We burned like a wildfire last night at the Bowl with John Mayer & Phillip Phillips, after the break!
Hollywood, California
I traveled with a group of co-workers & their friends who were attending the show. We all sat in different seats. I sat next to a nice couple who hooked me up with some wine. Happy I went with the team. None of them had been to the Bowl before, so having an advanced concert goer like myself made their night a bit easier. The initial shock of the size of the mob in the will call courtyard almost instantly freaked them out. Took care of them best I could. Offered tips, tricks, and such.
Rookies, be warned: “The Hollywood Bowl” is the most popular concert venue in Hollywood. Every show is sold out…well, 95% of the time they are. If you don’t arrive a hour & half before, you’ll be thrown into the middle of chaos itself until the first act takes the stage 30 minutes after the doors open. Not a fun place to be when your stressed out. Take my advice and just relax. By the time you have a giant overpriced cup of beer or wine in hand…you’ll be in for one hell of a show. Payment for craziness. My reward was a fantastic show from two unbelievable folk artists — Phillip Phillips & John Mayer.
Phillip Phillips, American Idol XI Winner, opened the show and it was fun. Phil is a jokester. Learned that Thursday night at the Walking Dead Premiere. He made the ladies sway to his cuts from his debut album — ‘The World from the Side of the Moon’ — and handful of folky covers from The Beatles, Lil Wayne, Eminem, & T-Pain. (Not a typo.) He made all the white women’s hands go up…and they stayed there…awkwardly. The two girls in front of me seemed more in love with him than John Mayer. Great warm up, despite most of the couples looked bored until “Home” dropped. Wasn’t for lack of tryin’ as told by his fantastic set list.
Set List (via Setlist.Fm…except for #4. All me baby.)
- Get Up Get Down
- Gone, Gone, Gone
- Man on the Moon
- Elanor Rigby/Where We Came From
- A Fool’s Dance
- Lollipop (Lil Wayne cover)
- Lose Yourself (Eminem cover)
- All I Do is Win (DJ Khaled cover)
- Home
Had high expectations for John Mayer. I consider him to be greatest guitarist of our current generation. A role he’s accepted and proved wonderfully last night. His guitar solos and very unique super sized set list were standouts. He forgo’d much of his popular controversial tracks for Continuum’s most haunting cuts, obscure meaningful hits from ‘Born & Raised’, classic Rock n’ Roll covers, and handful of vintage classics. The one track I wasn’t expecting was ‘Walt Grace…’. It was one of my favorite tracks from ‘Born & Raised’.
Ready to be jealous…here’s what we got.
Set List (via SetList.fm):
- Queen of California
- Wildfire
- Half of My Heart
- Waiting on the Day
- I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)
- Friend of the Devil (Grateful Dead cover)
- Why Georgia
- Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
- Solo Acoustic
- Stop This Train (With “Homeward Bound” by Paul Simon outro)
- Driftin’ Blues (Eric Clapton cover)
- Walt Grace’s Submarine Test, January 1967
- Belief
- Speak for Me (Dedicated to his throat surgeon)
- Something Like Olivia
- Dear Marie
- If I Ever Get Around to Living
- Who Says
- Waiting on the World to Change
- Edge of Desire
- Encore: Gravity
John Mayer felt more music & less banter was the way to go for this show. He hit us with all his bluegrass soul punches over the course of two hours that left all of us mesmerized & TKO’d. The wine helped on that front, surely. Especially came necessary when he ranted about gossip bullshit / bloggers (yikes!) and dedications to little 10 year olds & his throat surgeon…consider his debt paid doc. He thank all of us for defending him as a musician over the past three years. A silver lining in between the passionate words. He had a lot to prove to himself and little to us.
The craziest moment was his show ending guitar solo on “Gravity”. He dropped to knees, in front of the crowd, and just made those strings cry endlessly. Something John was building to all night. I wanted him to get all Jimi Hendrix-pyromaniac by the end. Surely, someone could’ve provided the lighter to leave a lasting moment. Set the guitar on fire, bow out, and leave us there to watch it ‘wildfire’.
During that solo…I captured a bad fan taking a selfie right in front of the face bleeding. Oh humanity. LA you can be a shameless bitch sometimes. Almost ruined a beautiful moment.
Another fantastic Hollywood Bowl ‘Greatest Hits’ showcase featuring an artist who help me get through a dark period last year. I felt that show was the bookend to that time. John Mayer has grown up & I have too in the past three years. Don’t let his past ‘sins’ judge the amazing music he’s producing nowadays. Mayer’s past three records are all 5 star albums that every music enthusiast should own. Quite proud he’s carrying the blues cross into the future. Someone has too. Amazing show.
Big thanks to John Mayer, Phillip Phillips, and the Hollywood Bowl for putting on another amazing lease event. I’ll try to make it back for another show before the year closes. These pictures are my gift to y’all…and sorry for typos!
Photo Selects
Photography Note: I was equipped with the Nikon 9500 that featured a 22x zoom. Did quite amazing from the last seat in the E promenade section. The crowd shots came out fanastic, and got some really close moments from the two artists. If there was more lights on John Mayer all the pictures would’ve naturally looked amazing. Oh well. Nice haul. Enjoy and check out the rest on my flickr!
