September 20th of 2008, was a highly anticipated night for me. I had purchased tickets to see this concert nearly three months prior to the show. I was extremely excited to see Beck live for the first time (who was the headliner of the show) and I also had not yet been to a show at the renowned Hollywood Bowl.
By the day of the concert, MGMT was being played nearly every 30 minutes on the now off air radio station; Indy 103.1. ‘Kids’, and ‘Time To Pretend’ were in heavy rotation with ‘Electric Feel’ slowly starting to get air play. I was completely intrigued by the duo’s uber psychedelic melodies, and psycho babble ridden lyrics sung well over dirty drum samples, reminiscent of early electro underdogs: Ming+FS. Maybe my comparison isn’t too far fetched considering both groups hail from NYC. I was also very impressed as I felt all of this good sonic bombardment being pumped through the radio waves seemed to happen over night, and it wasn’t just one song, it was several. A lot of rad tunes off a debut major label release these days, is uhm…rad.
It was late afternoon when I headed up to ‘The Bowl’, as self proclaimed fedora wearing ’scenesters’ call it (sidebar-I’m one of those). Traffic on Highland heading North to the 101 is pretty much ass water at any given time of the day, unless it’s a Jewish Holiday or the SAG awards, but today was neither, and so I got there early; around 5pm. I parked at one of the venues many lots, and proceeded to follow the herd into the completely sold out concert. It was a gorgeous afternoon, the smog haze was looking more like a 6 month post atomic bomb radiation cloud, as opposed to the 6 day haze that is so common in the late summer months.
From what I observed walking through the tunnel heading up in the venue, was a mixture of ‘Too Cool For School’ Silverlake kids, the dirtier but same version of those people hailing from Los Feliz and Echo Park, and older 30 somethings digging out their faded Spoon t-shirts (who was also on the bill), to replace their normal button downs. What surprised me the most as I was steadily denying knock off schwag from merchants who would’ve probably thrown in some schrooms with every purchase, was the amount of teeny bopper hipster kids. The youngsters were in abundance, boys rocking moon boots and Daisy Duke cut off shorts, the chicks wearing leggings, oversized flannels and weird American Indian looking head band things. I suddenly felt old, but really well dressed.
I got in easy enough, and the staff was laid back. Inside there are tons of choices to aquire food and drank, and I think they do a good job offering a variety of selection to meet your budget. I decided to go for some 24 ounce beers, and cheese and crackers which was a bad move. DO NOT EVER PURCHASE A 24 OUNCE OF CORONA FOR 12 DOLLARS, LET ALONE 4 OF THEM LIKE THIS GUY!
Once I blew my wad in the market, I realized I purchased lame tickets. My seats were pretty much at the top of the Bowl, but for listening preferences, located in the middle. The trek up top was brutal, considering on sober days I’m about a pack of P-Funks a day. After losing 798 calories from my ascent, I got seated on my bench style seat. TIP: pay the $2 to rent the seat cushions, they are worth it, and can double as a weapon if some douche bag is in front of you screaming on his cell that he is watching MGMT perform, while they perform…
The Hollywood Bowl is a great ampitheater that is completely outdoors. There are hills located behind it, and it is pretty breathtaking. The sun was setting, and the venue wasn’t even half full when MGMT started there set, which really surprised me. They started their set with a full band, and I thought it sounded garbage. I know I had bad seats, but I also listened to Spoon and Beck in the same night and the sound for MGMT was bad. Their set was disappointing as well. The continuity of the set was not there, and they seemed to jerk from one song to the next. They had no stage presence either, but I’m assuming it was because they were probably fucked up on some narcotic. The only song that I felt came across strong was not even one of their commercially popular songs, however it’s a personal favorite of mine entitled: ‘Weekend Wars’. Other than that, I was kind of wishing I was on my cell phone calling a friend to brag that I was at The Bowl watching MGMT.
My summary of this experience is this: MGMT is a great band, with potential to record a strong Sophomore album. I think when I saw them, they played too early, and weren’t ready to be on such a large stage. I thought their stage presence was mediocre at best.
I love the Hollywood Bowl, but if I was broke, I would probably pass on going to a show and drinking unless I snuck some drank inside. My last opinion on the venue, is avoid driving there and parking at all costs. Leaving the venue was a hellacious fiasco of epic proportions. It was clusterfuck of road rage going nowhere, and literally took an hour and a half to get out of the parking lot. The location of the venue is also terrible. I mean I realize you can’t really build a huge Amphitheater outdoors with hills as the backdrop, and slap the name: ‘Hollywood’ on it, but that area is the most congested part of the entire city.