Summer Breeze: Hollywood Bowl Unveils Season

If a Southern California summer was a giant cake with a smattering of candles, one of the candles near the middle would stand in for our robust outdoor concert scene. (The other candles? The beach, June Gloom, ocean-close fireworks, ice cream trucks, drive-in movies, al fresco dining, and a few of the individual's own personal choosing.)

The Hollywood Bowl is the standard-bearer of that outdoor summertime music thing, which makes sense, given the fact that we'll all be toasting its centennial in under a decade. From the cheapo -- "cheapo" being a most complimentary description -- seats at the back, where the music still sounds great, to those fancy-pants boxes near the front, a Bowl night, spent with a favorite band, is sublime and quintessentially SoCal.

LA's most famous shell has announced the line-up for its 2014 Season, and as always, there are stars, fireworks, funky doings, classical sounds, more stars, and some more stars after that.

The Beatles' 50th at the Bowl is one highlight; Dave Stewart of Eurythmics will host on Saturday, Aug. 23. "Hair" is the musicale treat at the start of August -- you know the one where they assemble a top-notch cast for a weekend-long affair -- and Dreamworks Animation gets a silly-sweet salute on Saturday, July 19 (Jack Black plays the master of ceremonies).

Watch: Art Mosaics Reshape Worlds

Herbie Hancock, Gloria Estefan, Elvis Costello, Gladys Knight, Steve Martin, Kool & The Gang, and Bowl regular John Williams will all be in the roof-less, mega-huge house. Oh, and a Hitchcock spectacular, too. Hello, "Psycho" theme.

And, yep, Gustavo Dudamel will be picking up his baton at the Bowl, too. Seeing the Phil's talented conductor at the Bowl is about as LA as the letters L and A, put together.

The Scene

Want to find new things to do in Los Angeles? The Scene's lifestyle stories have you covered. Here's your go-to source on where the fun is across SoCal and for the weekend.