Singer and songwriter GOAT Joni Mitchell performed the first of two “Joni Jam” concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Saturday (October 19).
Despite the size of the freeway-adjacent open-air venue, for the 17,000 devout fans, the show was an intimate and inviting view of life for the 80-year-old Mitchell: in the comfort of Ambience to chat with friends and admirers, sit in plush (yet appropriately palatial) chairs, sip pinot gris under soft lighting, and sing a song (or 25) while your spirits are high.
It may sound comfortable, but for Mitchell, the warm hug in the victory lap was a hard-earned victory — she had to watch herself bounce back after a brain aneurysm in 2015 left her unable to speak or walk. Guitar videos to relearn her own songs. But the Canadian artist, who suffered from polio as a child, is no stranger to uphill battles, and after years of staying out of the public eye following a health crisis, the Grammy-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Famer shocked the world in 2022 by suddenly returning to Return to the Newport Folk Festival stage.
A bona fide headlining show followed at the Washington Gorge Amphitheater in June 2023, and her eye-popping turn at the 2024 Grammy Awards gave a wider audience a taste of what Mitchell can still bring to a performance. Come with depth and gravitas.
Joining her at every show is Brandi Carlile, a public assistant whom Mitchell calls “my ambassador.” Of course, Carlisle also joined Mitchell on the Bowl stage on Saturday, singing with her hero and serving as the night’s de facto host/hype woman, and she exuded both joy and nervous excitement. Carlisle even revealed that a Joni Jam festival held in Mitchell’s real-life living room “five or six years ago” helped Mitchell heal from an aneurysm. Initially, as she recovered, friends and musicians sang to her Mitchell’s own compositions, an experience Carlile said was “terrible”; before long, Mitchell was harmonizing and singing a song or two from the comfort of her couch poem. Now she has regained enough vocal control to command an audience of thousands.
“Jonnie’s going to destroy us now,” Carlisle said with a Cheshire cat grin before Mitchell sang the song. blue The standout “A Case of You,” with its big, husky voice. The phrase could easily have been inserted into any number of moments between songs, as it’s often seen in the icon’s lyrically profound musings on love, pain, and our brief life on the rocks surrounding a giant balloon. Wiping away tears.
“I’m honored to have her as a friend because she brought me back out of retirement,” Mitchell laughed about Carlisle on the show.
Thanks to Blake Mills, Robin Packnold, Jacob Collier, Lucius, Annie Lennox, Marcus Mumford, Jon Baptiste, Al Featuring a backing band featuring the likes of Alison Russell, Wendy and Lisa, Rita Wilson, Celis and others, Mitchell’s standout songs are seen as more like jazz pieces than pop songs, stretching according to the lead singer and shrinking, embellished with odd flourishes at some moments and then distinctly plain at the next. Even if the Bowl got a little chilly at the end of the evening, Mitchell’s warm music kept people warm.
Here are some highlights from this unforgettable evening.
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Highlights of “Hijra”
blue (1971) is undoubtedly Mitchell’s most popular and enduring album, and cotter and spark (1974) was her highest-charting studio record (number two on the Billboard 200 and had her only top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “Help Me”). but hijra (1976) is her most enigmatic and mesmerizing album (and easily one of her five best albums), so when Mitchell & Co. release an album, it’s an unexpected, exciting curve ball. hijra– Heavy playlist. “I don’t want to scare anyone, but you just heard Joni Mitchell singing ‘Hejiri’!” Carlisle emphasized after his third song of the night. By the end of the evening, at least half of Mitchell’s moody, brooding classics were written during the peripatetic period of his life (“Highway Shelter,” “Coyote” and “Amelia” were also played).
