How To Disappear Completely

everyone, everyone around me

Last night was Radiohead. And it was all we ever hoped it would be.

In Rainbows was the featured album, but Kid A also got a surprising amount of play, with a few nods to earlier eras with "The Bends," "Paranoid Android," and "Karma Police." But it was when the auditorium hushed and Thom Yorke started strumming those first few chords on the acoustic guitar and the synths started shimmering that I really lost it. I was completely not expecting How to Disappear Completely to make the set list.

Ironically enough, I love Radiohead because their music seems so intensely personal, introverted, alienated and self-analytical. To experience it with hoards of other people (including an annoying undergrad who tried to sing along with Reckoner and clap to Kid A--clap to Kid A???) was a bit disconcerting. It also meant we were really far away. My binoculars helped somewhat, but you can't help when tall people start standing on their seats.

So I watched Evan break it down to Idioteque. And one can't ask for a higher cool factor than that.

I do hope to see the opener Grizzly Bear again someday. They got a bit swallowed up by the stadium, but would be awesome in a po-dunk dive somewhere.