At Joni Mitchell’s “Hollywood Bowl” show on Saturday night, the revered singer-songwriter treated the audience to the first-ever live performance of…
Wait, let’s take a time out and let these words sink into our minds. At Joni Mitchell’s show at the Hollywood Bowl. What are the odds? Right?… Sorry, now back to our regularly scheduled review.
At Joni Mitchell’s “Hollywood Bowl” show Saturday night, the revered singer-songwriter gave audiences the first-ever live performance of “Sire of Sorrow (The Sorrowful Song of Job),” a profound piece dating back 30 years that borrows themes from the Bible. In the Book of Job we ask God, “the watchful and tireless one,” “Tell me, why do you starve the believers? Why do you crucify the saints? But the wicked will prosper.” In an election year, the choice seemed as political as it was ideological.
After this somber yet musically sophisticated number, Brandi Carlile — the evening’s unofficial and empowering emcee — jotted down the song’s dark biblical origins, then announced that the setlist was about to take a left turn. “She was worried this would make you feel sad, so she asked us to follow up with the next story,” Carlisle said.
Next on the show’s divine playlist: “God Must Be the Boogie Man.” This wasn’t one of the few live performances that night, but it was the first time Mitchell had performed the upbeat song from her 1979 album “Mingus” since 1983.
They say there are no atheists in the trenches, and there probably weren’t any in the valley in the Hollywood Hills that houses “The Bowl,” either, on Saturday night, with Mitchell returning from the near-death to deliver her biggest and most complete set since she suffered an aneurysm in 2015…or actually, since her last tour 24 years ago, her last headlining event in Los Angeles at The Greek in 2000. With all due respect to Job’s torment, for one night I felt it, at least, like some Boogie Man over there must love us.
There are few shows that audiences enter with as little certainty about what they’ll get as this Bowl crowd did. (The two-night show continues with a second show on Sunday night.) Since her health crisis, Mitchell has returned to the stage in very gradual steps. At her MusiCares tribute in Las Vegas in early 2022, she watched mostly from the side of the stage and chimed in on a couple of lines near the end — so fans were shocked when, in July of that year, she made a surprise appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in the song “Joni Jam.” Led by Carlisle who had her singing or participating on a fair number of numbers, while the others were fronted by all-star guests. This hybrid format was reprized for another mid-weekend show at Carlile’s in Washington state’s Gorge in June 2023, followed by a Mini-Joni Jam that served as a three-song encore of a Brandi Carlile and Friends show here at the Bowl in October of last year. She’s clearly back, as a capable performer, in the two extended shows she’s given over the past 27 months… but still, no one buying a ticket for this weekend’s shows really knows whether or not they’ll get another jam-style show or maybe, just maybe, A truly complete Mitchell performance.
The answer was: both. Production-wise, the setup was very similar to the previous two Joni Jam shows, with a large group of musicians and singers sitting on chairs and sofas around the legend’s throne. And there were two moments when other stars stepped up to take lead vocal roles, effectively singing Mitchell’s vocals – Annie Lennox in “Ladies of the Canyon,” and Marcus Mumford in “California.”
But if you’ve come to hear Joni Mitchell sing her heart out, long and fully, without abandoning the stage for more than those two encores, that’s what she got Saturday night at The Bowl, for the first time in nearly a quarter. -century. It was another incremental step on her road back to public performance, but it also felt like a giant leap for Mitchell’s genre — a seemingly impossible moment in which the singer commanded the stage for nearly three hours (not counting the intermission) and delivered just what you’d hope from her at any point in her life. Long career.
Randall Michelson/L.N. Hewitt Silva
She clearly had a lot of help getting here, and she thanked Carlisle again for convincing her to come out of retirement while she worked on regaining her strength. But was Mitchell in the driver’s seat? I can only say that as I watched her sit on her throne moving her distinctive wolf-head-like wand to the beat for three hours, and as I tried to figure out what it reminded me of, it finally occurred to me: She looked like someone having a great time fiddling with change. The stick.
Mitchell’s enjoyment was evident to everyone in the house even before anyone saw her. The revolving stage at The Bowl had to turn around to reveal the cast of players already seated in their seats, but as it did, the sound of the star’s laugh echoed throughout the bowl, as if she was getting a big chuckle out of riding the slowest game in the world. ship. She continued in this merry mood all night—sometimes because of something Carlisle said or did, sometimes because of the words of her songs, but mostly, it seemed, just out of the feeling that perhaps it was as absurdly funny as it was wonderful to be alive and being Celebrate it. After everything that happened. Mitchell got a big laugh from changing the lyrics to “Night Ride Home” from “I’m in love with the man next to me” to “I’m mad at the man next to me.” In a year when women’s joy has become a real campaign issue, it’s fair to say that anyone who objected to the sound of Kamala Harris laughing would have been genuinely insulted by Joni Mitchell’s performance.
