Summer at the Bowl: Part 1 of 3

As all of you probably know by now, Chris and I are fans of all sorts of entertainment and attractions.  Turkey stampedes, professional bike races, cultural events, wildlife exhibits - the list honestly goes on and on.  There are few events too obscure or odd for us, and on the other end of the spectrum, we also love attending fancy-pants things like the symphony and opera.  For my birthday present last year, Chris bought both of us tickets to see the LA Philharmonic in Walt Disney Concert Hall, which was incredible, so now we're fully on the list for all of their various mailings and advertisements.  Every summer, the Phil moves a bit further north and takes up residence at the legendary Hollywood Bowl; while we weren't interested in committing to a whole series of just one type of concerts (just classical Tuesdays, for example), when they rolled out their "5 or more" packages, we were intrigued, particularly since tickets in the cheap seats started at a very reasonable $25 or so.

Ta da!  It's a logo!

When the date rolled around to sign up, I called the box office and made our 5 concert selections; we picked a mix of classical, pops, and famous guest artists that we might never have another chance to see.  We chose the Tchaikovsky Spectacular (with fireworks!) on August 18th, the Gipsy Kings on August 25th, Joshua Bell playing Lalo on August 29th (OMG Josh Bell!  Holy shat!), JOHN MOTHER-F'ING WILLIAMS on September 1st, and YO-YO FREAKING MA playing Bach on September 12th.  I mean, seriously?  Tickets for each of those at $25 each?  I would have paid double or even triple for some of those, even in the cheap seats.  When you bought tickets to at least 5 concerns, you also got another for free, so for our complimentary performance, we picked Holst's The Planets on August 22nd.  

All of these were on either a Tuesday or Friday night, which, with Chris' summer work schedule running for part of the shows, meant we would be arranging all sorts of interesting transportation options to get either both of us from Long Beach or me from Long Beach and him from Irwindale to Hollywood after work, sometimes in the middle of the week.  After scouring the Bowl's website (which is very well done, by the way), I put together some transport plans as well as some food options, choosing to try different ones each time.  It was time for our first concert!

Chris was working until 5pm on Friday, 8/18, so I left home around 4 and parked at the Wardlow Metro light rail station around 3 miles from our house (the Del Amo station is closer to us, but parking there is harder to come by - actually, there are far more spots at Del Amo...it's just that they're perpendicular to the roadway, so it's sometimes hard to park a GIANT Ford 150 in them...the ones at Wardlow are slanted, so they're much easier to handle).  I hopped on the blue line rail, taking it to 7th Street/Metro Center, and then transferring to the red line to end at Union Station.  While people watching on the Metro is an absolutely stellar way to pass the time, I also brought along some reading for the trip - White Trash, a book my non-fiction club is getting ready to discuss (interesting book).

A rail map, should you need it.

For his part, Chris left work in Irwindale at 5 and drove to Union Station, meeting me in the parking garage there right around 5:30.  We paid the $8 to park and rode the Bowl shuttle from Union Station to the concert itself (free, since we paid to park).  The shuttle took around 30 minutes to drive the 7 miles to the venue, which is pretty standard with LA traffic and whatnot.  

Aboard the shuttle!

Once there, we stopped by the Bowl Marketplace, located right next to the Box Office.  Since this was our first time at the Bowl, we didn't quite have our picnic game down yet, so we opted to pre-order an already created picnic box by the caterers on site.  It was a bit on the pricey side - $40 after taxes - but it was pretty darn good; it contained a grilled chicken breast over farro and grilled tomatoes and chickpeas, olive tapenade with a small baguette for dipping, roasted and chilled beet salad, and a cookie.  This wasn't quite enough food for us, so we ended up also buying a cheese plate a bit later (and another cookie), and I finished off the cup of honeydew melon I'd brought from home.  

Mmm...beets!

Chris is wearing the proper color shirt

for beet consumption.

The Bowl is super cool in that it allows you to bring your own beer, wine, cocktails, whatever into the concerts with the Phil (other events at the Bowl have different rules), and we made good use of this option:

This is the Bowl you are looking for.

We ended up with front row seats in our section for this show, which allowed us a great amount of extra legroom; we'll be trying to get seats like this for other shows as well.  We chatted, ate, drank, and most importantly, people-watched, as the evening darkened and everyone claimed their seats.  About 20 minutes before the show started, we noticed several helicopters hovering over the Bowl area, and we hopped on our local news website to see what was up:

Hovering...

Yup, seems about right.

It was at this point that we had a

discussion with our neighbor about car chases in LA.

According to him,

everyone remembers their first one

after moving to the area.

And yes, we had one in Long Beach

head down the road directly behind our house

just a few months ago.

