I fancy myself as quite the concert-goer. I've seen some indie heroes in my time: Hot Chip, Modest Mouse, Belle & Sebastian, Bright Eyes, and recently the Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem. However the holy grail, Radiohead, had yet to be attained. So when I heard that the In Rainbows tour would make a stop in the Washington D.C. metro area this spring, I quickly bought tickets. Due to Radiohead's critical reputation as a live band, I expected the concert of a lifetime. It certainly didn't disappoint.

The concert was held at a venue called the Nissan Pavilion outside of the Beltway in Northern Virginia. The stage and 3/4 of the seats were covered by a large overhang, but the remaining seats were on a hillside outside of the pavilion. For the most part, it was an outdoor concert. Because the good seats sold out immediately and due to the fact that lawn seats still represented a significant portion of my monthly income, lawn seats seemed like the logical option. That is until it rained all evening.

I spent the entire five hour concert standing in a steady downpour as the typically mild spring D.C. weather turned into cyclone like rain, wind, and temperatures in the mid-40's. Needless to say, there were many points between the pre-opening band set, the opening band (Liars), and the pre-Radiohead set, where I almost couldn't handle it. My camp raincoat, which is normally fairly reliable, proved no match to several hours of consistent rain. My glasses, which were absolutely necessary given the distance that we were away from the stage and the fact that I'm near-sighted, proved to be useless without windshield wipers. Although I stood for almost 5 1/2 hours, I succumbed to what I like to term "reverse camp fire" mentality.

Let me explain.

When sitting around a campfire, there is always inexplicably part of one's jeans that is not in contact with one's leg. After prolonged exposure to the intense heat of a camp fire, the jeans slowly begin to heat up. Although due to the lack of contact with the leg, the wearer is unaware of this rise in temperature. So when the wearer moves his or her leg, which then comes in contact with said hot area of jeans, it causes shock and pain.

The same went for standing in the rain last night. My pants were drenched and it was cold. So I tried to avoid having the unexposed parts of my leg come in contact with the cold, wet parts of my jeans. However, this led to standing for too long with my legs locked and my muscles clenched. I could barely walk back to the vehicle after the concert without limping and cramping.

It was, as Thom Yorke so eloquently stated during the show, "getting pretty miserable out there".

The set list goes as follows:

1. All I Need (In Rainbows)
2. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows)
3. Lucky (OK Computer)
4. 15 Step (In Rainbows)
5. Nude (In Rainbows)
6. Pyramid Song (Amnesiac)
7. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (In Rainbows)
8. Myxomatosis (Hail to the Thief)
9. Idioteque (Kid A)
10. Faust Arp (In Rainbows)
11. Videotape (In Rainbows)
12. Paranoid Android (OK Computer)
13. Just (The Bends)
14. Reckoner (In Rainbows)
15. Everything In Its Right Place (Kid A)
16. Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows)

Encore 1
17. Like Spinning Plates (Amnesiac)
18. Optimistic (Kid A)
19. Karma Police (OK Computer)
20. Planet Telex (The Bends)

Encore 2
21. Fake Plastic Trees (The Bends)
22. The National Anthem (Kid A)
23. House of Cards (In Rainbows)


My two favorites were probably Idioteque and The National Anthem. But given the nature of the evening, the slow breakdown in Paranoid Android containing the lyric, "...rain down, rain down, come on rain down on me...", pretty much summed up the evening.

It was, at times, an unbearable, miserable evening and I paid the price for it today in both exhaustion and soreness. But I must say, it was certainly a memorable way to see Radiohead.