Pop : Jimmy Buffett Leaps Around the Bowl

Jimmy Buffett has never been a model of musical consistency. Like much of his past work, his concert Saturday night at the Hollywood Bowl contrasted literate, well-crafted songs with cheap and easy party anthems.

Moving in fits and starts from song to song, Buffett tossed out an array of material filled with eccentric images--feeding frenzies among sharks, Gypsies on the loose, cheeseburgers in paradise and a last mango in Paris.

He did his biggest hit, “Margaritaville,” of course, but he also added the less well-known--and more provocative--”Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,” “Son of a Son of a Sailor” and “Off to See the Lizard.”

The near-capacity crowd loved everything, especially Buffett’s anthems to booze and raunch. But the best moments came when his off-the-wall verbal wizardry moved away from crowd-pleasing shtick into the probingly interior stories and visions that are the most intriguing aspects of his music.