No one has a laugh like Joni Mitchell.
At the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday night, for the first of two sold-out Joni Jam performances, her deep chuckle punctuated nearly every song, a mixture of deserved pride, amusement, gratitude, and pleasure.
Sometimes, she’d laugh at her own lyrics, still getting a kick out of her poetic quips decades after it was written. Sometimes she’d laugh at the fans’ overwhelming responses to songs they thought they’d never hear live, where standing ovations were the norm and “we love you Joni” often echoed over the pin-drop reverence that most songs earned. And the best was when she’s laugh inexplicably, keeping at least some of the inside jokes and mysteries to herself.
At the end of “God Must Be A Boogie Man,” she had a hearty laugh while reciting the church parking lot slogan “‘God is dead’ – Nietzsche, ‘Nietzsche is dead’ – God.” Yes, even Joni Mitchell isn’t immune to dad jokes.
During “Night Ride Home,” Joni Mitchell’s unofficial legacy guardian, advocate, biggest fan, and friend Brandi Carlile nearly fell out of her chair reacting to Joni’s words and delivery, making Joni laugh back, another marker of the crucial relationship they’ve cultivated over the past several years.
That’s all to say that there was a long time that the idea of seeing Joni Mitchell laughing on a stage felt more remote than a Smiths reunion or a Talking Heads concert. She retired from touring in 2000, and then suffered a brain aneurysm in 2015 that made this kind of night feel like a pipe dream. But as Carlile outlined to the Bowl crowd, Joni jams first occurred to play Joni’s music back to her, taking a while before Joni felt comfortable to join in and sing with them. From there, there’s been the surprise appearance at the Newport Folk Festival, her massive return concert at the Gorge, the remarkable performance of “Both Sides Now” at the Grammys, and a spattering of one-off appearances. A career that seemed destined to end in sadness has received a surprise final act, and hardly a soul of the typically chatty 17,000 fans in attendance at the Hollywood Bowl seemed to take a moment for granted.
But there is nothing but joy on the menu at a Joni Mitchell concert these days. The majestic live debut of “The Sire Of Sorrow (Job’s Sad Song)” couldn’t bring down the crowd down despite its titular emotional signifier — though Joni followed it with the sly “God Must Be A Boogie Man” just in case. The expansive backing band were all toothy grins for the entirety of the three-hour-plus set, which included — deep breath — musical director Blake Mills, Jacob Collier, Robin Pecknold, Marcus Mumford, Lucius, Annie Lennox, Allison Russell, Jon Batiste, Carlile, and many more.
Near the end of the night, Carlile noted that this was a career highlight for many on stage, and they all played like it, always sure to center Joni even when shining in their own right.
And the audience gave that shine right back. At the concert’s penultimate song, “Shine,” the unprompted crowd turned their cell phone lights on and lit up the Bowl. It’s a move that’s fairly common at big-room events, but often at the artist’s request and rarely for a figure who is less accustomed to these sort of gestures. Joni urged everyone to look behind them and see what she saw, before once again letting out her hearty, infection laugh.
“Let’s never forget this moment,” Carlile exclaimed to the crowd.
Don’t worry, Brandi, we couldn’t possibly.