Hollywood Bowl'ing - Zero 7 & Gotan Project

Last night my wife, her friend (Greta) and I went to the concert that we had shown up a week early last week. Click on the link to see what happened that time. Yesterday, though, we were prepared. After scrutinizing the tickets to make sure that this concert was happening on that day, of this month, and on this year, we headed out to one of the shuttle bus locations outside of Hollywood. Traffic was a bit of a bitch last time, and parking at the LA Zoo is free, so no need for validating nothing.

We got to the parking lot, bought our shuttle tickets from a couple of snobby pricks who didn't even look us in the eyes when they were selling us the passes. They snobbily looked the other way as they counted the money and handed back our change and shuttle tickets. This was kind of absurd, but whatever. We hopped on the bus and found a seat in the back. The ride there was pretty slow, but since we didn't have to worry about driving there, we spent most of the time chatting it up between the three of us.

We get dropped off at the top of the hill, right next to the entrance, and almost hesitantly approched the ticket scanners. We were really afraid that our tickets were going to let us down again . . . but they scanned just fine. We hiked up the hill to our section: P2, row 5, seats 111 - 113. We had a nice view of the whole stage, but I should have brought along my binoculars. But they have these gigantic screens that show the concert, so this was sufficient enough for us that we could not only hear the performance, but see it as well.

The first act up was an Argentine-Swede that plays with Zero 7 called Jose Gonzales. His set was bit on the intimate side, as it was just him and his guitar. He played some great mellow tracks and most everyone dug his performance . . . but a large number of people probably missed a large chunk of it. Being the first one up, the majority of the crowd had not filled all of the 18,000 seats yet. He played about 5 - 6 songs and then exited the stage.

The next band up I have no idea who they were, but they started out strong with a fun number that had a lot of electronic beats . . . but . . . as their set progressed, all three of us became more and more bored with them. They finally killed my interest when one of the guys started crumpling a can of soda, recorded the sound onto his laptop right on stage, then started playing around with the sample and attempted to make music out of it. While this sounds cool in theory, the effects are a little grating on the ears, and I think I began bleeding from the ear canal while this "song" was being performed.

Zero 7, the band we came to see, came out after this unknown to us band. While their music is more on the downtempo side, something that you play while relaxing on a lazy Saturday afternoon, their live show is quite the upbeat offering. Singer Sia Furler (quite obviously inebriated . . . at least) kept dancing around on stage like a displaced 1920's flapper dancer. Even Jose Gonzales, who joined them on stage, almost cracked a smile, which is about as upbeat as he gets. They jammed on stage for a really great set. One little complaint, and this is not band related at all. It's actually directed to the Zero 7'ologist sitting one row behind us. I know you are a fan, and that you probably have dissected every single one of their songs and know them by memory, but . . . please refrain from giving dissertations about every single one of the songs as they start playing. I don't need to overhear a lecture on the song and how you talked to the band members about it and so on and so. It's pretentious and you're a prick for even bringing that shit up. Shut up, enjoy the concert, or stick to dancing around (or on) the handrails.

After Zero 7 ended their set (while it was a full one, we would not have minded a couple of encores), the next band up came out on stage. We really had not heard of the Gotan Project and this is a grievious oversight on my part personally. This band rocked and played beautiful music like I've never heard. They're based out of Paris, and infuse tango with electronica. All of their music was in Spanish, but this did not affect my wife's enjoyment at all. She was very into the performance and we all enjoyed expanding our musical horizons just a little bit further. Another complaint comes out at this point. To the moron sitting a few rows behind us . . . Your empty wine bottle is NOT an instrument and you are NOT a member of the band up on stage. This douche-bag kept "klinking" something against the bottle and tried (and failed) to stay on beat with the Gotan Project. It was a miserable 5 minutes worth of this which mercifully ended when the next song started. People suck.

On the way out, we ran into a friend of my wife's (and Greta's) and his girlfriend who had actually driven to the Hollywood Bowl and parked across the street (14 bucks!). They offered a ride back to the parking lot where we had left my car, and we thought it was a great idea. Until we got in the car and his girlfriend got behind the wheel. All three of us in the backseat experienced "near death-life flashing in front of your eyes" experiences as she navigated her car through Hollywood and then to Griffith Park. While my wife and Greta silently prayed, I couldn't help but laugh at the way this girl drives. I almost dropped down on the concrete after briskly exiting the vehicle to kiss "terra firme". While it was very nice for them to offer a ride so that we could avoid a crowded shuttle ride back there . . . it was one of the most frightening experiences of our lives.

That ends our Hollywood Bowl experience. Massive Attack is playing there sometime towards the end of September. We might head out to the Bowl for that concert. We will make sure that we show up on the right date . . . and that our return trip is made in a shuttle bus.