Eventually, the concert started, and our conductor for the evening, Bramwell Tovey, took the stage.  If you ever get a chance to see Tovey conduct, please do; he's a lovely presence while moving the music along, but he's also hands down one of the funniest maestros I've ever witnessed.  He had us roaring with laughter during his introductions to the pieces and the music we'd hear.  As you can imagine, for the Tchaikovsky Spectacular, it was all Tchaikovsky all the time, and we heard snippets from his famous ballet scores - The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and Eugene Onegin, as well as Variations on a Rococo Theme with both violin and cello soloists.  All were outstanding, but the highlight of the night was by far the fantastic 1812 Overture.  

The Phil during the first half of the show

Things really went nutso here - cannon firing, fireworks shooting off, and for the final, very well known coda, the addition of the USC Marching Band, fresh from playing the opening pep rally that night (those kiddos must have been exhausted.  Wait, who am I kidding?  They're 22 years old - they could play another set of concerts after that).  I took pictures and clapped along like a 4 year old, and it was amazing.

Ooh!

Aah!

The big finale with the Trojans.

It was an absolutely stunning introduction to our time at the Bowl, and we couldn't wait to come back.  Thankfully, our time away wouldn't be long, as we'd head there another four days later, to see the Phil's main conductor, Gustavo Dudamel conduct the orchestra through Holst's The Planets.  Chris was coming from work at 5pm again, so we repeated our travel excursions from the Friday before, with me reading Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs instead (verdict: never again.  Eesh.  The stuff in that book...).  People watching on the Metro was prime this time, specifically involving a gentleman in a wheelchair (for a foot issue - he didn't seem to be permanently wheelchair-bound) who was clearly either high or drunk - or both - lose control of said wheelchair and terrorize the passengers around him whilst he regaled us with a very enthusiastic version of "La Bamba" sans instrumental accompaniment.  

Instead of eating at the Bowl this time, we opted for dinner at a restaurant; this one was Traxx, the nicer, sit-down option inside of Union Square.  While our waiter was rather inattentive (particularly grievously as there were only four filled tables in the entire place), the food was excellent and seemed properly priced, given the location and cuisine.  We each had a salad to start, and Chris enjoyed scallops for his main while I chose the crab cake appetizer.

Crab cake!

Scallops.

Both of these were excellent!

Also, they are SUPER into swooshes here.

Our mains were so good, we even stayed around for dessert, which was a slice of hazelnut/chocolate cake.  It was also great!  On the now-familiar way to catch the Bowl shuttle, we wandered through the older part of Union Station and grabbed some shots:

Really a lovely place.

This is the main waiting room.

Since we ended up catching the shuttle around 7pm as opposed to 5:45, the traffic was a bit lighter (LA comparison standards being applied here.  It still took us 22 minutes to go 8 miles).

"Some traffic, as usual."

Google is salty, ya'll.

As our intrepid shuttle driver was merging onto the freeway and attempting to not crash the bus, one of the riders wandered up to him and start chatting in his ear, asking him something.  Being relatively experienced with LA public transit, we wondered where this was going and waited with baited breath to see what would happen.  As it turned out, she was asking him to take his hands off the wheel and plug in her cell phone, so it could charge on the way to the Bowl.  Yes, really.

The special baby.

Once at the Bowl, we found our seats and waited for the show to start.  

As you can see,

we're on the complete opposite side of the Bowl this time,

but much closer.

Also, as Chris would point out,

with way less leg room.

Like Friday's show, the music was fantastic.  While Dudamel wasn't nearly as funny as Tovey, he was a wonderful conductor, and the Phil sounded great.  The first half of the show featured a brand new composition by Icelandic composer Daniel Bjarnason, a violin concerto; it was somewhat discordant, but it was also otherworldly, and the soloist did a great job plucking, whistling, humming, and doing everything else called for by the score.  After an intermission, it was on to the main event!

My only other live exposure to The Planets was back in Jacksonville many years ago, when the youth orchestra performed a few selections from it.  I loved it then and loved it again now, and I took even more joy in seeing all of the instruments Holst chose to incorporate in his famous piece.

Feel free to click this to make it bigger.

In the picture above, you've got the normal heart of the orchestra - the strings, winds, and brass - albeit much larger and more inclusive than normal (with even piccolos, flugelhorns, and bass clarinets on stage).  You've also got not one but TWO harps there on the left of the shot, as well as a pianist and an organist (the two separate box-like structures near the harps).  

What really made me laugh, however, was the percussion section.  Normally, even in a big symphony (think Beethoven's Ninth), you have two or three percussionists; one to play the timpani and one or two for various other things - cymbals, chimes, etc.  Up there, you might see there are SIX percussionists, including two complete sets of timpanis.  During the movements, we heard chimes, cymbals, xylophones, woodblocks, and so on.  I feel like Holst was standing in the percussion closet of whatever phil building he had available and was like, "what else you got in there?  A glockenspiel?  Sure, why the f**k not?"  It made my music nerd heart very, very happy.

After the concert, it was back to the shuttle, then Union Station, then to drive home by way of Wardlow Station to pick up the truck; while the Bowl is quite a ways away, the music was completely worth it, and we can't wait for our upcoming shows!

Later!

Amy