Technically, the concert was well equipped for a large audience and arena as the group had used 52 amplifiers to pump out 7,000 Watts of power over a 96 foot wide stage. Prior to the start of the concert, The Doors had gone out to dinner with Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stone’s producer, Jimmy Miller, which would’ve added some pressure on Morrison’s part seeing that Mick and Jimmy sat right up at the front. Steppenwolf had opened up the concert and was later followed by The Chamber Brothers who gave an excellent performance and were well received by their audience.

Musically, Ray Robbie and John played fine and Jim’s singing was in top form, however the crowd didn’t seem to respond with much excitement. The Doors opened up with "When The Music’s Over", which perhaps wasn’t the best choice seeing that this 13 minute epic probably dragged on for a bit too long for an audience who was for most parts to far away to enjoy this concert.

If "When The Music’ Over" had been played halfway during the set and replaced the opening song with "Soul Kitchen" or "Break On Through", the outcome may have been different. "Alabama Song Medley", "Hello I Love You", "Moonlight Drive", "A Little Game" and "The Hill Dwellers" were fine examples of their early and newer material. "Spanish Caravan" was beautifully mastered by Robbie’s intricate guitar work.

It wasn’t until half way through the concert when The Doors played "Light My Fire" that the audience responded somewhat more enthusiastically. The audience was waiting for something dramatic, something theatrical, something that would possibly fulfil their inner desire of sensationalism - about the most theatrical thing that Jim had done was act out as if he was being shot by throwing himself on the stage during "The Unknown Soldier", which had become pretty much a standard act that Morrison would include in most of his performances.

Harvey Perr of the Los Angeles Free Press captured the feeling and ambience of the performance, which strongly shows itself when one now sees the video of this concert "The Doors: Live At The Hollywood Bowl":

"I think they wanted temperament, the tension that snaps when an artist has a healthy antagonism towards the natural elements in the atmosphere. When the lights didn’t go down at one moment, they didn’t want Morrison to stay cool and go on singing. At the core, they wanted him to walk off the stage. And if he didn’t come back, they might have screamed for refunds and they would have been satisfied. But everything went smoothly, too smoothly. And restlessness set in. And the impact of "Light My Fire" (despite the random sparklers that were lit and thrown) or "The Universal Soldier" or "When The Music Is Over" was dissipated, because we weren’t listening to words of death and passion and love and violence; we were spectators at a sport in which nothing of crucial significance was affecting our existence. It was a good show and nothing more. The mystique had turned mundane."

Harvey Perr felt that the Hollywood Bowl itself may have been to blame as it was such a "forbidding place" forcing the audience to keep their distance, thus removing any level of intimacy between the audience and the group.

The equalisation of The Doors' sound system at the Hollywood Bowl seemed to be harsh to listen to, as Pat Lyman remembers;

"I know that show is looked at as somewhat of a landmark, but frankly I remember being underwhelmed. The sound system was very shrill, with way too much upper midrange which was very distracting. They weren't bad, just not the religious experience some proclaim."

Perhaps Morrison’s performance may have not been a religious experience that some proclaimed, but this was one show that Morrison brought out his humorous side, as opposed to the dark, demonic and threatening performance that the media made always made him out to be. This recording also includes the full version of "Spanish Caravan" and "Hello I Love You", which was never released by Elektra.