Speaking of elections… the legend wasn’t shy about expressing his feelings. (A sentiment that should have been a surprise to no one in particular.) Singing the topical-minded “Dog Eat Dog” deep into the second set — giving it live airplay for the first time since 1985, the year the album was released. The name itself appeared – following the lyrics’ reference to “snakebite evangelists, blackmailers and big-wig financiers” with the addition: “…like Donald Trump”. After the song ended, she said: “I hope to vote.” I am Canadian. “I am one of those lousy immigrants.” And in case anyone doubted her stance, she eventually shouted: “Fuck Donald Trump.” This led to a standing ovation.
The generous evening of 27 songs was split into two halves, each with its own personality, and a partly different set of musicians. The first set was one that had hardcore Mitchell heads dropping their jaws with completely unpredictable song choices. The second half was more clearly a crowd-pleaser… and not in any derogatory sense, because it’s not as if the super fans high on the mystery that dominated the first half suddenly started to cringe when they heard “Big Yellow Taxi” and “A” “Your Condition” in Second.
This first half featured a more intimate line-up of players, although it was still a significant band by most standards, with vocal duo Lucius providing choral vocals from the nearest sofa, and SistaStrings stepping in to augment the chorus as well as providing string arrangements from a perch a little further away, he adds. Longtime Mitchell favorite Mark Isham graces tones on trumpet and soprano sax. The Hanseroth Twins played guitar and bass, Blake Mills and Robin Pecknold shared more guitar duties, Jacob Collier pressed the initial keyboard work, and Abe Rounds was on drums. For the second part, additional guests came in which turned it into more of the Joni Jam seen in Newport and George, with Marcus Mumford adding percussion, Taylor Goldsmith of Celes and Dows on guitar and vocals, Alison Russell on vocals… and two audience newcomers Joni Jams and Jon Batiste and Rita Wilson, join the battalion on keys and backing vocals, respectively.
Aside from a few moments in the first 15 minutes when Mitchell seemed like she was still finding her voice, she sang loudly, and amazingly, despite her now set. There are moments in a show that encompasses this profession where the vocal ensemble has to carry some weight in the moments of a song that was written for Mitchell’s high, sweet voice, like “Raised on Robbery.” On a few occasions, Carlisle would float in and out with a higher part that complemented the lower range in which Joni was singing, as if the older and younger Mitchell voices were performing a joyful duet with each other.
But what was remarkable — and perhaps a little surprising even if you were lucky enough to catch one of the rare past Joni Jams concerts — was how much this performance relied on Mitchell’s solo voice, despite the great support she had from the cast. The songs, taken from parts of her career when she actually developed a more mature sound, in the 1980s and 1990s, work especially well now that she’s found her way back into performing. Hearing her sing all eight minutes of “Come in From the Cold” could or should now be considered the highlight of any concert of the year — with or without the angelic interstitial curls added by Carlisle that take the number to a more sublime level. level.
What Carlisle brings musically as a background vocalist – or featured singer, really cannot be understated. And there alongside “Come in From the Cold” as a highlight was the penultimate “Shine,” Mitchell’s final song that is Carlisle’s personal favorite among an overwhelming catalog, and for good reason. It’s an epic protest song and an epic gospel song, all in one — deeply satirical of the world, from its politicians to petty traffic violators (which always gets a laugh) — but Juni sounds like she really means it when she asks for the light to shine on the unjust as well as the just. And what an amazing gift it is for the world (or a small part of it) to hear a wonderful, underappreciated song revived in 2024. After “Shine,” the closing group sing-along of “Circle Game” “almost felt anticlimactic.. Aside from the fact that it’s one of the most poignant songs ever written.
Just as with the complementary vocal parts, Carlisle also plays an invaluable role in Joni Jams in the role she was truly born to play: Mitchell’s hype man. She generally refrains from applying it too thickly, but sometimes she just can’t help herself. “I don’t want to scare anyone,” Carlisle said right after the third song ended, “but you just listened to Joni Mitchell sing ‘Hajira’!” Backdrop advertising doesn’t get better, or downright more relevant, than this.
Joni Mitchell and Brandi Carlile at the Hollywood Bowl Randall Michelson/LN-Hewitt Silva
Setlist for Joni Mitchell and Johnny Jam, Hollywood Bowl, October 19, 2024:
Group 1
Be cool
Harlem in Havana (Live Show)
Immigration
Cherokee Louise
wolf
curry
Mawla Al-Hazan (Ayoub’s Sad Song) (Live Show)
God must be the boogie man
Sunny Sunday
If I Had a Heart (Live Show)
Road shelter
Night trip home
Both sides now
Group 2
Big yellow taxi
He grew up stealing
California (sung by Marcus Mumford)
Magdalene Laundries
Ladies of the Valley (sung by Annie Lennox)
Summer (Gershwin cover)
Come in from the cold
A case of you
Still Standing (Elton John cover with rewritten lyrics)
Dog eats dog
Amelia
if
It shines
Circle game