by Cindy Stephens, slightly edited by yours truly
The falling rain never seemed to put a damper on the audience, but it did end the concert a little early.
I was really interested in seeing what the setup would be like because the Bowl’s shell would be an obstacle they haven’t had to deal with otherwise on the tour. They did end up keeping most of the stage setup. All the balls
inside the shell of the Bowl were taken out, so that left a lot of room. The 7 light fixtures that hang over the boys was in place, as was the video screen behind them. The screen that’s normally behind that wasn’t in place because there was no place to put it. Instead of the oval screens on the side, they had quare screens instead. I was wondering what they were going to do during something like “Mama”, where the heavy drum parts later in the song were accompanied by the bright flashing white lights that interrupted the red hue of the song itself. Well, it worked out great because they had the lights inside the shell pulsing to that beat instead. It was great.
I didn’t notice, but the husband noticed that there was a second set of screens about half-way back, so that those in the back had screens that were closer for them to see. The gangplank/walkway on the left side of the stage was gone, as was the riser part on the right, where Phil normally sings the beginning of the last section of “In The Cage”, after he’s been offstage for a bit. The right side of the stage was just flat.
I had been surprised that they had chosen to play the Bowl rather than something like Staples. I don’t know if the other venues were unavailable or if they specifically picked the Bowl, but even with the limitations and problems that ended up arising from being in an outdoor stadium, it just seemed right for them to play a venue as classic and iconic as the Hollywood Bowl in what one might speculate is their last tour. It was just so amazing to see and hear them with the backdrop of the Bowl’s shell behind them.
The other added bonus is that the Bowl has lights in the back of the theatre as well as in the middle walkway, and all those lights were used to great effect for many of the songs, so whereas at the other venues, all of the light really just came from the stage, the entire stadium here was bathed in whatever color was the theme for any particular song or moment. During “Mama”, the entire stadium was just a sea of red - gorgeous.
I can’t remember what song it was - maybe “Mama”? - but at one point, the top of the Bowl had smoke coming out with alternating reddish lights so it seemed like the top of the Bowl was on fire. It looked incredible.
The forecast had called for rain, but they had said it wasn’t expected until very late in the night, maybe midnight. Well, the rain showed up a bit early. A light rain started towards the end of “In The Cage” - I had a bad feeling as Phil was singing “Raindrops keep falling on my head”, and the rain started shortly thereafter. Following “Afterglow”, Phil made a comment about knowing what you should expect to get with a Genesis concert - “the fucking rain. Oh, Genesis is having an outdoor concert tonight?” and then Phil made the sound like a rip-roaring thunderstorm/cloudburst. It was a steady, but not heavy, rain, and it lasted through “Hold On My Heart” and stopped right before “Home By The Sea”.
I was a bit surprised but very pleased that so many people seemed to be enjoying “Firth of Fifth” and really happy that it was being played. People were up and dancing, almost like what you’d expect from a Top 40 hit song and not an instrumental.
As Phil was doing the intro for “Ripples”, one of the women in front of him must have said something to him. (Unlike at the other venues I’ve seen, the Bowl has people right up against the edge of the stage.) He said something like, “Well, I’m a little busy right now. … I love you too.” He was talking about apologizing for the previous song and its smut and filth and now going to a place where virgins live. He must have been really distracted by the woman who interrupted him because he didn’t say the next line about how where virgins live is nowhere near here obviously. He seemed to rush through the intro more than he did at the other shows.
The rain had stopped but started again at the very end of “Throwing It All Away”. The “Domino” demonstration was still fun, though Tony didn’t participate in the part where the people on stage are affected as well. I think he was preoccupied with his equipment. More on that later. From that point on, it was raining steadily, first about the same heaviness as earlier in the concert, but then it started to rain harder. People were still very appreciative during the drum duet and “Los Endos”, and lots of people were dancing for “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” and more were dancing for “Invisible Touch”.
During the beginning of “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”, Phil also made another reference to the fucking rain and changed the ending of one line later in the song to be in reference to the rain. And yes, of course, there are the rain references at the beginning of the song.
