Another Week Another Hollywood Bowl Adventure (or Trying To Enjoy The View From The Cheap Seats

I was just at the Hollywood Bowl a week ago but I made another trip up that way this past Saturday. I had tickets with my friend (and neighbor) Amber to see the John Williams show!

I’ve been going to the John Williams show for several summers now. It’s so great and he has done the music to some of my favorite movies.

Amber and I bought our tickets pretty close to the show night, so we actually weren’t able to purchase seats next to each other. We did find 2 seats in the same row that were about 4 seats apart. So we bought those and hoped for the best.

When we got there, fortunately the group that had the 4 seats between us were willing to move over 1 seat so Amber and I could sit together (people at the Bowl tend to be nice like that). Even though we had seats almost all the way in the back, we had a very nice view of the stage.

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Well, it was nice until right when the show started. Then the group that had the bench seats right in front of us came in. And I swear that the guy sitting in front of me must have been 7 feet tall. This photo is of my view of the stage with him sitting in the bench below me and me holding my phone on top of my head to take the photo.

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You can see the glow of the stage but clearly my view was completely blocked. I tried to lean from side to side to see, but that always didn’t work (he moved around a lot too).

Even though I couldn’t really see anything, I was enjoying the music a lot. There were quite a few things different this year compared to last year’s show. There was a choir on stage and later a children’s choir joined them. Also, there was a segment dedicated to the Olympics and that was very cool.

During intermission, Amber offered to switch seats with me so I could see the second half of the show. I was so grateful to her for doing that for me! I switched just in time for the Star Wars segment of the show, which is always a highlight for me.

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I need to get a lightsaber before next year’s show!

There were 4 or 5 encores after the show ended, but the very last thing that was played was the music from “ET”. I was terrified of ET as a child (my brother used to hide the VHS case to the movie under my pillow to scare me), but now it’s one of my favorite movies. And the music is so powerful that hearing it played live brings tears to my eyes!

And as I’ve seen every year (and loved every year), at the very end of the show there is a rainbow on the sides of the Bowl.

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It was such a wonderful show this year! I’m already looking forward to next year! And this show was Amber’s first time at the Bowl, so I’m glad that she got to see something amazing for her first time there!

I might be going to 1 more show this summer (I’m still looking for people to come with me), but even if I don’t, I picked amazing shows to see at the Bowl this summer! I’m never really disappointed with what I see. And every time I’m there, I’m so grateful to have such an amazing venue so close to where I live!