KID A
http://www.waste-central.com/video/radiohead-for-haiti-kid-a-hd
THE BENDS
http://www.waste-central.com/video/radiohead-for-haiti-the-bends
these were up for a while, but just in case:
Karma Police http://www.waste-central.com/video/radiohead-for-haiti-karma
How To Disappear http://www.waste-central.com/video/radiohead-for-haiti-how-to
FPT http://www.waste-central.com/video/radiohead-for-haiti-fake
Part 2 (part 1 was here)
On the plane. Just sorted through some pix to upload. Headache. My ears are ringing a bit from particularly enthusiastic screamers last night ;-) One thing is really … in some ways… depressing. This is impossible to beat. Or even come close to. There will not ever be a gig LIKE THAT.
But let’s start with smth more uplifting. OK – so my hotel had one phenomenal advantage – it was 2 blocks from the venue. It had a disadvantage of being a dump. Despite the size of the bathroom where one could rollerblade. And the bed surface enough to sleep 6. Yet it failed to sleep one! Granted – a particularly neurotic one, given the circumstances. So even though I did all the emailing and essential communications by 1AM PST (hmmm - it was 4AM where I flew from) I COULD NOT SLEEP. I just barely started dozing off by 3, when a group of drunken young and un-brilliant-sounding neighbors arrived at the room next door and started generating random discombobulated noise at the volume sufficient to wake up the entire building. They even attempted singing (!!) After trying to soldier thru it for about 20 min I called the front desk, and they took care of it – but the sleep was gone. GONE. I should have had a drink or two to come myself down.
I got up at 5++ AM finaly admitting that sleep-wise things were hopeless and decided to just go to the venue. So I found myself standing at the corner by 6:55 AM watching the sun come up above the palm trees and warming the air a little… in front of an absolutely dead uninviting-looking building which had RADIOHEAD sign on it. It looked like an abandoned warehouse. Appropriately, some homeless people were passing by, some pushing their carts, and looking at me with some interest. I failed to see anyone and sat in a parking lot on the sunny of it – at least it was warmer. Some homeless folks asked me if I was alright – and I thanked them not to worry ;-) Between 7 and 8AM, 2 or 3 cars pulled into the lot, but the drivers stayed inside… so it was really kind of lonely and no freaking line to stand in. Finally, one of the drivers came out and said that there are in fact 5 people napping on the other side of the building. I went there and discovered that some sort of the line did exist and I guess I was the 6th one, even though it sounded like all six of us arrived at about the same time – 7AM – having checked the venue the night before and at least once in the middle of the night – ALL OF US. I actually saw one of them earlier – just didn’t know where the ‘official’ waiting area was. So I joined the group. These guys were sweet. Two people drove from Salt Lake City, others were local. Now, I won’t dwell too much upon a day of Q’ing – we’ve all done it to some extent, except to say – people were really NICE. We did some chatting, some runs for coffee, some walk-arounds to warm up (sadly, the line was in the shade THE ENTIRE DAY even though in the sun it was SO WARM! and I was freezing despite generous donations of blankets : -) …Just a couple of points about the demographic of the crowd: I’d say unlike a normal gig, where one finds people from all over, this 2day-notice auction thing I think made the event much more local. There were people who drove serious distances but I remained the longest-distance traveler for a while. “that crazy woman who bought a ticket from NY yesterday 3 hrs before the flight”. But what was surprising and REALLY COMFORTING is… I expected to see a BULK of the crowd to be ‘hollywood types’ with too much cash, showing up right before the gig, or paying someone to stay in line for them… and SOME of them did eventually show up… but the amazing thing was: overall it was a completely normal (hmmm, let me correct myself: ‘baseline obsessive-compulsive’) Radiohead fan crowd you’d find at any gig. I guess, even though it was expensive – most people didn’t travel that far, so it was still manageable. And FOR THIS KIND OF EVENT???!! With my air, ground, hotel, and a ticket – this gig ran me at ~$1K. I guess it was at a higher end than for most locals, and I wish the other half of that 1K went to Haiti as opposed to American Airlines and Best Western – but what can you do?
Now, it was ridiculously well organized. Security people were nice across the board… they stuck to exact schedule (will-call at 4, doors at 7), they organized the line in some convoluted way so that we do get tickets and countless color-coded wristbands, we do not lose our place in line, and scalping is maximally prevented. And because tickets were sold IN PAIRS only, when they lined us up for ticket pick-up, everyone had to be “purchaser+1” and that was THE ONLY WAY they dispensed those tickets and wristbands. Some folks were standing by the line with signs ‘can I be your +1 please?’ Really touching. Some found pairs. I mean… I am fucking impressed. Chaos could have happened at every step of the way - and it did not. We chatted with security through the day about HOW the whole thing was supposed to proceed and they were quite helpful. In the end, when we rushed in at our strict order, the tiny rail was occupied by those 6-8 people and their “+1s” just as we were hanging out in line, and most got EXACTLY the spots they wanted. I know I did! ;-)
Part 3.
