Southern California certainly wins hands down when it comes to outdoor concert venues: we just enjoyed Diana Krall last week at the grandaddy, the Hollywood Bowl, and this Wednesday, we’ll be seeing Wilco at the more intimate Greek Theater in Griffith Park. In between, we headed up to Santa Barbara this past weekend to catch the newly reunited Crowded House at the Santa Barbara Bowl, which, I have to say, I didn’t even known existed before I looked into seeing the band on their Southern California swing.
Aimee returned from New York on Friday night, and on Saturday morning, we headed up the coast, via Oxnard, where we stopped in at the Woolworth building for lunch and a try in their photobooth.
We arrived in Santa Barbara by midday, and we had a nice afternoon of wandering around State Street. We had an early dinner at Altamirano’s near the Bowl, which was a great recommendation from Dan. The Bowl was terrific: we parked on the street for free about two blocks from the entrance, and walked up the path to the base of the bowl, where we had a drink and watched the people. Just as we walked in, a guy dressed in black was looking at us, or so I thought, as we passed through the crowd, and I asked Aimee if she had noticed him. The more I looked at him, though, and the people around him, I began to realize that he was not some creepy guy, but in fact, he was Mark Hart, guitarist and keyboard player for Crowded House. A few moments later, their drummer Matt Sherrod appeared, and both of them chatted idly with fans and friends. I even overheard Sherrod saying he was “just getting into Split Enz,” Crowded House founder Neil Finn’s previous band.
We settled into our seats and enjoyed the beautiful view of the trees, the sky, and the ocean, which is about all you can see from there. Neil’s son Liam Finn, multi-talented and sounding uncannily like his father, in both singing voice and on-stage banter (both good things, in my book) played a few songs before Pete Yorn and band (including five guitarists…) took the stage. I haven’t heard much from or about him since 2001’s Musicforthemorningafter, which was an early iPod staple when I was working the cherry picker in the depository. His was an enjoyable set that ended somewhat strangely; he introduced his last song by saying people at Bonaroo had congratulated him on it, so he thought he’d play it. It was Peter Bjorn & John’s “Young Folks,” but I’m not sure how many people got the fact that it wasn’t his song, but that “Pete Yorn” and “Peter Bjorn…” sound alike. I didn’t even get it at first, but I knew that wasn’t his song…
Anyway, by just after 8:00 or so, Crowded House came on, and even though it was a modified lineup, missing some important folks for various reasons, it was great to see them, and to hear them play (almost) all of the great songs I grew up listening to. Crowded House was another band Scott got me into when we were in high school and college, and it was great to have the chance to see them. Neil was as funny and interesting as ever, and the band apparently had even more trouble finding a place to sleep the night before than we did; every hotel room in the area was booked all weekend long. Liam played with the band on most of the numbers, and I can imagine it was pretty nice for Liam to have the chance to play, and not just banging a cowbell, in his dad’s band. We had a few nice singalong moments with “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” and they ended, running up against a curfew, with a too-brief rendition of the chorus of “Better Be Home Soon.” Perfect.
We headed out of the Bowl and up to Goleta to our motel, which we were sharing with an entire high school soccer tournament, so I’m not exactly sure how we got to sleep, but we did, and rose early for brunch at Tupelo Junction, which was very tasty. And as strange as it sounds, we spent the rest of the afternoon at home cleaning the house, which was exactly what we needed to do. Aimee starts back at school today, and “summer” is coming to a close.
