The songs and scores behind 30 years of Wes Anderson movies took the highlight throughout the second of three scheduled shows on the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday night, where a large mixture of recording artists from Beck to Rufus Wainwright, Jenny Lewis to Jackson Browne and lots of more joined the L.A. Phil in performances of fan favorites from across Anderson’s beloved filmography.
“We’re going to have music that makes you laugh, that makes you’re thinking that, that makes you’re feeling,” concert emcee Bill Murray, wearing a Steve Zissou-style red beanie, told the group firstly of the evening, before introducing longtime Anderson composer Mark Mothersbaugh and the remaining of rock band Devo.
Before Devo played “Gut Feeling” (A Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou needle drop), Mothersbaugh opened up with a couple of words about Anderson, telling the group that “working with Wes was sort of the closest thing to working with this band here, where it was about ideas and ideas and making them come to life.”
The concert — music directed by Justin Meldal-Johnsen — was a healthy mixture of needle drop covers together with orchestral numbers written by Mothersbaugh and fellow Anderson collaborator Alexandre Desplat, the entire night reflecting the vast draw of influences Anderson pulls from for his signature brand of quirky, whimsical movies. On the instrumental side, Kaoru Wantanabe got here out on taiko drums to play the percussive soundtrack of Isle of Dogs, while Ami Dang and Aakash Pujara played flute and sitar for the Darjeeling Limited tracks “Charu’s Theme” and “Arrival in Benares.”
My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James played a faithful cover of the Kinks’ “Strangers,” which was featured in The Darjeeling Limited, in addition to Cat Stevens’ “The Wind,” some of the moving musical moments in Rushmore. Karen Elson sang Françoise Hardy’s “Les Temps De L’amour” from Moonrise Kingdom and Jeff Goldblum showed off his prowess behind the keys alongside his jazz band as they played “Blinuet,” a Rushmore feature. Spoon frontman Britt Daniel also dipped into the Rushmore soundtrack with a performance of the raucous “Making Time.”
Lewis, Murray and Beck joined Roge for a high-energy performance of “Zorro Is Back” from the Bottle Rocket soundtrack.
Beck took some of the iconic musical moments from the Anderson canon, playing Elliot Smith’s “Needle within the Hay,” together with Love’s “Alone Again Or.”
Jason Schwartzman, who took the stage several times throughout the night, recalled a story he’d similarly told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this week about going through the Rushmore soundtrack with Anderson after he was solid within the film, listening to the songs on a cassette as Anderson walked him through scenes. Schwartzman then pulled out what he claimed was that exact same decades-old cassette and threw it into the group, though provided that he pulled the identical move during Friday’s show, it’s likely only a prop.
The overwhelming highlight of the night, though, was from Jackson Browne, who performed “The Fairest of the Seasons” and “These Days.” Browne had written that latter song as a 16-year-old, and the version recorded by German singer Nico inspired Anderson to make The Royal Tenenbaums in the primary place, getting a distinguished feature within the film in what stays arguably Anderson’s most iconic musical moment. Earlier this week, Anderson told THR it was “overwhelming” for Jackson to perform on the concert.
Anderson introduced Browne to the stage himself on Saturday, saying “These Days” “so directly reached out to me” as an artist, further noting that the track “was written impossibly by a 16-year-old boy.”
“Possibly it was a moment once I particularly needed some special artist, some voice, to reassure me of not less than the illusion of a benevolent order within the universe,” Anderson said, thanking Browne before he performed. “I felt compelled for whatever reason, to make up a story that attempted to expand the words and spirit of this song I loved right into a movie that was kind of about regret. We called it The Royal Tenenbaums.”
Before he played, Browne told the group the story of how he’d forgotten he agreed for “These Days” to be in Royal Tenenbaums, discovering the song’s usage while he was within the theater expecting the primary time.
“I’m indebted to Wes for having discovered this song and giving it this life,” Browne said.
The night finished with an ensemble performance of the Faces’ “Ooh La La,” the identical track that concluded Rushmore.
The series is ready to conclude with yet another show on the Bowl on Sunday evening.