Joni Mitchell says “Fk Donald Trump” at the Hollywood Bowl and calls for votes

GOAT singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell took over the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Saturday (October 19) for the first of two Joni Jam concerts.

Despite the size of the freeway-adjacent outdoor venue, a crowd of 17,000 loyal fans were treated to a show that felt like an intimate and inviting look at Mitchell's life at age 80: shooting the breeze with his friends and admirers from the comfort of a plush (but suitably regal) chair, sipping pinot grigio by the soft glow of the lamp and singing a song (or 25) when the spirit takes her.

It may sound comfortable, but getting to this heartwarming victory lap was a hard-won victory for Mitchell — a brain aneurysm in 2015 left her unable to speak or walk, and she had to watch videos of herself playing the guitar to relearn. his own songs. But the Canadian artist, who suffered from polio as a child, is no stranger to tough battles, and after years of staying out of the public eye following her health crisis, the star of Grammy-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Famer stunned the world in 2022 by making an unannounced return to the stage at the Newport Folk Festival.

A full-blown headlining concert followed in June 2023 at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington, and his earth-shattering turn at the 2024 Grammys allowed an even wider audience to experience the depth and gravitas that Mitchell is still capable of bringing to a performance.

At each of these concerts, she was accompanied by Brandi Carlile, an outspoken acolyte whom Mitchell described as my ambassador. Naturally, Carlile also joined Mitchell on stage Saturday at the Bowl, beaming with joy and nervous excitement as she sang with her hero and served as the de facto emcee/hype woman for the evening. Carlile even revealed that the Joni Jams, held in Mitchell's real living room five or six years ago, helped Mitchell heal from the aneurysm. It began with friends and musicians singing Mitchell's own material to her as she recovered, an experience Carlile described as terrifying; Soon after, Mitchell began harmonizing and picking up a verse or two from the comfort of his couch. Today, she has regained enough vocal control to perform in front of thousands of spectators.

Joni is about to destroy us right now, Carlile said with a Cheshire Cat smile before Mitchell sang the remarkable Blue A Case of You in a resonant, raspy tone. This statement could easily have been inserted into any number of moments between songs, given how often people could be seen wiping tears from icons, incisive lyrical meditations on love, pain and our brief lives on a rock encircling a giant ball of gas.

I'm honored to have her as a friend because she brought me out of retirement, Mitchell said of Carlile during the show with a laugh.

With a backing band including Blake Mills, Robin Pecknold, Jacob Collier, Lucius, Annie Lennox, Marcus Mumford, Jon Batiste, Allison Russell, Wendy & Lisa, Rita Wilson, Celisse and more, Mitchell's remarkable songs were treated more like jazz compositions. only pop songs, stretched and contracted according to the lead vocal, embellished with curious flourishes at certain moments then conspicuously devoid of flourishes the next. Even though the Bowl got a little chilly toward the end of the evening, the warm tapestry of Mitchell's music kept spirits warm.

Here are some of the highlights of an unforgettable evening.

Highlights of the Hegira

Blue (1971) is by far Mitchell's most acclaimed and longest-lasting album, while Court and Spark (1974) is his highest-charting studio album (#2 on the Billboard 200, with his only top 10 hit in the Billboard Hot 100, Help Me). But Hejira (1976) is his most enigmatic and seductive album (and easily one of his five best), so it was an unexpected and exciting curveball when Mitchell & Co. delivered a Hejira-heavy setlist. I don't want to scare anyone, but you just heard Joni Mitchell singing Hejiri! Carlile pointed out after the third song of the evening. The evening ended up comprising no less than half of this brooding, contemplative classic (Refuge of the Roads, Coyote and Amelia were also performed) born from a peripatetic period of Mitchell's life.

