After a last-minute ticket purchase, my girlfriend and I were all set off to go to the highly anticipated show featuring The Lemon Twigs, Mac Demarco and Phoenix. The seats were relatively cheap but far away from the stage, equivalent to nose-bleed seats at a sporting event. Luckily, the Bowl’s sound system is amazing, so the incredible distance isn’t quite a factor.
Anyway, we arrive to the venue with plenty of time to spare before the opening band, Lemon Twigs, started to play. One thing to note, NOBODY showed up on time. Patrons would rather wait till darkness then fumble around trying to find their seats, completely destroying the atmosphere of the already-sitting people. Moreover, Twigs started playing, they sounded like a ’60s band, wasn’t into it. Moving on. Their set ended and we got up to get Cokes, it was a great idea.
As soon as my girl and I got back to the seats with sodas in hand, Mac DeMarco took the stage leading off the set with “On The Level.” Fantastic new song. Sip, sip of soda. Mac and the boys played their take on Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles.” Fucking hilarious. They closed the set with “Chamber of Reflection” from their earlier album “Salad Days.”
Phoenix brought the house down with their clean sound and new material! Although, I haven’t heard to much from the band’s latest album, “Ti Amo,” I was instantly hooked hearing the new stuff live. And, of course, they played plenty of the classics like “1901” and “Lisztomania.” I have to be honest though, the new stuff sounds much fuller then the older material. I almost forgot the mention the stage setup. A mirror, facing the audience, was positioned above the band at a 45 degree angle, so the audience could see the the band’s heads. The platform Phoenix was standing on was a large screen. The audience could see the reflection at Phoenix’s feet. Anyway that was so fucking hard to explain…
I had a couple gripes with the outing. People would not shut the fuck up during Phoenix’s performance. Pretty much nonstop yelling/talking throughout the whole show. Please have so respect for the people who want to watch genius musicians play some music! Plus, as we were leaving the Bowl people decided they wanted to PUSH through the crowed, creating a dangerous situation because we were going down a steep ass hill.
All in all, it was a blast seeing them on such short notice. I’ll try and post some pictures if I ever figure out how to use WordPress.