Every concert has its own unique rhythm, and after experiencing what my husband affectionately dubbed “the gray hot summer” of concerts with James Taylor, Neil Young, Peter Frampton, Graham Nash, and the like, the fall’s first show at the Santa Barbara Bowl had a decidedly different vibe.
Jungle — the British duo of Tom McFarland (see my interview here) and Joshua Lloyd-Watson and their merry tribe of revolving guest musicians — came out to the Bowl on September 6 with a joyfully youthful mission: to play and have fun.
The happily fluid, musical-chair-hopping crowd (I’ve never seen so much movement between seats before) was there to bop their heads and wave their arms and simply let the music envelop them, festival style. The mass of swirling bodies and clouds of pot smoke took me back to another era — the music, however, was decidedly modern.