Hollywood Bowl, July 23, 2006

The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles was the final date on the west-coast tour. It’s a wonderful venue, though the largest natural amphitheater in the world (seating capacity over 17,000) lacked the intimacy of the other venues on the tour. The heat-wave had begun to subside slightly and it started to cool off as the sun went down. Three bands were on the bill with Os Mutantes first, followed by Thievery Corporation, then the headline act, the Flaming Lips, who went all out while filming the show for a soon-to-be released DVD. Thievery had to craft a shorter set, which Eric mulled over carefully, his DJ instincts being particularly sensitive to the structure of the playlist while his humanity sought to offer band-members their moment in the LA sun, so to speak.

It was still hot and bright and the stands were just filling up when the opening act, Os Mutantes, began to set the energy flowing. Thievery came on stage as the sun (and mercury) were going down. Although an extended entourage of us grabbed the center front box in the second section of boxes – great seats by any standard – I was still farther away from the band than I’d been except in San Fran, where the density of sweaty sweaty bodies created its own sense of intimacy. Perhaps I’d become spoiled from literally rubbing up against the stage, but as a Bowl audience member commented on my San Diego entry, the band was too far away, so I didn’t feel the music in my chest as I did at the other gigs. The venue’s sound-engineers may have cut back on the opening acts’ volume in order to let the headliner make a more powerful sonic presence, though others there may disagree. I’ve certainly experienced that before at other shows.

There were a lot of Thievery fans in the audience and certainly more after the show than before. The band performed exceptionally well and with multiple percussionists, six vocalists, and a horn section, they belted out plenty of sound to energize the Bowl. Night fell, bringing with it a more conducive atmosphere and Frank had just begun to let loose on “Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” when a procession of purple-sparkled, but otherwise bare-chested women (part of the Flaming Lips crew) sashayed through the crowd tossing glow-sticks to everyone’s delight. So equipped, the audience began making its own little light shows and our group took turns waving a cup filled with a torch of them. As Thievery broke into its most highly-charged, uptempo tunes, like “Assault on Bablyon,” the crowd really came alive and even the VIPs in the first section of boxes were compelled to sway their arms overhead to the music. Looking back over the audience, I could see that nearly everyone else was up on the feet, dancing, and swaying.

Reading over some comments posted online, it seems that people’s experiences of the show really varied. According to dieselgrrrrl, who has posted excellent pix of TC and FLips on Flickr, the show was “Hot, hot, hot!! Thievery ROCKED it way harder than The Lips did, thanks to Wayne Coyne's weak vocals. The Lips' theatrics (bouncing white balloons, santa clauses and oompa loompas and mermaids on stage, yellow confetti) , save for the beats, were basically the show.” Now I agree that Thievery rocked, but from where I was during the show the Lips rocked too and whipped the audience into a frenzy. That’s not surprising, since they were the headliners with ostensibly more fans in the audience. Wayne performed vocals with remarkable poetry and passion and the spectacular stage antics enhanced the overall experience, especially the macro-projection of Wayne’s face and the little puppet during “Do You Realize?” and “Yoshimi.” Our little box became delightfully packed with a growing number of our entourage (the more the merrier!) and the energy seemed to build and build with everyone dancing and throwing glow sticks and singing along. The Corporation are obviously huge Lips fans (Wayne collaborated with Rob and Eric on “Marching the Hate Machine (into the Sun)” on Thievery Corporation’s album, Cosmic Game). Rob and I agreed that the Flaming Lips put on most amazing show we’d ever seen (how does that continue to happen to me?) and he enthusiastically remarked, “it made me feel like a kid at my own birthday party” – which perfectly sums up the free-flowing intensity, richness, and joyfulness of the experience.

From dieslgrrrrl’s pix, it’s clear she was quite far from the stage. What’s interesting to me is that up front, the power of Thievery was not nearly as potent as I experienced it at the smaller venues and not as compelling as the Lips, but for at least some members of the audience towards the back of the Bowl, Thievery came across as more powerful than the Lips. I don’t know if there’s a moral to be drawn from this story, but dieslgrrrrl, if you loved Thievery at the Bowl, you would have been utterly blown away in Portland and San Diego!

Thanks to my hosts in LA, Sherri and Alex Kopelowicz. Yes, eventually, I'll add more pix and vids!!!!