haha "stage invasion."
ok so here's my thoughts. FUCK traffic on highland... it took us 1 1/2 hrs just coming from the west la area, so we missed the shins. i heard mixed reviews about them from others i knew were at the show - but they did play new material.
as far as belle & sebastian, it was a great show. murdoch's stage presence & interaction with the audience was GREAT. at one point, he asked someone in the audience for a dress and some chick put makeup on him... then asked someone to get on the stage and dance (let me tell you every girl in the audience was super jealous ha ha ha). he looked adorable with his hat & striped shirt.
and the band playing with an 80-piece orchestra? fucking brilliant!!! can't beat that. murdoch got up there and conducted for a little bit, it was kinda funny... he was all over the place (you could tell they were really excited to play this show at the hollywood bowl). then during the encore, a bunch of people got on stage and security tried kicking the people off but it didn't really work.
my only complaint: the SOUND. i have NEVER seen a show at the hollywood bowl with bad sound and apparently last night was the first time. the vocals weren't loud enough and it was kinda quiet so if you were sitting in the far back, you couldn't hear. i swear the sound BETTER be quality when i see zero 7 & massive attack there or there will be hell to pay!!!! and then of course i get stuck next to the b&s fanatic who sings to EVERY song - it was kind of annoying because you couldn't hear the vocals very well and we were sitting pretty close.
to understand what it's like seeing a show at the bowl, it's the best place in la to see a show (especially during the summer) - you can bring your own booze in and a picnic... it's great.
some pictures of the venue:
overview of the entire arena:
and this is the orchestra that played with belle & sebastian:
