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August 14, 2003
Radiohead, Part 1
It started with me frantically packing up all my aplicable CDs into the car. It ended at 2:40 am with me cleaning egg off my windshield. Literally.
In between was one amazing rock concert. Have a lot of thoughts on it. Here’s the cliff notes of what I’ll talk about tomorrow whenever I darn well feel like it (day off, baby, hitting my folks’ house and their pool harder than Burt Reynolds hitting that dude in the limo who disrespected Roller Girl):
- Radiohead may be the best band in the world, but they are no longer the best arena rock band. A lot of the newer material is not expansive enough to fill an arena. Older material, and even some reworked newer material, fit the bill nicely, but some songs off of “Hail to The Thief” lose a bit when you as a listener lose the immediacy of the album.
- Highlight of the night? Had to be the appearance of a nearly full moon over the stadium precisely as Thom Yorke wailed, “I sucked the moon…” Just an amazing synergy.
- Funniest Part of the Night: Watching guitarist/instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood use everything but the kitchen sink. Dude used everything. Guitars. Keyboards. Xylophones. Something that looked like a Playstation controller. A patch panel that looked like an old operator’s patch board. Another effects controller than looked like it operated the cars on those race around tracks your folks would spend hours building for you on Christmas and then you’d play with it for ten minutes and be bored and you never even got to see the thing glow in the dark. A lot of stuff, is what I’m saying. Turned into a fun party game. "Oooh, what's he gonna play next? My money is on a carmelized onion."
- Other highlights? A killer “Paranoid Android”, a pulverizing “There There” (featuring three drummers!), and amazing renditions of “Everything in Its Right Place” and “Idioteque” which transcended the source materials. The LED backdrop was used sparingly and stunningly throughout. Also, the surprise appearance of “Creep” was awesome, mostly because Radiohead has the luxury of being able to play it knowing full well that no one paid their $40+ just to hear that one song. Many highlights, but these were the cream of the crop for me.
- The misses? Musically, some of the newer material simply didn’t connect live. Good songs, just wrong venue. Crowd had a “We’re being polite, but would it kill you to play more than one song from ‘The Bends’?” kind of vibe during these little ditties. The hippie-dippie fat chick near us dancing to every song like it was “Sugar Magnolia” didn’t help matters. Yea, I called her fat. Look at me, I’m skinny. Ain’t never stopped me from gettin’ busy.
- The super miss? Traffic. 2+ hours to get there, nearly 3.5 hours to get back. Concert ended at 11. It’s now 2:51 am. You do the math.
So yea, to bed I go. More on the hazards of driving to a place in Deliverance-esque Massachusetts, how bottlenecking ain’t just a redneck sport anymore, and why MIT frat boys can suck on my left nipple…all tomorrow. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.
Posted by Ryan McGee at August 14, 2003 03:00 AM
Comments
I find it amazing, McGee, that on these so-called "days off" you end up writing twice as much as usual.
Posted by: Diana at August 14, 2003 09:57 AM
Well, it's like Joss Whedon says on the liner notes of the "Buffy" musical CD: "Vacation, in my family, means working hard on something else."
That said, the full concert update may not come until tommorow. Especially since the comments don't seem to be burning with excitement for it. I, however, am burning with excitement for a pool, free laundry, and free food.
Posted by: ryan at August 14, 2003 12:03 PM
Sorry, dude. Haven't listen to Radiohead. Wasn't at the concert. I got nothing here.
Oh wait, here we go. Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead vs. Ronny Chong, the guy in Shania Twain's back-up band: Compare and Contrast.
Posted by: Commander Foley at August 14, 2003 12:46 PM
Was it just me, or did Johnny seem a little out of it last night?
Posted by: Jen at August 14, 2003 01:29 PM
I want to hear about the egg on your car and the bastard MIT frat boys. I wasn't aware that MIT had frats.
Posted by: Lori at August 14, 2003 01:43 PM
Jen, Johnny seemed to have a love-hate relationship with his guitar. Seemed more comfy on his PowerBook.
The guitar solos were a constant struggle between "melody" and "my ass" at times, I agree.
Posted by: ryan at August 14, 2003 02:15 PM
Lori,
MIT has a big frat scene (nerds need brotherhood, too). They are a big part of the social scene, and a destination for women from other colleges looking to party. Many people at MIT live in the frat houses from their second week of school, or they used to until one kid died from binge drinking. MIT has now tried to reduce the number of freshman who live in the frat houses and put rush off until later in the year.
I don't actually go to MIT, so someone else may be able to provide more/more accurate information.
Posted by: John at August 14, 2003 02:39 PM
Another miss...the automatic cameras. Those were awful! But it forced the crowd to at least watch the stage and not the screens. I would have liked to hear more from the Bends as opposed to hearing Creep. if they're going to play something from Pablo Honey, they should play Stop Whispering! Love that tune.
Posted by: Kim at August 14, 2003 02:57 PM
For the first few songs, I thought, "oooh, how arty---all the video cameras are showing half a speaker". Then I realized that it was just really, really lame camera-work.
Luckily, even from the lawn, I could make out what people onstage were doing, so it wasn't that big a deal. Not like I was going there to see Thom's mug, anyways.
Posted by: ryan at August 14, 2003 03:12 PM
Thanks for the info, John. I now have an image of the Tanning Invitational scene from Real Genius with regard to the partying at MIT.
Posted by: Lori at August 14, 2003 03:41 PM
Heh. I'm sure the camera work will be much better in Montreal! Oh Thom... I'm ready for your closeup. Oui Oui!
Posted by: Crabby at August 14, 2003 09:18 PM
I'm so freakin' jealous. I did manage to catch a live Radiohead concert on MTV, which was great. The fact that they can translate some of the more complex sounds to a stage at all is pretty impressive. They really do use everything but the kitchen sink!
Posted by: Susan at August 15, 2003 01:52 AM
just stumbled upon your blog while looking for a playlist from the concert--which blew my mind. anyway, i'm impressed by your write-up in general, but wonder why you didn't mention thom's fits of convulsions that we were supposed to accept as not ridiculous. i still have much radiohead love and respect, but dude...
Posted by: abby at August 17, 2003 05:30 PM