Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticHaim’s homecoming show Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl felt a little bit like a block party first, and a big rock ‘n’ roll coronation secondarily. “We are Valley girls through and through!” declared Alana Haim, one of the three sisters who make up the core group, explaining why “there’s gonna be a lot of emotion tonight.” When they’d headlined the Greek Theatre across the hills in 2017, that might’ve seemed like the prime hail-the-conquering-heroes moment of their lives, but, of course, there were bigger nearby ravines to conquer.Now that they were assuming the dominative position in the Bowl, with Danielle getting something in her eye as she announced they’d been told right before coming on stage that the group had sold it out, leading to quick discussions of whether there is crying in baseball.
Yet somehow, it still felt like a neighborhood thing. Yes, someone had gone to war and come back with medals — OK, with red-carpet movie premiere shots and binders full of the biggest love any L.A.-generated band has gotten in a generation — but we were still going to just have a beer with them.
And then just stand back in awe as they kick-started the party by recreating their “I Know Alone” choreography. Haim is nothing if not a group that fosters a “one of us” quality of egalitarianism between the impudent, casually funny performers and their audience.
Which is why there can be a danger of selling their chops a little bit short, if you think of them too much as still Those Canter’s Girls.
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