Thursday, April 17, 2008

Heart of the City.

So last night i was at the hollywood bowl for the maryjblige/jay-z show. And what a show it was!

The homies convened by my office around 630ish so we could just cab it up to the Bowl. The Hollywood Bowl is probably my favorite outdoor concert venue. Nestled in the Hollywood Hills, its natural ampitheatre shape along with its trademark layered bandshell makes for great sound under the stars. Something about it is so pretty and romantic (watch 80s classic Some Kind of Wonderful) I've been fortunate to experience some amazing performances here, from greats such as Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson ... saw Lauryn Hill here as well, while she was at the beginning of her transitionary phase... is was o-k... but anyways, I digress.

So the Bowl is home to the LA Philharmonic, the Playboy Jazz Festival (my parents used to go when box seats were affordable), some KCRW joints... (read: bougie) It's rare that hip-hop comes to this venue (trying to remember the last one). So when the announcement was made that MJB and Hov were touring (!) and coming to this venue (!!) it was an automatic must-see.

So the homies (my roll-dogs from UCLA Guthrie house days) and I got together some food, drink, and cabbed it up as far as we could go, jumped out, trekked it up that dang hill - thank god i wore sneakers - and got our butts in our seats just as the house lights came down. I guess i could say they were just waiting for me to arrive ... LOL. Anyways, house lights came down, stage lights and the music came up, to reveal the full band, an orchestra, and an immense gfx screen. At the top of the set stood Jay and Mary - tux'ed out, sleek, dapper. Ana turned to me and said, "hip hop has grown up."

Indeed. The crowd went wild, and they opened with "Can't Knock the Hustle," of course. Mary took over from there, jumping into her classics, like Real Love, Sweet Thing...

ok. I'm not going to go into the whole show in detail, because well, you just had to be there really... and I was pretty tipsy so I don't think I remember everything in chronological order... it was a great show. Jay was a-mazing. All the hits... all the ones about his name... teased the crowd with a few Beyonce beats (oh gawd)...

now the big banger, literally, was that the show ended in fireworks. now, they usually have fireworks on July 4th sync'd with the Philharmonic. I coudl picture Jay in a meeting with the producers going, fuck it we're at the Bowl. Let's do as the symphony does. Super flashy Hollywood. But hey, it was a SHOW. indeed. i had a great time.

attempted to cab it back to our cars, but we ended up just walking (off the liqs). all good. i think it was faster than those waiting in stack parking.

Los Angeles - with every event there is going to be a comment about traffic and driving. but where else could you watch a show like that, under the stars on an april night with crisp breezes, and your homies? =)

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