Sunday night I met up with my great friend Lilia who is visiting from NYC. She got us tickets to Groove Armada and Cafe Tacuba. We packed our picnic dinner and set off on the shuttle to the Hollywood Bowl. When we first arrived and walked into the amphitheater, my eyes lit up, my mouth went into automatic perma grin, and my knees started to bounce to the Groove Armada beats bumping from the stage. It seemed every one of the seventeen thousand or so people present there at the 'Bowl' that night were up and shaking their groove thang. Some definitely did it better than others, but no matter how well they danced or (did not dance) everyone put their whole body and soul into their moves. I was quickly brought into the fold and started doing my own version of what I call dance and getting down with my bad white self. I am sure the people behind me had quite a show in addition to the one happening up there on stage, but I didn't care - I was having the time of my life. Lilia and I danced our hearts out. Then came Cafe Tacuba. Which was equally as fun!!!! We continued our dancing trend into the evening. Lilia stopped every once in a while to translate the all Spanish show for me. At one point during the show, the crowd started chanting a larger than life chant in Spanish. I chimed right in, smiling and yelling and carrying on along with the crowd. Lilia graciously leaned over to me and asked if I knew what I was chanting." Nope not a clue" I responded. That's when I found out I was chanting something about...uh... butts. Well, even in all my glorious ignorance, I was not bothered in the least that I could understand only portions at best of what was being said up on stage or in the audience for that matter. I not only love the music, and the energy from Cafe Tacuba, as the lead singer ran around on stage dancing and infecting the audience with the hype, but I also loved the fact that so many thousands of people from all different cultures and sub cultures came crashing together in one small spot in Hollywood California. Ahhhh I love LA!
Well, then, on Wednesday Scott won tickets from Metroblogging LA to go to non-other than the Hollywood Bowl to see the Wattstax concert. David Markland wrote in the above link how the original 1972 Wattstax concert was organized by Stax Records to commemorate the 1965 Watts riots and encourage economic empowerment in the African American community. With a $1 ticket price, over 100,000 filled the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in what became known as ""the Afro-American answer to Woodstock".
By the way there is a great documentary on the 1972 Wattstax concert if your interested.
Many of the same artists like Booker T and Isaac Hayes that played years ago were there Wednesday night. Isaac Hayes' repetitious lyric "can ya dig it?" echoed up the hill and was definitely answered as the crowd got to their feet and yelled with delight during the theme song from "SHAFT". We sat next to the above mentioned David Markland who is one of the writers for Metroblogging LA, (the one Scott won tickets from). It was great talking with him and we even made it into one of his posts in Blogging LA. Scott's favorite moment of the night, however came when Isaac Hayes (aka Chef, aka The Duke of New York, aka Truck Turner) slowed it down for a love song/duet. His creamy low soulful voice started crooning and he was joined by his blonde back up singer by the name of Samantha.
Well, Samantha, God bless her, paled in comparison to the low-key vocal style of Isaac Hayes. The audience became somewhat impatient... no let's say ...caustic at this point, cuz if there is anyone that should not be singing with Truck Turner, it's Samantha I am sorry to say. Well, as the duet dragged on, an older black woman from behind us shouted out: "Isaac Hayes better be taking off them shades so he can see the white #@&*% he's singing with!" It echoed across the 'Bowl', followed by much laughter. Scott and I had so much fun together. It had been a while since we have been able to get out on the town, just the two of us. And what a great way to spend a night out together, sitting underneath the Hollywood stars, listening to some good old fashion funk and soul. Good times!
No comments:
Post a Comment