This past Saturday Jessica and I took a day trip to L.A. to see The Decemberists, Band of Horses, and Andrew Bird perform at the Hollywood Bowl. We were familiar with all three artists when we purchased the tickets and we were really excited about the show. So we packed a picnic meal, a bottle of wine, and a pair of binoculars before heading down south. We left earlier than we needed to for the concert because of two reasons. The first reason was that we didn’t want to be rushed to the arena and wanted to leave ourselves plenty of time for travel. This was especially important since we parked our car in Pasadena where a shuttle took us to the Hollywood Bowl for a minimal fee.
The second reason we left earlier than necessary, was that we wanted to stop by Burbank to see one of the eleven 7-11 stores that had been converted into the
Kwik-E-Mart from The Simpson’s. As part of a month-long promotion for the upcoming Simpson’s movie, the creators of the show have done their best to transform several convenience stores to match the Simpson realm. At the store, they had life-size cutouts of various characters from the show as well as products created specifically from the show. They were selling Buzz cola, pink frosting donuts with sprinkles, and squishees. Sadly, they are not selling any Duff beer, nor did they have any Krusty-o’s; however, a sign said that these products can be found in any 7-11 store around the country. We waited about 45 minutes in line or so just to get into the store, but it was well worth the visit. Jessica had her camera with her and took lots of pictures, so maybe I’ll be able to link to them later.
The concert itself was awesome and it was my first time ever at the Hollywood Bowl. It’s quite a venue that I recommend anyone to experience at least once. Our seats were in the nose-bleed section, but we didn’t care since we were prepared. Part way through the first act (Band of Horses) some random girl came up to us and offered us free tickets for seats two whole sections closer to the stage. We didn’t hesitate in grabbing the tickets and moved to our closer seats just in time for the next two acts. All of the groups sounded great and performed just as well live as in their recordings, but hands down the best performance of the evening was the headliner act of The Decemberists. They performed with the L.A. Philharmonic orchestra for most of their set, which was just amazing. Their music really lends itself well to the orchestral accompaniment so it sounded fantastic. I found a video online from the concert to capture a snapshot of how it sounded.
It was quite a day and it was well worth all the travel. Jessica and I both agreed to look into buying more CDs from each of the groups, and I have a feeling that some artists of the month later in the year might come from this concert series.
