Radiohead at the Santa Barbara Bowl
5 Years in the Making
My wife and I originally had tickets to see Radiohead for the first time in Florence, Italy during our honeymoon. At the time, it seemed like a cherry on top of the honeymoon. Needless to say, it was cancelled after the horrible accident in Canada that killed some of their crew. They don't play the states as much as Europe, but here are some other times we had our eye on seeing them:
- Shrine Auditorium in LA - Tickets were sold out before I even got in the queue
- Outsidelands - Conflict with a family birthday
- ACL - Too far and too few other compelling acts
Anyways, this Coachella sideshow at Santa Barbara Bowl was announced, and I jumped in the virtual line. Got lucky to nab my tickets in 15 minutes or so too.
Santa Barbara Bowl as a Venue
I read about this place before we went. Only 4,500 capacity, way smaller than even the Greek in LA. It was also relatively close to State Street (1 mile up), so it seemed like everything lined up right.
Radiohead
First, full disclosure, I like sharing pictures on this blog, but Radiohead asked strictly for "no pictures during the show". I can respect that (although not everyone in attendance did), so no pictures.
The show started a little late, but it was incredible. The variations in tempo of the songs took us from dancing one minute to mesmerized the next. The set list was more rarities than anything; there was no Karma Police, Paranoid Android, Creep (thank God). It was 40% A Moon Shaped Pool and maybe 40% In Rainbows, and a random 20% from other albums. From Daydreaming, Desert Island Disk, Lotus Flower, Identikit to finish with How to Disappear Completely before the encore. There were, oddly two encores, and by the end of the show I wished I had Coachella tickets so I could see them again soon.
Then again, I'm not sure anything at Coachella could match the incredible acoustics and closeness (we were in GA). Even in GA, there was elbow room, and people were super chill.
Anyways, I'm glad after 5 years of pining to see this group live, we finally got our wish in what seemed like a perfect venue.