rain down, rain down, come on rain down on me

Sunday night I went to see Radiohead with a friend from work. Long time fan, first show. It was fantastic. The type of event that you can't stop thinking about the entire next day. They played a nice mix of old and new - Just, Fake Plastic Trees, Planet Telex, and all of In Rainbows - and had one of the best stage shows I have seen. If only the weather had cooperated.

It poured. And then poured some more. I think I saw Noah and a couple giraffes. It took 4+ hours to go the 30 miles to the Nissan Pavillion, aka the worst venue ever, and another 3 to get home. Eventually made it home a little after 2am, three hours after the show ended and nine hours after I left. However that was better than 1-friends who were stuck in the parking lot until 3am and didn't get home until 4am (almost hit rush hour traffic for the next day!) or 2-a lot of poor folks who sat in traffic for hours and then were denied entry by parking attendants who said the show was over even when they could hear the band still playing. Ridiculous. And the kicker is that at the worst venue ever, this is a normal event. The rain made things a little worse, but this sort of thing has happened every time I've been. If it weren't for the Live Nation monopoly (would have something worse to say if it weren't for the remote chance my grandparents might read this) no one would ever step foot in that place.

Fortunately it was that great of a show that it was worth it. Got to see a band that has been one of my favorites (PJ exempted) since college. If things work out I may head up I-95 to picturesque Camden NJ to see them in August. It will probably take the same amount of time to get to and from Philly as it did to go to the DC-area show!

By the way, the title of the post comes from their song Paranoid Android. It was quite appropriate that they played it last night. And thanks to whoever took these pictures.