Live: Radiohead @ Riverport 5/14/08

Standing there last night at Verizon Wireless (heh) Amphitheater, my old stomping grounds (I once worked there briefly, and it's where I graduated from high school), in a sea of cargo pants-clad cracka-ass crackas, it occurred to me: As long as I'd been listening to Radiohead, I'd never actually seen them live. In fact, I'm not even sure the last time they were here, or anywhere around here. A few songs into their set last night, I realized this was probably neither the best time nor place to see Radiohead for the first time.

First of all, there was the venue. Riverport, as I'll be referring to it from here on out (fuck you, Verizon Wireless!) would be one of the gayer places to see a concert even if it wasn't a shitty outdoors amphitheater.

Last night, I copped a sixer of Bud Light at the Convenient Food Mart over at Lackland and Craig, another one of my old stomping grounds. I downed the first half of it at a nearby house party that looked like some shit out of the movie Kids, and I was gonna down the rest of it in the parking lot at Riverport before I went in. But just as I was cracking open beer number four, someone was like, "Oh shit, there's the cops." They were busting some kids who were tailgating the next row of cars over. So I had to pour my shit out and toss the rest of it in some guy's trunk.

Come to find out, Maryland Heights has some sort of bullshit-ass ordinance against drinking beer in parking lots. The reason why: Beer inside costs $9. Like most black people, I don't go to Busch Stadium, but according to some guy last night, that's even worse than it costs there. So what I did is, I copped three of them, i.e. $27 worth, and poured them down my throat real fast, so I'd get extra drunk. It kinda worked, but it kinda didn't. I got good and fucked up... for a minute. But when you're big like I am, and when you drink like I drink, you kinda have to keep drinking, or else it'll just wear off and you'll just feel kinda shitty. Which started to set in right around the time Radiohead was going on. Damn.

Here was my other huge issue with last night. Radiohead brought there own teh ghey-ass light show - like something you might see at a rave, nullus; so they didn't end up using the jumbotron screens at all. So if you were stuck out in the field like I was, there was no way of knowing whether or not you were actually seeing Radiohead, or just some animatronic Englishmen swaying back and forth to Radiohead recordings - along the lines of the shit they used to have at Chuck E. Cheese, or as I like to call it, Showbiz Pizza. (For all I know, they might still have shit like that at Chuck E. Cheese. It's been a minute since I've been there.) To Riverport's credit, the sound was incredible. Like, I've never heard better sound at a concert. Certainly not at the Pageant. They must have figured you're way the fuck out in the field like that, the least they could do is turn the shit up loud enough so that you can hear it. It's not like they have any neighbors out there in Earth City.

And Radiohead themselves generally sounded really good, with the caveat that their setlist last night was very In Rainbows and post-Kid A heavy, and I just plain don't care as much about the recent stuff as I do the early stuff. And the few older songs they did play last night (like three joints from OK Computer, and two from The Bends, and that's it) didn't sound nearly as tight as some of the newer stuff, which was fucking fierce. In order for me to have gone to a Radiohead show with the setlist I would've liked best, I probably should've seen them back during the Kid A era, if not earlier.

Not that I can complain too much (though clearly I have), I'm just saying. Let's just hope they get at least some of these issues ironed out by the time I see them again this summer, at Lollapalooza.

Comments

[JOnathan]

YEAH BOL I KNOW THEY STARTED TORTURING ME AT CHUCKIE CHEEZE THEY ALREADY BRAGGED ABOUT IT! YOU UNDERSTND! I KNOW ALREADY! I KNOW DONT WORRY THAT TORTURE SHIT DONT SCARE ME. PEOPLE CAN PUT TOGETHER TORTURE AND A GAZILLION DOLLARS! AND THEY STARTED BRAGGING ABOUT IT. THATS WHEN JAYZ WAS INTERVIEWED ON ONE OF THESE SHITTY SIGHTS AND WAS SAYING JUS CAUSE SOMEONE TELLS YOU WHAT TO DO DOESNT MEAN YOUR GONNA DO IT. BLAH BLAH BLAH. IT WAS HIM OR PUFFY! BUT DONT WORRY I KNOW! THEY BEEN SAID THAT THEY STARTED AT THE CHEEZE!

[1st down]

No doubt the best time to have seen them live was probably that long ass tour they did in 98 after ok computer. I drove all the way the fuck from nyc down to charlotte nc last week to see them though.. only way to see them with this fucked up south and midwest only spring tour schedule they have.