Cry then boogie

Mitchell gave several of his late-career songs for their stage debut at the Bowl on Saturday, and two of them, If I Had a Heart and The Sire of Sorrow (Jobs Sad Song), were clearly about confusion and the bitterness that can result from trying to make sense of a brutal and hateful world. But Mitchell, according to Carlile, was concerned that the subject matter was too sad, so she asked the group to follow the latter track with her jaunty, jazzy God Must Be a Boogie Man, a freewheeling Charlie Mingus-inspired song that found Jacob Collier himself. unleashes on the keys. God is dead Nietzsche. Nietzsche is a dead God, Mitchell said at the end of the song, laughing heartily.

Both sides now

The show was divided into two sections with an intermission, and the songs Mitchell chose to end each were the most moving moments of the evening: Both Sides, Now and The Circle Game. Although the setlist included songs with more austere lyrics, these performances demonstrated how time, pain, and experience can deepen and improve the art. The two frequently covered tracks are deceptively simple meditations on the passage of time and our insignificance in the grander scheme of things, written in the '60s, when Mitchell was in his twenties. Six decades later, Mitchell's weathered voice imbues them with nostalgic wisdom; arguably, they pack more of an emotional punch now thanks to the years of experience she brings to her phrasing. When Both Sides, Now ended, the waning gibbous moon, as if on cue, began to appear over the Hollywood Hills; only Joni could convince a celestial object to actively participate in her show.

Mumford & Lennox Guest Points

The second half of the evening brought out even more musicians, who delivered an energetic performance of Mitchell's ever-relevant environmental ode, Big Yellow Taxi. Jon Batiste, all smiles, sitting next to Collier in front of a baby queue while hammering on the keys, was remarkable. moment. Soon after, Marcus Mumford spoke in California (although British, he was born in Anaheim, California), with Mitchell mixing his voice with his on a few key lines. When Annie Lennox took center stage to thunderous applause for her moving version of Ladies of the Canyon, Mitchell herself was entranced during the performance, only speaking at the very end to sing the final lyrics of the song with Lennox.

Fucking Donald Trump

When a member of the crowd shouted criticism of Trump, Mitchell laughed and took a moment to give his perspective. F–k Donald Trump, I love this song, Mitchell said, unexpectedly referencing YG's 2016 hip-hop banger, FDT. This didn't come out of nowhere. Mitchell had just sang Dog Eat Dog, a song about powerful people who lie, cheat, steal, swindle, and after the lyrics about big-shot financiers, Mitchell tossed aside, Like Donald Trump. She went further after the song ended, putting her two cents on the Republican presidential candidate. Fk Donald Trump, Mitchell reiterated. Everyone comes out and votes. This is an important question. I wish I could vote, I'm Canadian. I'm one of those bad immigrants, she said with a sneer. By then, almost everyone among the 17,000 people was on their feet applauding.

It was a shocking moment that took a while to sink in — not that Mitchell hates a racist former president with 34 felonies under his belt, but the fact that she's a fan of YG's music.

Covers and rewrites

Earlier this year, Mitchell was one of the artists on hand to greet Elton John and Bernie Taupin as they received the Gershwin Prize in Washington, DC. Laughing, Carlile told the crowd that Mitchell accepted the invitation to perform, but only after doing Joni's most. Mitchell always asked to rewrite their song to suit him. That was bold, Mitchell agreed with a chuckle. The song in question was Im Still Standing, which Mitchell, sitting until the very end of the night, did not defend. I'm still sitting after all this time, she sang, glancing sideways at Carlile and laughing. Mitchell, however, stayed true to the original lyrics during a cover of Gershwin's Summertime, which may have been her strongest vocal of the evening. You just sang the shit out of this Joni, Carlile exclaimed after the song ended.

Shine

Mitchell's last studio album, Shine (2007), received positive reviews but is certainly not among his best known. Despite this, the title song led to a wonderful moment of camaraderie and unity as more than half the room turned on their cell phone lights to salute this hopeful and gracious call. Oh, boy. What a sight, Mitchell marveled. Everyone turn around and look, she asked the crowd. It's so beautiful. People were happy to be of service: offering an emblematic talent a moment of wonder and joy at the end of an evening rich in emotion was the least they could do.

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