Monday, May 19, 2008

(untitled 251)

You know what? I'm not actually going to write about the Radiohead show. It was an amazing experience for me, since I'd waited so long to see them, and I knew every song they played instantly - even the obscure one that no one else in the venue did - but it just won't mean anything to anyone else like it would to me. Of the people I know that read this blog, only a handful of them are Radiohead fans, and of them, only one or two are as diehard as I am. Suffice it to say that it was perfect. I got to see how Jonny Greenwood really does always hang his head low when he plays so all you can see is his long hair. I got to see all five of them mesh together perfectly when playing. I got to see 10,000 people hold up lighters during "Exit Music" and get a rush like nothing else I've ever felt. And I got to hear "Optimistic" played live, which you'd better believe meant something extra to me.

I could spend hundreds of thousands of words writing about it and describing every detail to you, but it won't really give you the sense of getting to hear the cascading notes of "Arpeggi" or hearing Thom Yorke belt out the immortal lyric from "Nude": "You'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinking." It's incredible to hear live, but that much more so if you've been waiting for eight years for them to even release the song.

Instead, I'll tell you what I've been up to at work today: playing Hatris!



It's like Tetris, but with hats! And every time you go up a level, the heads change! I was putting wizard hats on an Abe Lincoln head for a while, which was pretty cool.

Seriously, you guys. Take a minute and play the game. It's hilarious.

3 comments:

Thirdmango said...

This looks to be the same format as the nintendo game "Yoshi"

Lisa B. said...

I have to say, I think it's almost impossible to describe in any meaningful way a live musical event. Partly it's because whatever you brought to the event shapes how you experience it, in a very profound way. Anyway, I'm glad for you that you got to hear Radiohead and that it was such a great concert.

On another tangent, you do know that there's a whole contingent of younger jazz musicians who do covers of rh, and also you must (mustn't you?) have seen the Prince cover of "Creep," which I probably already blabbed on about. Anyway, if I didn't and you haven't, you can find it on YouTube (like everything else).

austinmcraig said...

For not going into it at length, it still sounds like it was an incredible show. And I appreciate the impossibility of describing something like that. Glad it was everything you dreamed.