Queen Rocks the Hollywood Bowl

Friday night I got a call from a neighbor who's just been hired to run a ticket broker company here in Los Angeles. He wanted to know if I wanted to see Queen at the Hollywood Bowl. Well, yeah...

I was never a Queen fanatic but I do like their music -- and who wouldn't want to hear "Bohemian Rhapsody" live? This Bowl concert was, as I understand it, one of two dates here in the U.S. -- they played in New Jersey at the Continental Arena last week. It would have been an excellent night out, even if I'd paid for it!

Guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, and Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers

Queen had done a European tour earlier this year, teaming with Paul Rodgers who took on the lead vocal role that once belonged to the late Freddie Mercury. Nobody can replace Mercury, of course, but Rodgers gave a strong performance in his own right. It also opened the show up a lot -- showcasing a number of Bad Company songs like "Feel Like Makin' Love" and "All Right Now."

It was a magical night in another way. We've been getting some wet weather the past few days. It threatened to rain all night, but misted instead and so every light beam showed the droplets mingling in the air. There was a giant screen on the stage with a platform in front where the singers and guitarists could stand that made for another unusual look.

The only bummer was that I sat in a section of 500 or more people, I'd guess. The front row of this section has a perfect, unobstructed view of the stage and was prime seating. Yet one woman and her guy and her guy's friend insisted on standing the entire night even when no one else did. So, they could have had their perfect view, and let others have one, too, but they felt like it was their right to take it away from others. A good 20-30 seats had their entire view of the stage blocked by these people. When everybody got to their feet it was no big deal but when they were standing alone, man, it just made you shake your head at the whole arrogance thing they had going on. Whatever...

Final song of the night was "We Are The Champions" -- the whole gang really laying it out there -- great acoustics -- mist floating in the light -- and, yes, by then, everybody was on their feet and the view was great.