On the 60th anniversary of The Beatles’ famous performance at the Hollywood Bowl, the Los Angeles Philharmonic attracted a very different crowd to the iconic venue to see the Andrew Bird Trio and Pink Martini.
There were no screaming teenagers drowning out the band—or global pop superstars to inspire that drowning-out in the first place. Instead, a much more conventional Hollywood Bowl audience sat (largely) rapt by an ecstatic celebration of Pink Martini’s 30th anniversary that featured, as a warmup, a fantastic dose of quirky Americana courtesy of Andrew Bird and his band.
While Billy Strings was busy picking guitars and banjos at Kia Forum down the road in Inglewood, Bird brought his own brand of Midwestern musical magic to bear on the Bowl. In his third appearance at the world-renowned amphitheater, the 51-year-old from the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest sang, whistled, played his guitar, and manipulated his violin in seemingly every way possible—from bowing to plucking and strumming—through a nearly hour-long opening set.
With Ted Poor on drums and Alan Hampton on bass, he kicked things off with “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise” and “I Fall in Love Too Easily”, both from the Andrew Bird Trio’s 2024 album Sunday Morning Put-On. After diverting deep into Andrew’s solo catalog for “Why?”, the trio returned to their collective material from this year’s release with “You’d Be So Nice” and “Caravan”.
Then, to the delight of attendees, the Andrew Bird Trio transformed into a quartet when Madison Cunningham came on as a surprise guest. The 27-year-old Southern California native has become one of Andrew’s closest collaborators in recent years.
She emerged just after he announced that the two of them would soon be releasing a full-length cover of Buckingham Nicks, the famed album by Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham that was recorded before Fleetwood Mac officially formed. To celebrate that upcoming debut, the two of them combined for a pair of Buckingham Nicks renditions at the Hollywood Bowl: “Crystal” and “Don’t Let Me Down Again”.
Cunningham then stayed on for the remainder of the set, joining Bird and company as they ticked through some of his most beloved tunes. “Bloodless” occasioned a brief comment from the bandleader, who said he hoped that his song about political conflict and violence would someday be rendered “obsolete.”
From there, Bird and his support rounded out their time with “Sisyphus”, “Roma Fade”, and “Pulaski at Night”. Each song was punctuated by his distinctly haunting voice, alongside his powerfully impressive yet gently precise whistling.
The subdued, jazzy atmosphere of the Andrew Bird Trio-turned-quartet practically got tossed into the surrounding Hollywood Hills as soon as Pink Martini took the stage. After a video introduction featuring old interview footage of bandleader and pianist Thomas Lauderdale, the Portland, Oregon-based outfit embarked on a ridiculously ambitious 90-plus-minute performance that would feature 30 different spoken languages—one for each year of Pink Martini—by the time it ended.
China Forbes handled the lion’s share of the vocals for the evening—and did so with aplomb. The Ella Fitzgerald Award winner at the 2022 Montreal Jazz Festival has been a close collaborate of Lauderdale’s since the two met as students at Harvard University in the late 1980s.
China put her prodigious pipes and talent for languages and dialects to use early and often. The 54-year-old began with Portuguese on Ataulfo Alves’ “Tempo Perdido”, switched to English for “Amado Mio”, and burst into French for “Sympathique (Je Ne Veux Pas Travailler)”. Lauderdale set up the last of those three with a story about how the song—which became a hit in France after it appeared in a Citroen commercial—was inspired by what he thought, at the time, was a piece in the public domain, only to draw a legal rebuke once it blew up overseas. Upon dropping in another English-language song, “Lilly”, China led vocals on “Ninna Nanna” in Neapolitan Italian.
From there, she got a bit of a break as Lauderdale introduced a slew of other singers. Timothy Nashimoto, who also serves as a percussionist in Pink Martini, took center stage while singing “¿Done estas, Yolanda?” Storm Large lent her seductive presence and powerful voice in Italian to “Bella Ciao,” in Romanian to Maria Tanase’s “Pana cand nu te iubeam”, and in English to Pink Martini’s own “And Then You’re Gone”.
To perform the addendum to that last song, entitled “But Now I’m Back”, the band enlisted the support of Ari Shapiro. Fifteen years after making his Hollywood Bowl debut with Pink Martini, the NPR host returned to Lauderdale’s side for a dual Arabic/Spanish song called “La Soledad/Finnisma Di”, with Thomas providing a piano intro from Frederic Chopin. Shapiro stuck around to join China and Portland’s Cantor Ida Rae Cahana for a soaring rendition of the Jewish hymn “Elohai”.
The parade of guest performers continued with Mexican artist Edna Vazquez stepping in to sing “Sola Soy” and former America’s Got Talent contestant Jimmie Herrod reprising his rousing performance of “Tomorrow” from Annie.
After that, Lauderdale told the story of Pink Martini’s political activist roots by way of an homage to the late Paul Reubens. The actor, best known for his longtime portrayal of Pee-wee Herman, helped to inspire the band’s formation in Portland three decades ago, and was an ardent supporter up until his passing last year.
On the heels of that emotional moment, Thomas sent the house into a whiplash when he welcomed Satan’s Pilgrims for their Hollywood Bowl debut. The veteran surf rock outfit lent their unique, guitar-driven spin to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”.
En route to the finale, and with Pink Martini still far short of singing in 30 languages, Lauderdale brought all of the night’s singers back out for an extended medley of music from around the world. China, Storm, Ari, Jimmie, Edna, and Cantor Ida Rae combined with the broader band to belt out tunes in 22 different dialects, including Croatian, Hindi, Ladino, Mandarin, Xhosa, Russian, Armenian, Farsi, German, Turkish, and Thai. Each of those linguistic forays was preceded by a member of the Hollywood Bowl staff proudly walking on stage to wave an affiliated flag before settling into a line on the side.
Once those United Nations stepped off, China resumed her place in the spotlight to lead the singing of Pink Martini’s staple song, “Hey Eugene”. With time running short, Lauderdale had the band skip to the closer, “Brasil”, as the singers implored Bowl attendees to form a conga line—and many happily obliged.
For all the fun and theatrics that Pink Martini, as a whole, brought to the Bowl stage, all of that read as a generous reflection of Thomas Lauderdale’s vision and enthusiasm. The 54-year-old could hardly be contained as he exuberantly banged away on his piano while imploring and encouraging the collection of skilled musicians around him. His energy has clearly played a pivotal role in not only keeping Pink Martini afloat past its purely political days, but also growing it into the beloved act that it still is today.
Surely, his role will remain as vital as ever throughout Pink Martini’s anniversary tour. After another night at the Hollywood Bowl and a trip down to San Diego, the band will hit the road for 44 more dates across North America through May 2025. Find tickets here.
As for Andrew Bird, he will appear alongside Madison Cunningham at the Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle over Labor Day Weekend and again in Iowa City in late-September before taking his act across the pond to London in November. For a full list of upcoming shows head here.
Pink Martini With Storm Large – “Kaj Kolah Khan” – 8/24/24
[Video: Khool60Arvino]
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