I’m back from the Radiohead gig. Survived the journey, somehow. I think I’ve filled my quota as far as time with the folks at Greyhound is concerned. Saturday was a bit rough, but I’m better now.
So what was it like? Fantastic. The day started in Peterborough, where the brother, his girlfriend Yaz, and I hopped on the bus and got to Toronto around 12:30. That bus ride sucked, as I was seated beside a giant hillbilly Marlborough Man who reeked of cigs and B.O., and there was a child screaming about three seats back for a least half of the 2-hour trip. I popped an Ativan and cranked up my iPod several pegs above that locked setting and tried not to think about how buddy beside me probably hadn’t brushed his teeth in several weeks. Anyhow, we met up with my good friend Steve at the bus station in TO, and went from there. We wandered around the Eaton Centre for a bit, where we eventually found that the Apple Store was closed (Yaz wanted a macBook hard case) and settled in at the food court, thinking it would be cheaper to eat there than at the CNE. It was actually cheaper at the CNE food building, but whatever. We saw a spinning funnel cloud on the way to the CNE… a sign of the wonderful weather to come.
And by the time we get to the CNE grounds, it was a fucking downpour. With hail.
We stood around for about 15 minutes waiting for it to let up, but we eventually just said fuck it and ran on over to the Food Building. It stopped raining a little while after, of course. We cased out the food building, got some drinks and then went back outside. We didn’t really do a lot CNE-wise. We walked around something called the Green building, and then checked out some of the booths in that main building… can’t remember what it was called. It had the International Pavilion and stuff in it. We got our hair styled at the Garnier tent for some lulz. Then another trip to the Food Building. That’s about it.
Around 6ish we headed over to Ontario Place/Molson Amphitheatre. After getting through the gates, we did a loop of the merch and food tents. Nothing too exciting. I didn’t buy anything, none of us did, well, apart from Steve’s single $11 beer (I know, right?). Anyhow, we found our seats, which were on the far left of the building in the first seated section (203). Not bad, especially considering all the poor folks who were seated in the 300s, 400s, and lawn sections behind us. The poor fuckers in the lawn section got pretty wet.
This photo makes it look like we were miles away, but it really wasn’t that bad. We pretty much stayed there until the end of the show. Grizzly Bear opened. I’d never heard them before, but I enjoyed them. Hearing a band for the first time in a live setting is usually a good test for me… I’ll probably find their cd(s?) at some point in the near future. Anyhow, we sat listening to the weird techno-ish music while waiting the 30 – 40 minutes for Radioehad to go on. It was a bit brutal. But they went on, and everyone was on their feet for the rest of the show.
This is from my new cell phone camera. I’m still figuring out how to use it. There are way better pics up on Flickr if you do a search. For those interested, the set list is here. I was generally impressed with what they played, even though they didn’t play half the stuff I expected/wanted them to play. That’s ok. I’ve been a fan for a long time now and they’ve got such an extensive catalogue at this point that it was bound to happen. As long as they played Reckoner, All I Need, and Nude (my favs off the new album), I though I’d be happy. And I was. My other favs that they (unexpectedly) played were Talk Show Host and Street Spirit. I wasn’t really expecting them to play much from The Bends but did expect more from Ok Computer. Oh well. It was quite a good show. I have no real complaints. Jonny’s programing was a little off on the first half of Idioteque, but it’s not like it ruined anything. Thom’s keyboard crapped out in the middle of Morning Bell, but I barely noticed at the time and it was amusing if nothing else.
Here’s a video of the incident. My cell phone video is crap due to my wobbliness and our location, but the sound quality is astoundingly good for a phone. There are a few more up on my youtube – Nude, Bodysnatchers, All I Need, Weird Fishes, and a bit of There There.
After the show, we just kind of sat around for about 15 minutes waiting for the place to clear out – until the security people yelled at us to go. Not like several thousand other people weren’t sitting around doing the same thing. But you know, shuffling out of the Molson Amphitheatre at .00005 km/hour in a massive pack of people is soooo much better than comfortably making your way out 20 minutes later. Pfft.
Anyhow, we went back to Steve’s place. Watched tv and youtubes before ordering a pizza around 3am. Then we tried to sleep for an hour, mostly unsuccessfully, before getting up at 5:30am to get ready to catch the bus back to Peterborough & Ottawa. Around 12:30pm I got back into Ottawa, and slept for 8 hours shortly after. It was all good fun and very worth it, but I’m done with Greyhound for at least a month, if possible.
Last night I saw Rufus Wainwright and a few other people at the Ottawa Folk Festival, but I’ll tell you about that later.
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I found you through Gabe when he mentioned the fact that you and are kindred spirits (Radiohead-wise). Anywhoozles, kudos for sticking out the hail. I had lawn seats at their Camden show. Thank kaboodle the weather was perfect. Man, I wish they played Talk Show Host at the gig I attended. This was my first live Radiohead experience and it was good. Oh, baby was it good.
Grizzly Bear’s Lullaby is quite beautiful, no?
P.S. Sorry if this is coming off as creepy. I just love babbling about Radiohead to people who share the same enthusiasm. And, come to think of it, even to people who don’t share the same enthusiasm but happen to be in the same place when a Radiohead moment hits me.
I don’t mean to laugh about the rain at the CNE, but anyone who grew up in Toronto (like me) knows that the opening of the CNE brings on wet and cold weather. CNE is doomed and has been since I was a kid. It’s a running joke in my family who still love in T.O. and still go and get wet every year. Did you have the mini-donuts in the food building? I had them every year for like, 27 years.