On Sunday, May 11, 2008 I saw Radiohead live for the first time. It was quite an experience, one I will probably always remember since the weather turned it into a crazy ordeal. My friend meandthestereo was there and his account of the show can be found here. As you can guess, my girlfriend and I had lawn tickets to the show. Perhaps they would be better described as mudslide tickets, because that is what the ground quickly turned into. Actually, the area did remotely resemble a lawn when the gates opened, but that quickly changed.
First off, I thought we had come pretty well prepared to stand outside in the rain all night long. We brought an extra pair of shoes and socks, towels, raincoats, umbrellas and a bag o’ snacks. Unfortunately, the reality was our equipment was inadequate for the weather we were about to face. It had already been raining for about 2 hours when we arrived at Nissan Pavilion at around 5:30pm. We ended up staying in the car until around 6:20 (doors opened at 6pm). This was my first mistake. Since I decided we had to enter so early, we ended up subjecting ourselves to hours of unnecessary rain and wetness. Anyhow, to get to the top the Nissan Pavilion there are a very large and steep stairs which had turned into great concrete waterfalls due to the heavy rain. Once at the top and on the grass, I realized the Nissan Pavilion is a lot smaller than I expected. At first we were hesitant to get our shoes wet and muddied up, so we stayed on the concrete walkway for a bit. At this time (about 6:40) there were very few people on the lawn(1 or 2 rows of people and umbrellas at the front edge of the lawn). Some groups decided it would be best to use a tarp and hold it over them like a very large multi-person raincoat. Others had not prepared at all and were completely soaked wearing only t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops and other summer clothing. Eventally we ventured into the mud to secure ourselves good spot at center stage. Almost instantly our shoes became soaked through (mine actually stayed dry for a bit since they were gortex). Once we found a place we liked, we stood there for about an hour huddled between others with raincoats and overlapping umbrellas while we waited for the show to begin. During the long wait some people tried to ease the boredom by playing in large puddles or sliding down the muddy hill.
Once the opening band ”Liars” hit the stage I was able to keep my mind off of the increasing pain in my limbs from the cold. However, I wasn’t as interested in their music as I would have hoped (I chalk it up to just wanting to hear Radiohead too much to care) and I started noticing that I was very cold and wet again. When Liars finished, I was thinking “Oh yeah here we go” along with everyone else. Sadly, we were mistaken. The setup time between acts was over 45 minutes long. During that time, long dangling lights systems were hung and adjusted. These were to provide a really cool effect during the songs. They could be best discribed as long thin LCD Screens hanging from the top of the Venue. In addition to these hanging lights, a large screen behind the stage was used to show highly processed and styleized views of the performance (from what seemed to be about 4 cameras). Forty five minutes felt like an eternity for the people on the lawn and by the time Radiohead started playing it was around 9PM.
Fortunately, they were freaking awesome. They played their hearts out for us and everyone loved it. I really got into it, and for the most part I had forgotten about the terribly wet and muddy condition I was in. Lots of “In Rainbows” songs were played, which I thought was fine since I really enjoy their latest album. However, the rest of the fans (myself included) really loved when they played some of their favorites such as Idioteque and Paranoid Android. Idioteque was brought to life surprisingly well for having such an electronic timbre on the record. During the song, the hanging lights were used to create flashing rhomboid shapes, while the video screen behind the band showed several different shots of them on stage playing. Up until this point, as each song ended, I hoped the next would be Paranoid Android. When the next song finally was Paranoid Android, everyone went nuts. This was the best part of the concert for me. I learned that the greatest way to experience Paranoid Android is while cold, wet, and muddy. Everyone on the lawn really got into it, especially during the lyrics ”Rain down, rain down, Come on rain down on me…” Everyone was yelling the words as if we were telling the clouds that nothing could stop us from enjoying the show.
After Paranoid Android was finished, I looked over at my girlfriend and it was clear that she was in extreme agony. She told me that she couldn’t feel anything in her feet except pain, so I told her that we could go. I couldn’t feel my feet either, but mine weren’t hurting like hers were. I was also shivering voilently because I was only wearing a t-shirt under my raincoat (stupid me). I think if we had brought fully water-proof footwear, we would have been fine. As we left the show, Radiohead played us out with “Just.” I don’t think we missed many songs because by the time we got out of our wet clothes, changed, and wrapped ourselves in towels, people were flooding out of the pavilion headed to their cars. I had a great time, and we might go back to see them in New Jersey in August. However, next time we won’t be getting lawn tickets.
