Radiohead

Best.
Show.
Ever.

at least that I've been to.

So I figured why go to Chicago just for the show, why not go and hang out for a bit. So I left got some water, stopped at La Mie for a bit of Mocha and headed out on the road. I remembered at the gas station that I had forgotten my camera, but I thought about it and I didn't think I'd really need it.

I made a few stops, Just past Iowa City (potty and more water), at the Dekalb Oasis (potty, lunch, gas (not that I really needed it, just didn't want to find Gas in Chicago). I ate Subway...the Dekalb Oasis has gotten much better the McDonalds and gas station that I remember. They even had a Starbucks there. I was thinking maybe I could stop there on my way back.

So then I headed into the Chi-town. I don't remember if I've ever mentioned that I was an adopted Chicagoian. I was adopted by a group of guys that lived on my floor in college that I played poker with. Traffic wasn't to bad, certainly worse then Des Moines, except for at the very worst times.

It was pretty much a straight shot in and after I figured out where I was parking (apprently for almost $20) I got out, figured out where the venue was and started wandering around Michigan Ave. After wandering up and down the street for a while, I decided some indoors would be fun, so I walked up to The Art Institute of Chicago and went through the vast majority of the collection. I think I missed part of it though... It was fun they had a lot of stuff that I have seen before (in pictures) and it was interesting. I would've like to go when I have more time to actually spend more time. They had a whole lot of religious paintings, and etc. It was interesting.

At around 5 I was getting Hungry, so I headed to find some place to eat. I ended up at The Artist's Cafe. I had a beer (anchor steam) and a ruben. The sandwhich was ok, nothing special. I was kind of annoyed with the pay as soon as I got my meal, and having to pay in cash (they only accepted AmEx).

Afterwards I Chatted with Shannon (I did when I got there too) and then ended up getting this Fruit Smoothie at this smoothie/sushi place right on the block of the venue. It was actully the best thing I had that day. I saw a lot of people lining up. So I decided to get in line too. But which line? There were 3 lines. One for regular tickets, one for tickets for those who bought through the fan club and one for "premium" will call tickets. The last one was my line. But there was a bit of confusion, since, several people that were in the line I was in, were turned away and told to get in another line.

The check in process was a bit silly. I needed my ID, the order number from ticketmaster and the credit card that I bought the ticket with. So it was a long line, but it went pretty quickly.

The Auditorium Theater was very cool. The lightbulbs were even cool. Lots of reliefs, lots of decorations, 4 levels of seats (I think), box seats. I was in row F and had a great view of the stage. I really wished I had brought the camera (not that it was actually allowed in the theater), not for just the theater but the other things I had seen that day.

So the theater wasn't half full yet and the lights dimmed. The Black Keys. A drummer and a guitar playeer. The music was interesting and good in a way. But by the end of their set I was starting to get bored, cause a lot of it was sounding the same.

So they left the stage and the crowd's anticipation grew. After a while the crowd would cheer for Radiohead at every pause in the music playing. It was kind of silly.

When they finally took the stage, a huge roar came up and they started right into it.

It was a mixture of older stuff (most of their albums being represented) and the stuff that will be coming out soon enough. It was interesting and I was just amazed...and I mean AMAZED as to how well they sounded and played together.

The stage was setup in a way to allow for many changing of instruments on the stage (including mini drum sets, pianos, guitars and etc). And they also had many lights and on the backdrop of the stage, they had about 10 trapazoidal screens that were being projected on. It's quite interesting what they did. They had cameras all over the stage, and so they might show a video of Thom Yorke broken up across the screens, singing. And they would have effects added to it. So things like inverted colors, or orange tints or dots or etc. At points you could see the drummer on two screens and Yorke on some others or the like. It worked.

The lights were amazing, being both, well timed and matching the speed and the intensity of the music.

After 2 encores, the show ended and I raced out of the theater. There were a few songs that I would've liked to hear, but all and all they covered the bases pretty well. I called Shannon when I got in the car, but the reception was pretty bad (since I was under Michigan Ave). So I told her the plan (I'd call if I was going to sleep somewhere before I got home). So I headed out of Chicago. The traffic leaving was pretty bad, until I got into the western suburbs. Then it calmed down quite a bit.

I stopped at the Dekalb Oasis, but Starbucks wasn't open, so I got a big pepsi and a water and continued on. I called my parent's house and left a message (around 11) and said I might be stopping by if I needed to sleep.

I drove on, traffic was very light and I rarely had to wait to pass anyone.

When I was on the East Side of Iowa City...or at least close to the East Side, I got a call back from Joseph to say it was ok, but I was doing fine (and by the end of the call I was passing the I-380 Exit anyways).

40 miles or so out of Des Moines, I was starting to wonder if I was gonna run out of gas (even if the light wasn't off) and I was kind of hungry and wanted something. So I saw this Kum & Go and noticed something. In Illinois premium is 92 octane, while Iowa's is 91. And it must of helped, cause on the Tank of gas from the Dekalb Oasis to Chicago and back to wherever I was off of I-80, I got Just over 33 MPG (again my car is supposed to get 29 MPG on the highway) and this was going 80 most of the way.

I pulled into my driveway at around 3:45 and I was pretty exausted, eyes dry and just kind of mentally losing it.

So I went upstairs, brushed my teeth, took my pills (since I didn't think I'd be up early enough to actually take it in the morning, and crawled into bed.

Anyways, I've been wanting to see Radiohead for around 12 years and now I have had the chance and I couldn't be more happy about it.