one. About the only way to get tossed is to spoil someone else’s experience, or to try to escape into the bushes for some sexytime (an offense for which I watched an amorous couple get ejected from a Police concert a few seasons ago).
Bottom line: as long as you act like you’re in modern day Southern California and not ancient Rome, you’ll do fine.
STUFF TO SEE AND DO
Shun the tourist traps. Don’t waste your money at Universal Studios, or waste your time on Hollywood Boulevard expecting to see a real live movie star (you won’t).
If you’re here for a few days, get to the beach. There’s Venice for wook-watching, Santa Monica for rides and games on the Pier, and Malibu/County Line for surf breaks.
The Griffith Observatory is a phenomenal way to spend an afternoon, and it's very close to the venue. The planetarium show “Centered in the Universe” is legitimately mind-blowing -- and a moderate, hour-long hike from the parking lot to the top of Mt. Hollywood rewards you with staggering 360-degree views that stretch for 60 miles on a clear day.
Speaking of hikes, my favorite in the L.A. metropolitan area is Sandstone Peak, the highest point in the Santa Monica Mountains. From the 3,111 foot summit, you can see from Catalina Island in the south to Ventura in the north. The drive to the trail head will take you an hour or so from Hollywood, but it's worth every minute. Google it, and you’re welcome.
I will stick around in the comments and answer any questions I can... have fun!
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Phish.net
The Mockingbird Foundation
and Fish on the kit center stage.. that was fun!
Very much hoping that they're a bit more aggressive with the sound right out of the chute this time. The neighbors can take it -- I know because I've been one.
This is a "bucket list" venue for me, personally. Looks amazing!
Herbie sat down at the piano, and layed down one chord, and all the crickets throughout the amphitheater went into super-chorus chirp mode. What an amazing sound! Later, during the same improvisation, a police copter decided to fly overhead. Herbie and Wayne picked up the tempo and tried their best to make music of the disturbance.
Back in '84, I was singing with the San Francisco Boys Chorus, and we performed one of Mahler's symphonies with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting. During the quiet movement, we had a similar police copter experience, and Tilson Thomas snapped his baton, strutted off stage pissed as hell, and we waited 40 minutes or so until it blew over, they found a new baton, and we resumed the show.
Back to the Wayne Shorter event. Carlos Santana was one of the many many guests during the second set. The first note he played was standard rock star volume, so loud that the guitar sound physically blasted your chest with its thick wave of sound. Then they turned him way down, way way down to that place where he resonated beautifully with orchestra (full orchestra), amphitheater, and everything.
I imagine that if Phish challenge themselves, they can find those points of resonance in soundcheck, and make the crickets of the Hollywood bowl chirp their hind legs into bliss. One show more than any other where I really hope they bring the Coil!
Hopefully, they don't do that generic L.A. thing and attempt to rage harder than they can play. Phish is better when they're being themselves, bringing something so much more to the table. I keep thinking of that flow brought during the Starlight Amphitheater show last year. Lucid like a dream, music so colorful you can almost taste it, and strangely nourishing in quality. Ah, Phish! Rock and roll at its finest.
Let's hope for the same this year.
Walking onto the Bowl stage is intimidating for musicians. I loved Steye's Radio City analogy.
High hopes, low expectations...
I live in LA and I've been several rock shows at The Bowl over the years and the park is the place to be for preshow libations and entertainment. In 2011 the park just across the street was going off like wild Shakedown Street, the tanks were out in the open, balloons were flowing, handles of hard liquor in the open, beer, wine, blunts, bongs, etc.....and the fellas in Blue were just strolling around amused by the silly hippies having fun. Of course, you should use your best judgement and read the scene like you would anywhere. However, if it looks good you can let your hair down and party like its 1999
The Bowl will be my only Phish show this tour, I'm hoping they don't play it safe like last time and that they have the sound sorted out from the get-go.