November 2, 2024
It was a very busy weekend for me with two shows at the Hollywood Bowl. My very first and probably most important tip, dear reader, is CHECK YOUR CALENDAR before you buy the tickets. If I had only done that I would not have bought Danny Elfman tickets for the same weekend that I had purchased David Foster tickets and the same DAY as I had purchased tickets for a matinée of Ain’t Misbehavin’ in Long Beach. Good thing I was able to sell those tickets because I might have made it to both but I likely would not have been able to enjoy either.
I paid full price for these tickets. Sometimes you’ve just gotta do it and I really wanted to see Danny Elfman. It was my first time. And since this show was titled, “Boingo, Batman, Bigmess and Beyond” I was hoping for at least some Oingo Boingo.
The forecast had been for rain but when I checked the day before, the chance of rain had dropped to nothing. That turned out to be a lie. It rained. Luckily it just sprinkled at the Bowl. It poured in other places. I was prepared “just in case” with rain ponchos, a waterproof picnic blanket, a warm coat, gloves and a hat. As it turned out I was fine in just the warm coat. I take the bus to the Hollywood Bowl from Culver City. I will never understand the people who drive up to the Bowl, fight traffic and park in the stacked parking lots. Just why? Worst, worst case you can park at Ovation (formerly Hollywood and Highland) and walk or shuttle from there. Once upon a time the Culver City bus was the Westchester bus and it picked up on Manchester just east of Sepulveda. Then for the past several years it has picked up at the Westfield (formerly Fox Hills) Mall. The best part of the mall pick up was that the bus was Trader Joe’s adjacent. It was super easy to park, pop into Trader Joe’s to see what called to you and then hop on the bus. It turns out the mall was charging an astronomical amount for the Bowl to use the unused corner of their parking lot. How do I know, you ask? Because I go to the Bowl a LOT so I have befriended the Bowl parking attendants. The new pick up is at West L.A. College and so far I hate it – not enough to drive to the Bowl, but enough to complain about it. My main issues with the West L.A. lot, other than the lack of proximity to TJ’s, are that parking is not accessible for those with disabilities and they lock every single gate except for one so you are forced to drive all the way around campus to get out. The lack of accessibility is certainly the bigger problem there. There are stairs and a steep hill you must navigate to get to your car. I was there on the first night at this lot and not only had they locked all the gates, but they had shut off all the lights. Old people + darkness + stairs is not a good combo.
On the night of Danny Elfman, I made it to the parking lot with no problem and got on the first bus. They did not pack the bus because there were many, so we were off pretty early. The ride is normally about an hour and this was a pretty typical drive. I beat Julie by a fair amount of time and after peeing, I sat to wait for her.
TIP: The buses debark behind the entrance plaza and once your are off the bus, you follow the path to the plaza with everyone else getting off the buses. Do not stop at the bathroom on this path. There are not many stalls and the line is always super long. Walk past the bathroom, down the first set of stairs and turn to your right. There is larger bathroom underneath the one you just passed. There is almost never a line for this one.
While I waited for Julie, I got to enjoy the freak show. There were a lot of people celebrating Dio De Los Muertos including a guy in a mariachi outfit with his face painted skull fashion who was handing out tequila shots to his friends and several strangers who happened to be walking by. There were several people in costume including a dude dressed as the Only A Lad album cover who did a commendable job recreating it. There were a lot of people with bare legs (in L.A. we wear shorts and flip flops year round) even though it was cold. And there were far, far to many young kids. Parents: why do you bring your kids to these things? These tickets were not less expensive than a baby sitter.
This year Amex is sponsoring an entrance for Amex members only. The Amex entrance is the first entrance you see when you come down the path from the buses. Julie has an Amex card and we have enjoyed using it all season. Amex cardholders are also entitled to a free cushion rental. Without an Amex card, it’s $1. If you take the Amex entrance, be prepared for stairs. It joins up with the disability entrance so you can take an elevator part way, but if you need the elevator you will be waiting in a line.
I sprung for section M for Danny Elfman since as I’ve mentioned I really wanted to go to this concert and I hadn’t seen him before. For the lease events I’ve noticed that there is an upcharge for seats on the aisle. We were not sitting on the aisle because it’s not worth the extra fee just to have people climbing over you every time they want a beer or need to pee.
The opening act was Johnny Jewel and Desire. Johnny Jewel did an electronica thing while wearing a sparkly outfit with a cravat and some weird makeup. Julie turned to me and said, “The only way this works is if he’s German.” He is not. I googled. Then Desire joined him on stage. It was a person with no facial expression who barely moved and a singer in a dominatrix outfit who mostly talked her way through songs. I said I could do that and Julie said, “Only if you wear that outfit.” Needless to say, they were not our favorites. They definitely had a vibe though.
Danny Elfman brought a band, an orchestra and a choir. He played several Oingo Boingo songs including Insects, Nothing to Fear, Just Another Day, Grey Matter, Insanity, Only a Lad (bet the guy in costume was happy), Ain’t This The Life, Dead Man’s Party, Who Do You Want To Be, No One Lives Forever and Wild Sex. These songs were interspersed with bits of orchestral scores from the many movies he has scored. It turns out I have seen a LOT of Tim Burton movies. Who knew? I typically don’t watch movies. All of the orchestra pieces were accompanied by scenes or montages from the films and TV shows. My favorites of these were the Breakfast Machine from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and Jack’s Lament/This Is Halloween/What’s This from Nightmare Before Christmas. They also played Spider-Man, Mars Attacks, Batman, Beetlejuice, Simpsons, Wednesday, and Edward Scissorhands. Steve Bartek was of course conducting. And then just to make the evening complete, Elfman added in some of his new stuff. I have to admit I’m not a huge fan of the new stuff. It seems like he’s trying to sound modern but he just sounds angry.
Overall it was a very entertaining show. I’m glad I went and I would definitely see him again. Maybe not for full price on a rainy, crowded night at the Bowl though.