No support bands. No road or light crew who I am used to seeing at every gig. No famous purple containers that say ‘RADIOHEAD’ on them. You can check the pictures HERE. The stage is about 3 ft from the rail, and thom’s mic 2 ft in - 5 ft from me. “This is ridiculous, I need a defibrillator just in case”. Except I was quiet abt it, but some people around me were more vocal. Some were crying out loud. …a religious experience? ;-) Stage folks came out and taped set lists to the stage. Close enough that I (and all the press jammed into narrow space between the rail and the stage for the first three songs) took pix. No, I DID NOT broadcast it. I only looked at it… Wolf, Dollars and Cents and Lotus Flower. Is this real?!?! Did I shoot my wish list into cyberspace – telepathically perhaps??
Then it just happened. It’s still difficult for me to put it into words. It was just… different. It was close, yeah, like never before and that alone makes it an entirely different experience. That space between the band playing and the audience watching – it was gone, for me at least. Thom was this guy, directly in front of me, I could count the stitches on his shirt. I can stare at his shoelaces. I mean – I can stare at mine – but his are closer… it’s physical. You occupy the same space. Besides, those of you who did the rail thing before - you know that Thom STARES. Some people do – I do it a little when I give big talks… you address someone in particular not audience as a whole. And Thom is terrible that way – if his eyes are open – he finds someone (which I’m sure is not even conscious on his part) …and if it happens to be you – well, he has you. It’s a direct eye contact, and he’s intense, I know people who complained that he ruined a song for them, because it’s too much. At a ‘regular’ gig... Now, when he’s 5ft from you – I’m sorry … – I can’t take no freaking pix, or shoot videos, or look away or even blink. This is PERSONAL, and I am susceptible. God, I always feel so conflicted abt pix and videos, knowing that others want to see them and I want to preserve them, but they invariably steal from the experience… And HERE, god, why even bother with the whole thing if I’m gonna watch it through the damn viewfinder?!… I tried to compromise but… You know, I think CRABS have a definite evolutionary advantage over us – their eyes can move in-de-pen-dent-ly, looking in very different directions. I wish I could do that. The guys on the hub would sure appreciate that for a future DVD!!!
Seriously though, I think it’s more than just (the lack of) the distance that changed everything. They played differently. It felt as though… we were the insiders. Those hardcore folks who paid a shit-load of money to see them and raise cash for an important cause. We were almost friends, with the same goal. Plus, the show was stripped down – no ‘heavy equipment’ or lights, it was much more intimate, home-like… Much less electronic too – so The Gloaming, Idioteque were out; no crazy drums (no There There), EIIRP was a piano number… Morning Bell sounded totally different. The National Anthem was jazzy! And kinda more 2000ish, I think. The whole set list was peculiar… I mean – Faust Arp as an opener with FTP to follow?! Huh?? It was much more bare bones and raw, relatively speaking. And physical… – yeah, more on that: I think I NEVER FULLY grasped this before – JONNY… was IS an animal… he was MANIC. The speed at which he was polishing that guitar, his whole body practically convulsing… it just wasn’t humanly possible. I mean… remember that review from - was it 93?…- ‘guitar player with a stage presence of an atomic bomb’ – he WAS a bomb. And, you know, I HAVE seen him from “100%-jonny” rail spots before! But now, trying to unglue myself from what’s in front of me – thom - man, I did need those crab eyes!!!! Preferably four.
They played 24 songs. Breaks were short, so it seemed like there was actually no breaks at all. And they appeared to be having fun with it, with us… Thom was joking around, making his silly little moves here and there… He seemed in a great mood. In fact, when I first saw FPT, Exit Music, How To Disappear and Street Spirit (!!) in one set… man, I thought, this will be rather dark. But it wasn’t! Intense – yes, unique sound – yes, but dark??? Don’t think so. Has everyone gotten a chance to listen to this gem???? here we go - that's MUL We also got "a purely binary" ( :-) thx, thom!) choice between Just and Airbag abt 2/3rds in (Airbag was voted in). Remember this girl screaming: "Street Spirit!!!" Thom: “Yes, dear, we'll get to that. You are not in a hurry, are you??” Gotta love the guy : -) And at some point toward the end, he read a note with the numbers– apparently we raised (‘fuck me’) $572K, and the most expensive tix went for $2K each ($4K total). And he thanked us – again - and again. (scratches head: did I spend all in all ½ of that highest priced amount/ticket? Was it more than Drew Berrymore or Justin Timberlake?? Oh boy.)
And that was it. The afterparty was to be held right there, they were cleaning out all the trash on the floor… And a DJ started setting up his little shop… And I could have stayed because… it was just clear that I could have if I’d used a bit of imagination despite the absence of a wristband #4 (3 were already on…). But the demographic WAS changing… and it no longer seemed terribly attractive (sorry, Justin). I was too wiped out by everything that had happened in the 30 hrs prior, and in a way that I did not want to spoil (sorry, Justin, that means you). So after a generous glass of wine on my 2-day-empty stomach with my friend Liza (whose ‘+1’ I was ;-) ), I was uploading HTD from my hotel room!… I must have been officially brain-dead by then.
So here on a plane – I cannot listen to RH. At all. My iPOD just decided to play Nude and left me in tears for the next hr. I tend to hit the after-gig trance quite reproducibly, but this one was different. Because I can’t get over the fact that this is the best I’m ever gonna see them. I love them – we all do – but once you cross the boundary and shift from a hugely successful band to these guys, you feel so connected to, playing their music in a tiny venue a few feet away from you – it’s almost impossible to go back. Well, it is possible but it hurts.
SO that’s the story. I better get back to earth and the sooner the better.
XX love XX
some sweet closeups... SELECT 720 for HD
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