With the official start of Summer kicking off last weekend one could not think of a more appropriate place to spend it than the Hollywood Bowl. KCRW began their annual World Music Festival on a rather warm evening with a selection of artists from South America.
One of the fun parts of the World Music festival is that the Bowl allows you to bring in your own food and drinks. This is good for two reasons. One; you save money ($8 for one beer versus a 6-pack at the store) and two; you can eat/drink exactly what you want. The Shih and I decided on Sushi and Guinness but our other friends were dining on mini panini and wine. To each their own. One negative side effect is people often over drink leading to beverage spillage on cherished items or being accidentally smacked firmly in the head by an overzealous liquor enthusiast. All in all though the pros beat the cons.
One of the aims of the World Music Festival is to introduce the masses to a more diverse music scene than MTV can provide. Bebel Gilberto and Los Amigos Invisibles were artists that I was not familiar with but afterward left me wanting more. While Bebel could have benefited from a smaller venue she still played a memorable set as dusk arrived.
Thievery Corporation took the stage immediately following Bebel Gilberto. One interesting feature the Bowl used this year was a revolving stage. Almost like a trap door. This way there were no gaps in the performances and each artist cold build on the momentum of the previous performance.
What seemed like an endless stream of guest performers (nearly a dozen in all), Thievery Corp got the Bowl grooving and moving for the better part of 90 minutes. Below is a snippet from one their more well known songs “Lebanese Blonde”.
With some sweet parking luck we were able to escape the madness of the Hollywood Bowl easily and head back to the Westside. The first night of the Summer came to a close, however; I am looking forward to many more evenings at the Bowl over the next few months.
Jack Johnson will be making four stops in the Southern California Area coming up in late August.
Wednesday, August 27th - Harder Stadium @ UCSB - Santa Barbara, CA
Friday, August 29th - Verizon Wireless Amphitheater - Irvine, CA (KROQ Sponsored)
Saturday, August 30th - Cricket Wireless Amphitheater - Chula Vista, CA
Sunday, August 31st - UCLA Intramural Field - Los Angeles, CA (KROQ Sponsored)
Tickets go on sale to the general public for these shows on Saturday, June 21st at 10AM. For the KROQ sponsored events you can get your tickets now using the presale password: KROQALLATONCE
I’ll keep my ear to the ground for the other shows to find the presale password. I’ll update this post if anything should surface. Click the image to go to ticketmaster’s listing for Jack Johnson.
As Ferris Bueller once said “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and take a look around once in a while you might miss it”, I intend to kick it into a lower gear for the next few weeks and get back to being Bobby G. Since the last time I posted I’ve been enjoying Los Angeles very much. So much in fact I haven’t had much time to write or do pretty much anything else. I have gathered some good stories and been to some wonderful places in the past few weeks so we’ll start with The Stone Brewery.
Located in sleepy Escondido, California, the Stone Brewery is home to some of the best Pale Ale’s available in the good old USA. Premium Shih and I decided to head down there a couple of weeks ago to check out the operation, sample some beers, and learn a little more about brewing. Above you can see the wonderful beer cooler located in their company store (I apologize if the pictures are a little blurry….we had been drinking after all).
Not only is Stone Brewery home to their brewing operation but they also have a bistro on site with a great selection of food and beverages. After signing up at the company store for our tour we headed into the bistro to grab a couple of pints and grab a snack. One of the great things about the bistro is that they have a wide selection of beers from around the world. It was very nice surprise to see that they embraced beer outside of their own. Each beer on the menu was accompanied by the location it was brewed at as well as the percent alcohol by volume. We sampled the Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale and a barley wine to get a little bit of bang for our buck.
After enjoying our pints and grubbing on some beer battered mashed potatoes we headed into our tour.
Going in, I did not expect this to be a ‘mom and pop’ type of brewery, however; I was surprised at the magnitude of their facility. If my memory serves me correct (which it probably does not) at full capacity they can produce around 500,000 barrels of beer each year although they currently run at about half of that.
Our excellent tour guide gave us the quick and dirty lesson of brewing. Basically boil some water, add some barley and hops, and you got yourself some beer. I’ll spare you the whole story but it was very informative and a lot of fun.
Bourbon Casks Holding Delicious Anniversary Ale
Keg Maker
At the end of our tour we were taken back into the company store for our free tasting. We received 4 samples of beer (Pale Ale, Smoked Porter, IPA, and Arrogant Bastard Ale) as well as a 5th of our choice as a special treat. Premium Shih was not feeling the bitter beers so I got to do A LOT of tasting. Afterwards we each picked up a growler and headed back to Los Angeles.
I had been wanting to take the tour for a long time and it was well worth the wait. The tour is free and so is the tasting. You basically get a free pint of beer just for walking in the door. I recommend getting there a couple of hours before your tour, sign up right away, and head into the bistro to have lunch and a couple of beers before your tour. They have a fun and laid back atmosphere in the bistro so killing a couple of hours was no problem.
In the next week or two I’ll give you a review of the new Father’s Office, located in Culver City, and bring you a review of my first night of the Summer at the Hollywood Bowl with Thievery Corporation. Until then I’ll be enjoying the start of the Summer!
June 22nd - Thievery Corporation
July 20th - Feist
July 30th - James Taylor
August 3rd - Reggae Night
August 24th - Radiohead
August 30th - Jack Johnson
September 20th - Beck
