Everyone knows we like music, but we are pretty selective when it comes to deciding which artists we want to see live. Wait, that sounds snobby, let me be more accurate and restate that: we have a few bands that we love to see and we tend to watch their shows over and over. Some bands/artists we would love to see but they rarely, if ever, come to Seattle (Indigenous, T Model Ford -- hint, hint, nudge, nudge). On top of that, we are not young kids anymore. We have a dog-child at home and can't just go to clubs until the wee hours of the morning. What kind of example would we be setting?
Last night, we saw a band that we hadn't seen before but wanted to, Radiohead. Ryan was super excited when we bought tickets months ago to see the prolific UK band at the White River Amphitheater. I, too, was stoked to see Radiohead, but for folks that are unfamiliar with their
work (where have you been living?), the band is often mellow and sometimes experimental with sounds and music. In my humble opinion, this can make watching a band in a large venue, like the Amphitheater, a bit of a gamble.Well, the show was, in a word, awesome! Radiohead played a great mix of songs and lots of them, including two encores. Throughout the day, rain showers passed through the area and temperatures this week are unseasonably cool, but most of the concert was dry. Even when the rain came and Ryan and I found ourselves soaked to the bone, we had a great time.
One reason for Radiohead's successful concert was the amazing artistry of the light show. I know, I know, light shows are for stoners you say. But let me ask you something, if Picasso showed up at your door and wanted to paint a picture, you'd probably want to watch the master at work, right? As cheesy as that example sounds, my point is that genuine creativity often invokes a physical response when seen, heard, etc., and it's a really cool thing. Musically, Radiohead is an incredibly creative band, and amazing visuals add another sense to the experience. While I was always a skeptic on light shows, I'm sold after last night's concert. Here's a video of one of the light effects that mimicked rain:
And then there's this one that had light "graffiti" that responded to a voiceover and the music:
See what I'm saying? They had these bars that were metal or some other material that could reflect light and even manage very precise displays. The bars were organized in about 12 rows across and 8 or so bars deep, which gave a 3-dimensional feeling to the lighting.
The lesson? If you are going to do a light show, invest in it like a good piece of art and it will not disappoint. In fact, if I had any musical talent whatsoever (I don't, but if I did) and I had stage fright, I would put up some serious visual art to keep attention off of me and on the rest of the stage. Shoot, we even had nose-bleed seats and felt connected to the performance the entire time.
At the end of the concert, we were soaked because rain and wind moved in and even Seattle-grade Gore Tex can only get you so far. We jogged to our car and hurriedly turned on the engine and cranked the heat. We moved into a spot in a long line of cars that we assumed would move at some point. Nearly 2 hours later, we hadn't budged an inch. We learned about our different approaches to tense situations (Darcy = "What the eff? I'm about to lose it if we don't move NOW!"; Ryan = "Getting upset isn't going to get the car moving, just relax."), and we also learned that while Ryan is the sound of reason and generally correct, after two hours in a motionless car on a weekday night, Darcy thinks his communication can come off as condescending. Over 3.5 hours after the end of the concert (about 3:07 a.m. to be exact), we finally rolled into Chateau de Nonerick exhausted and utterly spent.
I'm not sure why the traffic management at the White River Amphitheater was so bad, but I think we may not want to go back there unless an epic performer is coming to town. In that case, we might pay the $20 for VIP parking.
