Joni Mitchell, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, October 19

Joni’s first show in the City of Angels for more than two decades becomes a tear-jerking, three-hour triumph

by Kevin E G  Perry
MOJO
December 15, 2024

BEYOND the unlikely lies the miraculous. When Joni Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm that left her in a coma in 2015, it seemed doubtful that one of our greatest singer-songwriters would ever walk or talk comfortably again, let alone return to the stage. A few years later, her friend Brandi Carlile began hosting 'Joni Jams' at Mitchell's home, where groups of musicians would gather to serenade her with her own songs. Gradually Mitchell began to join in, slowly sounding her voice once more.

In 2022 the 'Joni Jams' went public, with an unannounced performance at the Newport Folk Festival and then a headline show at The Gorge in Washington last year, but there was still a sense of Mitchell needing to lean on the support of Carlile and the other musicians gathered around her. Tonight, playing a show in her adopted home of LA for the first time in more than two decades, Mitchell sings for three hours, her voice as powerful and elemental as the weather. The miracle has arrived.

Mitchell emerges laughing, the stage rotating to bring her into view on a gilded armchair, with Carlile and her band seated around her. They open with the slinking "Be Cool", the intro to the first half of a set that delivers deep cuts and songs clearly dear to Mitchell's heart. "Hejira" is sublime, before Mitchell dives back into childhood memories of Saskatoon on "Cherokee Louise". Afterwards, she shares anecdotes from her tomboy youth.

There are old favourites like "Coyote" and "Carey", and numbers she's never played live before, like "The Sire Of Sorrow" and "If I Had A Heart", her pointed song about the idiocy and cruelty of humanity that could have been written in 1970, or yesterday, but was in fact inspired by the Iraq war in 2007. "No one writes lyrics like Joni," says Carlile afterwards, putting her finger on it.

There's also lots of laughter. As "God Must Be A Boogie Man" plays out, Mitchell giggles as she quotes an old joke: "God is dead - Nietzsche. Nietzsche is dead - God." She finishes the ‰first half of the show with "Both Sides, Now", alone in the spotlight, just a piano accompanying her voice, not a dry eye in the house.

The surprises keep coming. There's an impish cover of Elton John's "I'm Still Standing", with a handful of lyrics amended to reflect the fact she's still sitting; and on "Dog Eat Dog" Mitchell playfully wades into the coming election. After the line "snakebite evangelists and racketeers and bigwig fanciers" she adds "...like Donald Trump". Afterwards, she says: "Everybody get out and vote, this is an important one. I wish I could vote, I'm a Canadian. I'm one of those lousy immigrants." Someone shouts an expletive from the crowd, which makes her laugh and repeat it back. "I love that song," she says. "Fuck Donald Trump."

There's still time for her blues-jazz interpretation of Rudyard Kipling's "If" and a gospel-tinged, irreverent performance of "Shine" that inspires half the audience to turn on their mobile phone screens, basking the arena in light. "Oh boy," laughs Mitchell. "What a spectacle!" She closes with one last singalong, "The Circle Game", a profound and fitting end to a delirious night of resurrection.

After the intermission, the second half leans towards hits, opening with a euphoric singalong of "Big Yellow Taxi" and a sprightly "Raised On Robbery", with Carlile's higher register complementing the low alto Mitchell now sings in. As a nod to the old 'Joni Jams', Marcus Mumford takes the lead on "California" and Annie Lennox delivers vocal pyrotechnics on "Ladies Of The Canyon". But Mitchell is not to be outdone, and proceeds to croon Gershwin's "Summertime" flawlessly. That's only a warm-up for a devastating "A Case Of You", which again sees Mitchell spotlit and alone, holding 18,000 hearts in the palm of her hand.