Joni Mitchell at the Hollywood Bowl

Los Angeles | October 19, 2024

The first of two Joni Mitchell performances at the Hollywood Bowl was naturally going to be highly anticipated, but the tear-jerking renditions of “Both Sides Now” and “Case Of You” that broke the internet after her “impromptu” comeback at Newport Folk Fest in 2022 brought things to a fever pitch.  It’s impossible to measure the pre-Newport to post-Newport Joni waves, but there was of course something extramusical about the videos, something both moving and well-conditioned for the internet.  We’ve all had our heart strings pulled by watching the illness-stricken senior experience a moment of clarity from the transcendent power of music.  It’s a chord we love to strike in the modern age, a time when rare intimate moments like these are available to the public rather than just to those closest to the ailing individual.  Of course we watch, but there’s an argument for looking away. 

In the case of Joni Mitchell, we have an undeniable, once in a generation talent.  The magic of her writing and the swirling world of music mastery that she, with the likes of Jaco, Don Alias, and Pat Metheny created is indisputable.  It’s edgy, it explores, and it moves artists and audiences operating in the darkness, up toward heaven.  At the Hollywood Bowl on October 19th there were strokes in the same direction. Joni sings and moves and hears and feels with a similar direction. Her observations are artful and unfettered.  Her singing is from the heart, and her movement through the world is like a vessel. Whether from a place of YouTube video feel goodness, or challenging musical appreciation, Joni performing “The Sire of Sorrow” and “Hejira” in a world where all signs have pointed to that being an impossibility for the last several decades, was amazing. The talent and the artistry stand alone so clearly and effortlessly, Joni’s voice by itself could have compelled us for the entire three hours. In stark contrast to her voice on its own, she was accompanied by a parade.

Eagerly named and eagerly offered, The Joni Jam featured some supremely talented musicians including top-call session guitar player and music director Blake Mills, legendary songwriter and vocalist Annie Lennox, and others.  The ringleader of this Netflix-presents (in spirit rather than practice, at least for now) rebrand of the Joni experience was Brandi Carlile, who’s musical offerings left me without an opinion, but who’s conversational banter throughout the show made me sad. Her prodding of Mitchell felt again like the stolen intimacy of a YouTube hospital singalong, and the constant reminders to the audience of how lucky we were to be seeing this legend due to her own ability to coax Joni out of retirement, were a condescending surprise for an audience who certainly must have at least mostly realized how rare of a treat it was.  Was Joni in on the smoothing, or a removed bystander just happy to be doing what she does best? I lean toward the latter. And it was an unforgettable experience. But why do we need the emotionally fluffed up version of what we already know and love? Perhaps the YouTube Joni has trumped the legacy artist more than I, as a legacy lover, realize? Maybe The Joni Jam is a Starbucks music who’s who club so impenetrable that it has the power to surpass the needs and wants of an audience or even the artist herself. I know the tears being cried were real when Joni sang “Both Sides Now” and mothers and daughters, spouses and strangers started spontaneously embracing. Despite Jacob Collier’s best efforts to Jam pack the music with aimless shredding, Joni’s heart made it through.