Los Angeles, CA. 26 Oct. 2012
Yesterday was a day off and I spent it with my brother Jon and his wife Leslie at their home in Torrence. It had been a couple of years since seeing them last and we had a wonderful, easy-going day and dinner at their home. Jon's a fantastic drummer having played with Weird Al Yankovic for over 30 years as well as recording for others and playing in several other bands at the moment too. He stays busy. Leslie, now retired, excels in painting, jewelry making, dog training and Indian cooking among other things. She also strums a pretty mean ukulele.
Got out early and walked for an hour this morning, stopping at Peet's Coffee on the way back then spent a quiet few hours in the room reading and practising before an earlier than usual bus call.
Traffic in L.A. lived up to it's hype this afternoon and it took us 90 minutes to get from Santa Monica to Hollywood. We crawled for a good part of the trip, but finally arrived at tonight's venue.... The Hollywood Bowl. Built in 1926, it is an iconic amphitheatre carved into the hill at the top of Highland Avenue above the city of Hollywood. I lived just around the corner from the Bowl from 1977 to 1985 and have been to many shows there. The last one I remember going to was Procol Harem playing with a live orchestra... the L.A. Philharmonic I think. Anyway, it was fantastic. While having attended shows here, I've never had to opportunity to play the Bowl. Tonight I can say I have. When you haven't been to place in a long time you tend to remember it larger than it really is. The Hollywood Bowl was just the opposite, it's really huge, far bigger than I remember it, with a capacity of 17,000. Standing on the stage and looking out at sound check I was surprised how large it really is yet gives the impression of being intimate when you are in the audience. I must admit to being a little nervous when we took the stage and I think everyone was slightly in awe of this legendary, landmark venue.
We pull up stakes tomorrow. Off to Las Vegas for a show then on to Denver tomorrow night. It has been a wonderful couple of weeks working our way down the west coast from Vancouver to San Diego. Now we'll begin making our way eastward.
So long,
Richard