Opinions from the back row

Up there in the chilly darkness, in the back rows at the Hollywood Bowl, it’s still a loaf of bread, a jug of wine and thou -- although with the foreboding feeling that “thou” might be a coyote. “Thou” certainly won’t be a music critic; they generally sit in comfortable, urban-wildlife-free boxes far, far below.

Music critics have already weighed in with their mixed feelings about the Bowl’s new concert shell complete with video screens to project the onstage action, unveiled this season. But what do the coyotes -- that is, people -- in the back row think?

For happy people with good seats in the pool and boxes, it was “meet the new Bowl, same as the old Bowl,” acoustics-wise. But opinions seemed to rise with the altitude, particularly when it came to the video screens. Larry Demer of Castle Heights, picnicking with friends in the very last row, said he definitely got his dollar’s worth. “I like the prior look better, it was more of a classic clamshell look, this is a very modern, crisp look.” But, he added, the sound was nicer.

At the same back-row picnic were Donna Edmiston of Westchester and Madonna Shannon of West L.A. Both thought the sound was markedly improved but miss those otherworldly acoustic balls that used to float above the stage. “It was the visual, it was always those strange balls,” Edmiston said wistfully. “We miss the balls. That sounds odd, doesn’t it?”