I thought the light show was great, but then again I was close enough to still see the band. And yea you can tell they put more effort into the new shit and just kind of go through the motions on the ok computer and bends era stuff (ie the best shit they've ever done). But either way, its still fucking radiohead and they shit on everything else out there so why complain.

[Mike DiFelice]

Complete agreement on the sound. Pleasantly surprised. I thought Steve Nash's bass was a little loud during the rock songs, but just right during the electronic wankery.

Gotta get the seats for these shows. Riverport's field sucks. I remember seeing Digable/Sade there long ago and there were toads on the turf. Only thing that sucks worse than the lawn seats is getting out of the parking lot.

[Nick]

Yeah they definitely went In Rainbows heavy, playing all of it, but I thought their encores were incredible. Almost all old stuff, and personally I though My Iron Lung and Paranoid Android were killer. I can see what you mean about the light show, they definitely still should've put on the jumbotrons for people in the field. And btw, I agree that is the absolute worst place I've ever been to for a concert. It's nice enough, and their sound was awesome, but two fucking hours to get out of the parking lot? ridiculous. they didn't even have any cops or anything directing traffic. The fucking stop lights were still going. how do you get cars out of a place when there are red lights a block down the street? dumb as hell. I thought the show was killer though

[Bol]

^The irony is that there were cops swarming like bees in the parking lot before the show, making sure nobody was pregaming.

They probably all left once the show began.

[matt]

>I downed the first half of it at a nearby house party that looked like some shit out of the movie Kids
[...]
>Radiohead brought there own teh ghey-ass light show - like something you might see at a rave, nullus;

the kids in Kids were ravers. by my math, that makes Bol teh ghey by association.

[Bol]

^Fuck you. Those kids were skaters who just happened to go to a rave.

[Melophobe]

I understand your point about not using the jumbotrons ... it would have sucked if you were out in the lawn. However, they put together a really awesome light show for the people in the seated area including a huge backscreen LCD. We made a few live videos from the pit that you might be interested in seeing. Perhaps they should have chosen to play smaller venues though?

http://mel.opho.be/index.php/articles/radiohead-st.-louis.html

[d.j. bradley]

Great review, they're queer.

Concerts are always horrible. They have a thing called The San Diego Street Scene where they close off blocks of downtown San Diego. They have bandstands spaced out with bands who are either on their way up or on their way down.

I go to these events and find myself walking around looking at people's butts and shoes. Beer lines 30 to 50 minutes,$8.

I just got an email from a bud that has tickets to Steely Dan in the front row in L.A. Like Radiohead, Steely Dan are fucking queers who play like sissies. This guy who bought the tickets is acting like he just died and guessed wrong as to the place he thought he was going to.

You'll all end up like me. I listen to talk radio. I stay at home. I am a king.

out

out

[d. b. cooper]

And Radiohead themselves generally sounded really good, with the caveat that their setlist last night was very In Rainbows and post-Kid A heavy, and I just plain don't care as much about the recent stuff as I do the early stuff

In Rainbows is an amazing album. I feel like as great as OK Computer was and as much as I, the new stuff has more depth and is more unique.

I saw Radiohead twice. The first after Amnesiac came out, it was amazing, great venue (Stone Mountain Park outside of Atlanta). I went with my little brother and got stoned on some kind bud. Good times. The second time was after Hail to the Thief, inferior in every way. Hi Fi Buys (heh) Amphitheater (nay Lakewood Amphitheater) a truly shitty place to "see" a concert, cruddy sound, expensive crap and douchebags at every turn (not to sound bitter). Radiohead played fine but atmosphere makes a big difference. If they would play at Stone Mountain Park again I'd try to see them, otherwise I'll pass.

[d. b. cooper]

My italics got lost on your quote, Bol, guess I can't italicize stuff, shoulda previewed

[RedZepprin]

Seen the Radiohead twice -- both times in Diego. Once at the Coors amphitheatre, stoned to the bejesus. At the time, I was not really a R'head fan; by the middle of that show, I was a convert. They laid it down like it was God's law.

The second time I saw them at one of those concerts by the bay (Embarcadero Park?) in downtown SD. I was sober this time, and again, they owned it. Absolutely owned it. They had this aura of cockiness about them, too, almost like an undefeated athletic team. It was like, "we are Radiohead. We are the best band in the world. Resistance is futile."

By the way -- Massive Attack is the only other live act who is as convincing on-stage. And they are similar -- that sinister, threatening aura to a lot of their music.