Showcase: Mumford & Sons @ The Hollywood Bowl (11/10/12)

 

Another ‘White Blank Page’ about to be filled, #afterthebreak…

Mumford and Sons, Dawes, and Aaron Embry @ The Hollywood Bowl

11/10/12

Highlights:

I missed my opportunity to see Mumford & Sons back in 2010 because one, I was mere concert blogging newbie and two…I wasn’t that big of a fan at the time.  Little Lion Man was being imported from the UK via low-fi speakers, but I wasn’t really feeling it.  Soon after a friend of mine recommended me to rethink the band and sent over their ‘Sigh No More’ single/music video — The Cave — through the company email and with a swift click of the button it sealed my fate.  I was hooked.

Inevitability.  That sums it up.  It’s been over two years since I missed my chance.  Constantly checking my ticket updates email praying for a sign.  Close to giving up hope.  Then it happened.  A light.  A ink covered light.  I had waited patiently until last night when the now world famous Mumford & Sons returned to Los Angeles for a two night engagement at the infamous sophisticated / expensive Hollywood Bowl.  Now, looking back at it all, totally worth it.

This wasn’t my first solo show, but it was the first show I felt completely alone at.  Disclaimer: I totally recommend going to concerts by yourself.  They are like movies.  If you can survive the brief intermissions of silence and awkward smiles between your neighbors you are rewarded with a blast of loud noises disguised by ‘show’.  A feeling that can’t be topped, not counting sex.  There isn’t much communication during a performance, and if you are…nine times out of ten…I’m secretly and mentality asking you to shut the hell up.  Care to disagree?  That’s why there are so many couples at concerts.  Touching with little talk.  Ladies, surprised you haven’t found out our male secret.  Anyway, none of my friends wanted to join me either because they aren’t fans or they had plans.

So there I was…in a Terrance Box pod…with three really nice strangers for the night.  The two female best friends who sat behind me were really great sports making me feel like I was I a member of their over 40 click the second I took my seat.  I’ll comment on that point tomorrow morning.  Feeling like I’m way off course from the showcase describing nothing of importance.  I make friends everywhere I go, so if I walk in a room…I’ll make something of it.  Overall, felt very vulnerable with my group of suburban outcasts.

On the menu for the completely sold out (that’s 18,000+ rockers btw) evening was a three course meal of indie folk rock ranging from solo acoustic to folk metal fusion.

The opener was the fresh, very nervous, Aaron Embry of Bellflower, California.  Yes, he is blood relative of this Embry.  Aaron has surrounded himself in music throughout his life to working with Elliot Smith to Willie Nelson to even touring with Edward Sharpe & Company recently.  (Yes, Wikipedia is my friend)  Now he’s rolling by himself showcasing his very ‘Hotel Cafe’ sort of sound of heartbreaking love songs and new western classics.  All he needed was his Billy Joel inspired piano, guitar, and harmonica.  Lot of original stuff. I could tell that this moment, performing at the Hollywood Bowl, was a dream of his.  Bravo.  Congratulations.

If I have to make any comment or critic regarding his set is that I would recommend tackling a cover or two in between the new stuff.  Really.  It doesn’t have to be a straight up take, you can play with it a bit, but nothing about the set was mind blowing.  Just decent.  Maybe it was the nerves because he did have the chops and skills.  Just that I could hear the comments of the couples around me that pretty much summed it up:  restless, bored, and even making lyrical comments about ‘nailing her to a tree’.  We hoped it was a metaphor for sex.

In the end, nothing can take away from your achievement.  You’re only going to get better Aaron.

Same can be said for LA based Dawes.  The second course.  You know them.  They had their “Time Spent in Los Angeles” hit all over Vh1 last year.  Fun song.  Sounds better when you’re in LA.  There were so many glances of great potential during their set.  Hell, Marcus Mumford came out to join them during their “When My Time Comes” track.  That was a great ‘YouTube’ moment.  Personally loved the the non lyrical jam session in their final song of the set when they blew my mind with their skills behind electrifying strings.  Maybe it was my mood sitting in the below 50 degrees wind chilled Los Angeles fall air.  I don’t know.  Could imagine myself driving to their music.  Empty roads seem like the perfect ingredient for their sound.  Nevertheless, over the course of 40 minutes, they did change my mind.

Had high expectations for the third/main course of the evening.  Mumford & Sons.  The one and only.  Because when you’re expecting a talked about-over hyped-highly priced and probably the best musical ‘New York Steak’ based out of England…one would have doubts of how good the first taste would be.  Slice of heaven or sheer disappointment?  Which one would it be?  Bluntly.  Heaven.  It was heaven disguised by guitars, drums, and horns.  The mixture of ‘Sigh No More‘ and ‘Babel‘ (both out now) tracks made for a good mix between slow & fast paced controlling the tempo of the evening.

Setlist:

1. Babel
2. I Will Wait
3. Roll Away Your Stone
4. Winter Winds
5. Below My Feet
6. White Blank Page
7. For Those Below
8. Timshel
9. Little Lion Man
10. Lover of the Light
11. Thistle & Weeds
12. Broken Crown
13. Ghosts That We Knew
14. Awake My Soul (with Dawes)
15. Holland Road
16. Dust Bowl Dance

Encore

1. Lovers’ Eyes
2. Where Are You Now?
3. The Cave
4. With a Little Help from My Friends (Joe Cocker cover) (with Dawes)

It was really a roller coaster of high tempo, get on your feet, type of songs to the very–wrap your blanket up around your lover and soak in the warmth type of love songs that personified by ‘Lover of the Light’.  They played a multiple of instruments as I was surprised that Marcus took the helm of the drums of the aforementioned song.  Dawes made a few cameos with the Joe Cocker cover of “With a Little Help from My Friends” being totally unexpected after my expected encore show closer of The Cave.  Was sad that ‘Hopeless Wanderer’, but we did get “Holland Road”.  What I found surprising was how depressing the tracks from “Sigh no More” felt live than Babel’s songs.

Speaking of lights.  All my electric union guys would be envious.  LCDs, Spotlights, wires. It was the moving lights cascading on the ribs of the bowl that made me feel like I was on a runaway rock train being lead by Marcus, Winston, Ben, and Ted through a tunnel for minutes at a time.  Or a carnival.  Their ‘Gentleman of the Road’ light bulb wires over the crowd made for great intimate ambiance.  It made capturing each live moment that much easier from as far away as I was.

They didn’t talk much.  When they did, it was hilarious from mocking the Hotel Cafe, all the people in the back being too cheap, and one critic who asked them to ‘play something good’.  We should’ve kicked him out because of it.  Really wasn’t my place to say, but if I had tickets like that…man…imagine a broken noses.

What more can I say really?  Ending my night screaming with 18,000 people the powerful lyrics of ‘The Cave” into the clear dark November sky was one of the top highlights of my year so far.  There is no reason for you to cop a over price ticket now for the encore show tomorrow night at the bowl.  Ultimately…Mumford and sons fans you need to go see them live.  By far one of the best live performances all year.  Believe the hype.

Cheers to Marcus, Winston, Ben, Ted, Taylor, Griffin, Wylie, Tay, Aaron, and all the kind faces of The Hollywood Bowl for another amazing indie rock showcase.  Best of luck tomorrow night for round 2.  Sorry for typos, wrote this kind of fast, and all the media below are our gift to you.  Very proud of all the ‘guerrilla’ pictures.  Check out the rest on our flickr page. Goodnight!

-J

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