As the list of bands I have to see before I die dwindles, I find that the remaining ones get harder and harder to see. Radiohead is a case in point. Having missed them at countless festivals and tours, when my empty undergrad and grad school wallet couldn’t justify the expense, they stopped touring - or didn’t tour anywhere near my newfound locale of DC (or if they did, I was too busy to notice). But, finally, they were coming to DC, and I was able to score 2 tickets. My excitement was boundless. Nothing could rain on my parade.

Except, of course, for rain. Northern Virginia had seen about half a day of driving rain by the time I left my Arlington apartment - not enough, one would expect, to cause catastrophe, but enough to inspire minor backups. Rt. 66, the worst freeway this side of LA’s 91, was spotty at best. It was when we got off the road in middle of nowhere Virginia that the real problems developed.

First, the main entrance was closed due to flooding (just for timeline purposes, we got here around 7:30, just as the opening act was supposed to be taking the stage). This sent us on about a 10 mile detour through the best of Northern Virginia exurbia: pastures broken by forested areas that suddenly gave way to McMansions, all accessible via narrow, two lane roads lined with jersey barriers and “Under Construction” signs.

Our line of cars finally arrived at the line to get in - and believe me, it was a line. For this tour, Radiohead claimed they were only going to visit cities with strong public transportation systems in order to lower the carbon footprint of their shows. This means that a lot of fans in middle America were going to have to trek to Chicago to see them. Somehow, it also means that thousands of DC fans will spend hours expanding their carbon footprint trying to get to Nissan Pavillion. We joined the line of cars at 8pm. 2 miles and an hour and a half later, we finally parked. I have no idea how much that time spent idling increased my carbon footprint, but it burned near to a quarter of a tank of gas.

Compounding that, the parking lot and most of the grounds were unpaved, meaning that the walk from the lot to the Pavilion was a study in jumping from muddy bank to shallow puddle to another muddy bank in order to try to keep one’s shoes from becoming waterlogged. Of course, this was impossible, as several parts of the walkway featured 3-4 inch deep puddles that couldn’t have been skipped without years of high school long jump training.

After the show, the way back was every bit as frustrating, with the puddles wider and deeper, the grass slicker, the rocks more pointed underfoot. The ramp leaving the pavilion itself was an inch deep river rushing over trash like a river rapids. And leaving the parking lot - well, suffice to say, we couldn’t move the car for 2 hours because ours was the last parking lot they let leave. We got home almost 4 hours after the show ended.

We ended up sitting in the car for well over 6 hours. My attempts at a low carbon footprint for the year are shot.

So I was in a pretty bad mood by the time we finally made it into the show (about 9pm). Drenched head to toe despite the umbrella, shivering from the 50 degree weather and 30 mile per hour wind, standing for the next 3 hours did not sound enjoyable no matter how much I loved the band.

It’s a testament to Radiohead’s talent that I overcame that and, by the end, enjoyed myself. Despite the delays, we only missed the first 2 songs. The setlist (courtesy of my notes and The Spaghetti Incident):

  1. All I need
  2. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
  3. Lucky (I have 15 Steps coming next, but can’t find anyone else with it)
  4. Nude
  5. Pyramid Song
  6. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
  7. Myxomatosis
  8. Idioteque
  9. Faust Arp
  10. VideoTape
  11. Paranoid Android
  12. Just
  13. Reckoner
  14. Everything In Its Right Place
  15. Bangers + Mash
  16. Bodysnatchers

Encore 1:

  1. Like Spinning Plates
  2. Optimistic
  3. Karma Police
  4. Go Slowly
  5. Planet Telex

Encore 2:

  1. Fake Plastic Trees
  2. National Anthem
  3. House of Cards

Though we got to our seats as Lucky concluded, it took Myxomatosis’ glitch beat to ease the discomfort and bitterness of the trip. Moreover, as more and more people arrived (the sea of faces in the crowd was pocked with holes where people still hadn’t arrived; I saw people show up as late as the first encore), my own situation didn’t seem quite as bad. Things got a little warmer; the music buttressed the wind with its fury. Idioteque sounded like a battle between high pitched warbles and the driving bass. Carried on the wind, the different textures fought each other as much as the crowd was defending itself against the foul weather and situation.

The stage was framed by long light tubes hung from the ceiling; these lights alternated color for a standard, though impressive, light show. Until Everything in its Right Place: during this song, which has always evoked the creepiness of a museum after hours, the stage was cast in a violet hue to complement Thom Yorke’s wail. Though the wind whipped around the Pavilion bowl and the rain clattered on the roof above (and the poor souls on the lawn), the song affected solace on the crowd, freezing you in place, time, and from each other. At the outset of the second encore, the band played Fake Plastic Trees to an eerie green glow that amplified the song’s natural beauty.

The band was apolitical and avoided onstage banter much of the night. However, during the introduction to Karma Police, Yorke chastised “Capitol Hill” for “fucking up a lot” and celebrated that they would be gone soon (I think he meant Bush, but you never know). He then lamented that while they’d be leaving, they wouldn’t be going to court - a perfect introduction for a song about those filled with hatred, bitterness, and malfeasance getting tracked down for their just reward. On the other hand, Yorke was often sympathetic to the crowd, dedicating Fake Plastic Trees to the lawn (who responded with a thunderous roar of applause) and apologizing for the terrible weather. He said he “only hoped it had been worth it.” And the Radiohead part of the night definitely was.

Incidentally, in a sign of Nissan Pavilion’s incompetence, this is what one finds when visiting their website as of 11am Monday:

They can’t even keep their website paid - no wonder they couldn’t handle a little rain.

Some other people’s comments on the show (or, more succinctly, on Nissan Pavilion’s bungling):

Finally, a great version of Radiohead playing Bangers+Mash (yes, Thom Yorke played drums on that one even in concert) is available from Pitchfork TV.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!


This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 11:47 am and is filed under concert, radiohead. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.