Reggae night at the Hollywood Bowl

At the last minute Saturday night, a friend of a friend offered me tickets to the Sunday Reggae show at the Bowl, and I graciously accepted. I invited two other friends, both of whom are also associates at Wally’s. We organized a carpool to the bowl with another friend whom had tickets, and were on our way in the early evening, wine and snacks in tow.  

This was one interesting night, I must say.  There were a few components to the night that weren’t at all odd, but rather very good, and one of those components was the bottle of Santa Julia Organica Torrentes.  **Wally’s only has a few bottles right now, so if you’re reading this and want to try something new for under $10, now is the time.**  The other good parts of the night were the company and the music, and that’s really what going to the Bowl is all about. Here’s how the night transpired…

We parked at a different friend’s house near the subway station at Hollywood and Vine, which we rode to the station at Highland, and from there, proceeded to catch the free shuttle to the Bowl. What a way to go! No driving!!!

Once at will call, is where things started to get a little funny. I stepped up to get my tickets at will call, and presented my id. However, knowing that the person who gave me the tickets doesn’t know my real name, I mentioned to the guy that the tickets might be held under Bourbon, as that’s my business name.  After about eight minutes of him talking to a supervisor, he came back to the window, and I again asked him if they were held under Bourbon. He said yes, and he asked “Why would that be?” I said quite frankly, “It’d be because I write a blog, called the Bourbon Beat, and that’s my business name.” He handed over the tickets and we all went on our merry way. So my blog name has officially been used out in public. Time for an alternate form of ID, me thinks!

By the time we entered the Bowl it was dark, and I had some trouble finding my seat. We all went in different directions to locate the seats, and so on my own I stumbled around like a tourist in a foreign town, pardoning my toe trampling all the way to my seat, where, to my uber surprise, sat another two friends of mine who were at the show, unbeknownst to me. Of the thousands of people to be seated next to at the Bowl. I had just been to the Bowl not too long ago, with said friends, for the Playboy Jazz Fest, which you can read about HERE.

UB40 headlined this night and gave a surprisingly thorough and entertaining performance. I never knew this reggae band could groove like they proved they could that night. The Campbell brothers have great tone and harmonies, and the other musicians are multi-instrumental, which always keeps things audibly and visibly interesting.  “Red, red, wine…” and then some.

EB