Opening for Radiohead was Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, who I was extremely excited to see. According to our tickets, the concert was to start at 7:00 PM. I made sure that we made it to the amphitheatre about ten minutes early, just to be safe. You can imagine my anger when we walked towards the entrance to the sounds of 1% of One- apparently the band had already been playing for 20 minutes!!! We made a quick rush into the pavillion to find our seats (which turned out to be excellent) as I fumed. Stephen & Co. wrapped up their set with Craw Song and (Do Not Feed) the Oyster, my favorite song on Pig Lib. Even though I only got to hear a couple songs, they sounded great- their sound was very clear and strong, probably due to the excellent acoustics of the amphitheatre.

While waiting for Radiohead to come on, we were able to check out the venue. Alpine's outdoor theatre is an excellent place to see a band, especially if you are seated in the pavillion rather than on the lawn seating. We were seated in the 34th row, which gave us an incredibly good view of the entire stage. Radiohead concerts are interesting because they draw such a diverse crowd of people. However, I think about 1/4 of the crowd came wearing Radiohead t-shirts, which I thought was a firmly established concert faux-pas.

Around 8:00 the lights dimmed and Radiohead made its way on stage to massive cheers, kicking things off with my favorite song off of Hail to the Thief, 2+2=5, which of course, totally rocked. The set list was very heavy on the new album, playing 11 of the 14 tracks throughout the night. However, just when you needed a taste of something older, Radiohead would deliver. The band has a brand new light show on this tour, and the lights were best displayed during Paranoid Android, when the flashing colors went along perfectly with the changes in the music- as Thom railed into us with "You don't remember, you don't remember, why don't you remember my name," blinding white lights took over the stage, clearly thrilling the audience as they sang along. Meanwhile, rectangular video screens on the sides of the stage showed shots of each band member running down the screen like a film strip. This was definitely the most visually appealing moment of the night.

One thing that surprised me was how happy the band seemed to be on stage, which hasn't necessarily been the case in the past. Bassist Colin Greenwood danced, smiled, and sang along like a 10-year old boy, and Thom Yorke couldn't seem to control his spastic dancing for a moment. During Idioteque you could see the shadow of Thom dancing on a side wall of the theatre, and it was almost too perfect not to have been set up that way.

After closing the show with There There, Radiohead returned for two great encores, including the classic Street Spirit. The show lasted two hours, though you could tell everyone in the crowd would have been happy to have sat through another two hours. The problem with seeing bands like Radiohead that have so much music is that you'll never hear everything that you want to hear; you can't go in with any expectations. Radiohead especially seems to have specific songs from each album that they prefer; almost all of the non-HTTF songs they played I'd seen them perform before. So don't go into a show praying they'll play High and Dry or Exit Music (for a Film), because you most likely aren't going to hear it.

I could easily go on forever on each individual song they played or every dance move Thom made, but really, it's just something that needs to be experienced. Overall, the show was amazing, the light show and video footage really enhanced the mood and made listening to the music even more enjoyable. My only complaint is that I would have liked to hear a little less Hail to the Thief and more of a general overview of their records; however, it was cool to hear new songs I hadn't heard before live. There couldn't have been a disappointed fan in the audience.

-Nicole