Bad concerts and musical phases

I may make some Radiohead fans pissed off by admitting this fact, but I walked out of their show during the “Pablo Honey” tour. In July of 1993 I was went by myself to this little rat hole in SE Portland called “La Luna” and saw Radiohead live. I was pretty bored at the show and ended up walking out before the encores. I hardly ever do that for a band. I think the fact that since it was only $7 and at the time I only knew one track helped in making me leave before the show was actually over. It’s funny as I think about all the shows that I saw and never walked out, like the Pixies where Kim Deal walked out on stage, put a half rack of beer on the amp, proceeded to drink it and then passed out on stage while the band finished the set without her. The most famous bad show I saw was the Replacements show in 1987 where they were so drunk they forgot the lyrics to their own songs and then tried to sing “Summer of 69″ by Brian Adams but gave up after a few verses. The show and the trashed backstage was so bad that it lead to an apology on their next album. To the best of my memory besides Radiohead, I only walked out on one other band and that was “Live” during their mental jewelery tour. For a band named Live, they put on a pretty lame show.

I had not really paid attention to Radiohead for a few years after that show. There was one guy at GST where I worked that was a total fanatic for the band and thought that everything they did was amazing. He would play them all the time. Every time I heard Thom Yorke singing it reminded me of somebody whining about how shitty their life was (and not in a good Morrissey kind of way). After a while, he kept bugging me to listen to them again, he was appalled that I walked out of the show  (he was too young at the time). He loaned me “OK Computer” but I really didn’t like it much. It was not until I heard “The National Anthem” off their 2000 album, “Kid A” that I really took notice of them again and really started paying attention. I dove into them and got their back catalog to listen to with a new ear. After about 6 months of playing them a lot, I just stopped. I was no longer enjoying hearing them and that feeling of a whining narcissist came back. I did not bother to pick up “Amnesiac”. I gave “Hail to the Thief” a listen but wasn’t captivated by it either.  I was simply done listening to them.

When I heard the details about “In Rainbows” and their unique distribution method I decided to check it out.  I listened to it a couple of times and could not shake the whiny feeling again.  A bunch of friends kept raving about how good of an album it was and that I should take another listen, I decided to try it once more.  I don’t know the exact point that it happened but suddenly In Rainbows was in constant rotation on drive to work.  Ever since that point, I’ve gone through phases where I’ll listen to it over and over for a week or two and then I’ll just put it away for like 4-6 weeks.  Something about this album has made me keep coming back to it again and again since it’s release.  I can’t just put on a track or two, I have to play the album from start to finish.  I’ve had it with me during crappy traffic on my drive to work, brainstorming problems on a white board, writing this blog post and even laying out budget projections for a year.  Something about this album fits into the background of my life at this point in time. The last track on the bonus CD “Four Minute Warning” is one of the most haunting songs I have ever heard….