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cry then boogie
Mitchell performed several late-career songs at the Bowl Theater on Saturday, two of which — “If I Had a Heart” and “Sad Father” — were poignantly expressive. The confusion and pain that can come from trying to make sense of a cruel, hateful world. But according to Carlile, Mitchell was “concerned” that the theme was too sad, so she directed the band to follow the latter tune with her playful, jazzy “God Must Be a Boogie Man,” a loose, Charlie Minge-inspired songs inspired by s. “‘God is dead’ – Nietzsche. ‘Nietzsche is dead’ – God,” Mitchell says at the end of the song, laughing heartily.
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Both sides, now
The show was split into two parts with an intermission, and the songs Mitchell chose to end each part were some of the night’s most heartbreaking moments: “Both Sides, Now” and “The Circle Game.” While the songs on the setlist were more lyrically somber, these performances proved that time, pain, and experience can deepen and enhance art. Both oft-covered tunes are deceptively simple meditations on the passage of time and our insignificance in the greater scheme of things, written in the 1960s when Mitchell was in his 20s. Sixty years later, Mitchell’s weathered voice imbues them with wistful wisdom. Arguably, they now pack more of an emotional punch, thanks to her years of experience with wording. As “Both Sides, Now” ends, the waning gibbous moon, as if on cue, begins to peek over the Hollywood Hills. Only Joni can convince the Celestials to bravely participate in her performance.
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Mumford and Lennox Visitor Attractions
The second half of the evening saw more musicians take the stage for a powerful performance of Mitchell’s environmental ode “Big Yellow Taxi” – Jon Batiste ) sat next to Collier at the baby grand piano, tapping the keys and smiling broadly. Soon after, Marcus Mumford sang lead vocals on “California” (although he was British, he was born in Anaheim, California), and Mitchell paired her voice with that of “California” on a few key lines. His voices blend together. When Annie Lennox took center stage to thunderous applause with her soulful rendition of “Ladies of the Canyon,” Mitchell himself was engrossed in the performance until the very end. Knox sang the song’s final verses together.
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“F–k Donald Trump”
When a member of the crowd loudly criticized Trump, Mitchell chuckled and took a moment to make his point. “‘F–k Donald Trump’ — I love that song,” Mitchell said, making an unexpected reference to YG’s 2016 hip-hop song “FDT.” It didn’t just appear out of nowhere—Mitchell had just sang “Dog Eat Dog,” a song about powerful people “lying, cheating, plundering, swindling,” and was finishing up singing about “big shot finance.” After the lyrics to “Home”, Mitchell fell down. Narrator: “Just like Donald Trump.” After the song ended, she went even deeper to throw in her two cents on the Republican presidential candidate. “Fuck Donald Trump,” Mitchell reiterated. “Everybody get out and vote. That’s a big point. I wish I could vote – I’m Canadian. I’m one of those bad immigrants,” she giggled. Nearly everyone in the 17,000-strong audience stood and applauded.
It was a shocking moment that was momentarily difficult to comprehend — not that Mitchell hated a race-baiting ex-president with 34 felony convictions, but because she was a fan of YG’s music.
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cover and rewrite
Earlier this year, Mitchell was one of the artists paying tribute to Elton John and Bernie Taupin in Washington, D.C. Most Joni Mitchell ever asked for their songs to be rewritten to suit her. “That’s so bold,” Mitchell agreed with a laugh. The song was “I’m Still Standing” and Mitchell sat until late into the night without standing up. “After all this time, I’m still sitting,” she sang, glancing sideways at Carlisle and giggling. However, Mitchell stayed true to the words in her cover of Gershwin’s “Summertime,” which may have been her strongest voice of the night. “You just sang Johnny’s song,” Carlisle shouted after the song ended.
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shine
Mitchell’s last studio album to date, 2007 shinereceived positive attention but is certainly not what she is best known for. Even so, the title track created a magical moment of friendship and solidarity, with more than half the crowd holding up their phone lights and waving in a hopeful, graceful plea. “Oh, boy. What a sight,” Mitchell exclaimed. “Everyone turn around and look,” she instructed the crowd. “It’s so beautiful.” People were happy to oblige – bringing a moment of wonder and joy to an iconic talent at the end of an emotional night was the least anyone could do.
