concert review: phoenix/grizzly bear/girls.

I saw Phoenix, Grizzly Bear and Girls at the Hollywood Bowl on 9/18. It was a great concert! 

Girls opened up. I wasn't familiar with them, but they were good. Their first three songs were really good - upbeat, happy, whimsical, reminiscent of SoCal surf rock. The ending songs of their set were not as enjoyable - they leaned towards heavy metal, which I'm fine with, but they were such a drastic change from the opening songs that I was confused and waiting for the old Girls to come back. I downloaded a few songs, not the whole album

Grizzly Bear was fantastic. They are in my Top 5 favorite bands, and seeing them live was spectacular! Edward Droste (vocals, guitar, keyboard) has the voice of an angel - his voice is like honey and melted chocolate. Their music sounds amazing on a CD, but three times as fantastic live. It made me love them so much more. A nice mix of songs from Yellow House and from Veckatimest. I definitely want to see them again any time they play in LA.

Phoenix was the perfect way to cap off the night. Talk about performing - these guys have enough charm and charisma to circle the world a few times. Their music is awesome, but again, it was superb live because they are such great performers. I danced the whole time! It made me pull their CDs out again and listen to them on the way home and the rest of the week.
But the best part of the whole night: going on stage. I was with my friend Katharine, and we got front row-center seats, which was absolutely amazing. Then, at the end of Phoenix's set, they pulled people up on stage, and Katharine and I were two of them! We danced on stage with them for the last song, and then, once the concert ended, were promptly escorted offstage by Hollywood Bowl personnel. But I got to tell Thomas Mars that I loved his music, so it made it all better.

Overall, a fantastic evening! Great music, the Hollywood Bowl, friends, food, and oh yeah, dancing on stage.