So last night I got to cross off another "group to see in concert before I die list". Radiohead ended their ten-year embargo of Dallas by coming to the old CocaCola/ Starplex/ Smirnoff/ Superpages.com Centre Sunday night. 1998 was the last time Yorke, the Greenwoods and the rest of the dystopian gang played Big D. Think about that. '98...that was before Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief and of course In Rainbows. A lot's happened since then.So even though I stayed up until 3 a.m. a couple of months ago to order tix online I still missed the reserved seats. But the lawn was still great and we had a clear view of the stage with the Tibetan flags and lighting strands hanging from the ceiling. The weather was perfect...75 degrees at downbeat. There was a rather chatty Burning Man Chick wannabe next to us giving her Lesbian girlfriend unsolicited emotional therapy but she settled down by the third song after her second beer and several tokes on her funny looking cigarette. That's the usual but expected downside to these events. Still can smell the cheap pot in my nostrils despite using cologne and whatnot to eradicate it. But the 20,000 folks were into the music and afterwards everyone got out of the parking lot amazingly quickly. (yes, I just used two adverbs in a row just like Ian Fleming)
The crowd was in to it. Radiohead must be an alien band from another planet to show us Earthlings what original alternative music can sound like if truly inspired. Doesn't really fit the normal summer arena show...but even the dystopic myopic strands of minor chords got electric and optimistic at times and the night was rockin'. The astounding light show focused the music instead of taking away and there were no cheesy spotlights and dry ice. They threw a piano out there for a third of the songs and Thom Yorke played that, an organ, drums and several guitars. The rest of the band cooked like crazy maniacs from some type of musicl cult of excellence and even when the tempo was slow it seemed the world would end when the song reached its denoument.
What a concert! I'm still a Weezer man, but Radiohead is by far the most talented, most original, and compelling band since the Beatles. There is nobody...nobody that comes close and you just think I'm on a contact high due to seeing them live just last night. But I believed that before and now am amazed they were even better live.