At various points during the show, in between songs, the roadies would run on stage and cover equipment and wipe down the stage and other equipment with towels. Phil actually referenced them at one point, so we of course gave them a hearty round of applause.
Sometime during the show, a bunch of
roadies came out and put hard plastic covers around/on top of Tony’s keyboards. He was further up the stage than the drums or Steve or Daryl, so he and his stuff was apparently getting wet. Later in the show, they even brought out a huge umbrella (like you’d see on patio furniture) to cover him and his stuff as well. I had the husband take a couple pictures with his celphone. Not sure you can even see anything, but here they are for what they’re worth: picture 1
and picture 2. I think you can sort of see the umbrella in picture two - it’s in between the second and third light fixtures from the right.
Well, about 2/3rd of the way through “Invisible Touch”, I heard this noise that sounded like Tony had either just smashed his hands all over the keyboards and hit a boatload of random notes or someone had just dropped the keyboards on the ground. I looked at Tony, and he was leaning down under one of the keyboards, and I figured he was turning it off. The husband said it sounded like the water had shorted out one of the keyboards. They finished the song and then all left the stage.
I couldn’t tell if Phil left and came back or just stayed out, but he said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re lucky that we made it this far through the show, but you’re all getting soaked and our equipment is breaking, and we can’t play anymore. On behalf of Mike and Tony and Steve and Chester, thank you so much for coming. Be careful driving home.” (That’s not verbatim, but it’s the gist of what he said.) People were disappointed, and I think they would have definitely stayed for the encore, but the boys really just couldn’t do it anymore.
When the show started, I noticed that Phil had a light jacket on, zipped up all the way to his neck. He didn’t have a jacket in the other shows, but I figured since this was an outdoor venue, he needed to keep his throat and chest warm. It wasn’t until much later, though, when I was watching him on one of the screens, that I noticed how wet his jacket was. I should have realized that if Tony and the keyboards was getting wet, Phil would be getting wet while he was singing as well since he’s pretty far up the stage.
It wasn’t terribly cold out, but being wet and being rained on couldn’t possibly have been very good for him and his voice, though he sounded great throughout. Even with all the rain and the problems, all of them put on a great show. When Phil was doing his announcement and because of the other times he was swearing during the show, you could tell he was really pissed off about the rain.
I don’t think missing “I Can’t Dance” was a big thing, but I feel really sorry for those who missed out on “Carpet Crawlers” and Phil’s genuine thank you at the end. He did get some of that in, but of course he was hurried because of the weather. And it wasn’t a case of them stopping the show and then the rain letting up right afterward. It took a while to get out of the stadium and all, and it was raining the whole time, and it even rained harder.
The rain is supposed to end mid-afternoon on Saturday, so we should be good for the Saturday night show. It’ll be interesting to see what sort of mood Phil will be in.
In the early afternoon of the day of the 2nd Los Angeles show and the last of the tour, I paid a daylight visit to the Hollywood Bowl. I climbed all the steps to the very last row to have an overview of the whole venue and from up there you can even see the Hollywood-letters! I met one of the official Genesis Forum members when I descended and checked out where my seat that night would be. We chatted for a while and it was almost 2pm when I took the metro back to downtown in order to get ready for the show. 
When I saw some of the fans taking pictures with Tony, Mike and/or Phil I realized that I had almost forgotten about getting a picture. So I asked Hannah if it was still possible to get one with Phil. For the lack of time she got 3 of us together and we took this (as I think very nice) photo. By the way, I’m the guy on the right and no, I’m not standing on my toes! I’m 5′90 (or 1.80m) which is pretty average I think.
After the band took a last bow it was hard to believe this was really about it. I took my time to say goodbye to a few fans and to sound engineer Michel Colin who always took a few minutes of his precious time to talk to me before or after the shows. He was also the one who took this unique and memorable photo of me in Rome standing in first row (the guy without cap with the blue Genesis t-shirt looking towards the camera). 
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