Over the weekend, Wes Anderson took over the Hollywood Bowl.
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the Bowl was home to “Music from the Films of Wes Anderson,” a unique, appropriately idiosyncratic concert that featured music and performances from Anderson’s oeuvre, along with special guests and other surprises. There was so much Anderson-sanctioned whimsy that you half expected a stop-motion creature to slink across the stage. (Sadly, that didn’t happen.)
When we say the entire vibe of the Hollywood Bowl shifted into a decidedly Andersonian register, we mean it. Concertgoers arrived dressed in Wes Anderson-inspired cosplay. (The number of red beanies, a nod to “The Life Aquatic,” was especially impressive given the balmy 80-degree weather.) Walking up to the venue, attendees were greeted by a Criterion Collection pop-up store designed to resemble the titular hotel from “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” Inside were exclusive Anderson merchandise and a mini theater screening his features and short films.
The pop-up was also open to the public, meaning anyone could wander in and pick up a $50 baseball cap emblazoned with the logo from Criterion’s recent Anderson 4K Blu-ray box set. (For those unfamiliar, the Criterion Collection is owned by Steven Rales, whose company, Indian Paintbrush, produces most of Anderson’s projects. Rales shared the Academy Award for best live action short film with Anderson as a producer of “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”)
Up the hill from the pop-up was the actual Criterion Collection mobile closet, where you could fulfill your wildest cinephile dreams and get a really cool photo for your Instagram account. And elsewhere on the premises, there were chocolates being handed out that were branded like the confectionary from “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” Everything was coming up Wes.
As for the concert itself, it did not fit the typical live-to-screen format that has become an essential part of the Hollywood Bowl’s line-up, backed by the immensely talented LA Phil (this summer alone they feature everything from DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon” to a full-throated “Top Gun: Maverick” performance). The LA Phil was present for the three Anderson-themed nights (we attended the final night), but it was much more than simply showing clips from the movies and having the orchestra accompany those clips live.
Instead, the evening took on a looser, more emotionally evocative roadmap. Beck, a performer and one of the night’s emcees, who dashed back to the soundboard following his performance and stayed there for a while, making sure everything was just so, described the evening as “WesFest,” which was apt. The night featured performers, musicians and other assorted members from Anderson’s filmography, who told anecdotes, covered songs from his various soundtracks, and generally seemed very happy to be there.
One of the emcees of the evening was Bill Murray, a staple of Anderson’s filmography since “Rushmore,” who came out and introduced various performers (including a band of Ukrainian musicians), told funny stories, forgot what he was supposed to say, and generally charmed the audience. He also joined in on an all-star rendition of “Zorro is Back,” a song from a 1970s “Zorro” movie that accompanied one of the more memorable montages from Anderson’s debut feature “Bottle Rocket.”
Beck and Jason Schwartzman, who has been a close collaborator since Anderson’s sophomore feature “Rushmore,” also served as an emcee and performed as well. He told a story about how, after getting the role in “Rushmore,” Anderson handed him a mixtape of songs that would eventually serve as the soundtrack to the movie and how instrumental that was to his performance. He then threw the tape into the audience and we’re pretty sure somebody dressed like a character from “Fantastic Mr. Fox” caught it, even if Beck said that the tape was a phony. Who would you believe?
The night unfolded in much the same way throughout: instrumental interstitials, special guests, witty banter, generous clips from Anderson’s films and an atmosphere of genuine film fanaticism that celebrated both the filmmaker and his uncanny ability to weave disparate musical threads into some of the most distinctive and recognizable soundtracks of his era. Nearly everyone onstage also took a moment to acknowledge Randall Poster, Anderson’s longtime music supervisor, who was seated beside Anderson in the small semicircular section next to the stage that once housed the Hollywood Bowl’s iconic fountain.
Among the guests on the final night were Jenny Lewis (and a very talented whistler), My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James, Karen Elson, frequent Anderson collaborator Jeff Goldblum and his jazz band, and DEVO. Founding member Mark Mothersbaugh, who composed the scores for many of Anderson’s early films, was also frequently spotted behind the keyboards throughout the performance.
The evening also featured Indian musicians performing selections from “The Darjeeling Limited” and a Japanese drummer who faithfully — almost supernaturally — recreated the opening of “Isle of Dogs” as the film’s opening credits played on the Hollywood Bowl’s screens.
Perhaps the most powerful moment of the evening came when Jackson Browne took the stage following a heartfelt, humorous introduction from Schwartzman. Browne shared a touching story about how Anderson’s use of Nico’s recordings of “The Fairest of the Seasons” and “These Days” in “The Royal Tenenbaums” made him immensely proud. He recalled seeing the film for the first time and hearing one of the songs begin to play, thinking to himself, “Hey, I used to play guitar like that.”
The songs have taken on new life through Anderson’s film, and Browne expressed deep gratitude for the way the filmmaker had introduced them to new generations of listeners. It was one of the evening’s most moving moments.
“Music from the Films of Wes Anderson” was one of those events that feels like it could have only been put on in a place like the Hollywood Bowl and only been appreciated by those dedicated cinephiles who put on their red beanies and came down for a night of talented musicians and wonderful movies. Hopefully this becomes a semi-regular tradition, for the Hollywood Bowl and for Wes Anderson. As his filmography expands, so too can the show.
