You know how there are artists that you like a bit, know one or two of their songs (maybe three or four at the most)? And then you come to understand that there are scads of folks out there who somehow really know those artists' music and really love it? That was kind of my night on Thursday night at the Hollywood Bowl. No, this is not a bad thing, just kind of interesting to see.
To be fair to me, most of the music on Thursday dated from my tween and early teen years, a time when I was just stepping into grown up music and away from, say, ABBA, whom I loved when I was in grade school (and still very much like). By around 1983 or so, I was starting to buy 45s and spending my money on Eurythmics and Duran Duran. I'll also further qualify things by saying that small town radio in northern BC tended more toward classic rock rather than new wave or British alternative music. It was later - sometimes much later - that I discovered 80s acts that may now be considered as classic. And even then for many such acts it really was only the hits.
All of this is to say that I enjoyed Thursday evening at the Hollywood Bowl but wasn't deep into it after the first set. Ah, but Van? And so many people around me? Oh, they were. And good for them!
We caught the shuttle
from near Pasadena City Hall over to the Bowl, grabbed some cans of wine from a Bowl venue, found our seats
(not too bad - not super close, but middle-ish), and devoured the fried chicken dinners Van had picked up for us. While it was still light out, Alison Moyet began her opening set.
Confession: when Van told us about the concert, I think he was mostly high on seeing the headliner. Me? I wanted to see Alison Moyet. The former lead singer of Yaz(oo), I first heard her in the mid 80s when she released the song Invisible. To my teenage ears, it was a big no thank you, sorry to say. The turning point? This will be funny to say, but Columbia House did it. Yep, I signed up for that in the 90s when I was trying to build out my CD collection, and I had a good experience with it, hearing a lot of music that was new to me that way. One CD I bought was a greatest hits album by Alison Moyet, and that introduced me to a bunch of her hits. And that was how I came to enjoy here music. In the early 2000s I stumbled upon her Hometime album, and I really enjoyed that, too. All that is to say, I was excited to see and hear her live.
Alison delivered. Hands down the best of the show, in my opinion. Don't believe me? The Bowl was pretty darn full for her opening set, and people were cheering and dancing for the hits of old.
She didn't need light shows or effects on the screens, she had her magnificent voice. And she also had years of performing that really shone through. The way she knew that she had the cameras on her, projecting her to screens around the Bowl, her expressions and postures - she's done this before.
Even more clear? She was having a really good time. 40 minutes, and I wish it had been double. So good.
An intermission, then up next was Soft Cell.
I was honestly surprised that they (well, really, it's Marc Almond) had a prominent role on a tour. One hit, right? Oh, it's a great one: Tainted Love. But one hit. Ah, no, Peter. A check of Wikipedia when I got home showed that Soft Cell had a handful of top 5 hits in the UK. And, according to Van, there is a new album due out imminently. So, shame on me for underestimating Soft Cell. That said, although I liked the energy and vibe of a few songs (and yes, Tainted Love closed the set to huge applause), the singing was only ok, and I found that to be a little off-putting. The set was fine enough, I guess, but it just left me wishing for more of Alison Moyet.
Another intermission, and then the headliners: Human League.
For me, they sit in the middle in terms of my knowledge of their music. I think I know 4 of their songs, and I even had a 45 of one of them ("Human") when I was a teen. That's more than I knew of Soft Cell but less than I knew of Alison Moyet. As with Soft Cell, they used a lot of graphics. They also had long intros and outros to their songs, which allowed for costume changes (in a 70-minute set!) and (sorry, but I think this may be true) short breaks for the members. Phil Oakey, the make lead singer, is 70 after all, and he was scooting around the stage a fair bit. Van was happy with how they were, and given that they were the main draw for him, that was good. I enjoyed it, I was there with some 15,000 other people shouting/singing out the chorus to Don't You Want Me. We did, however, head for the shuttles during the encore.
Our first time at the Hollywood Bowl this year, and it was fun. The 80s were alive (and yeah, the crowd was a fairly mature one) for one night. And even though I knew not nearly enough of the music shared, I was thrilled to hear some familiar, welcome, old hits.
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