Noise Response Applause And Hand Claps...Floodgates Open To The Sound Of The Rainbow

Friday started with a trip to Noah's New York Bagels. Kid1 and I enjoyed the cool morning weather in Oakland. I read the paper and all that jazz.

Then it was off to Cal Berkeley. Kid1 wanted another look at the place...this time with purpose. We stopped by the admissions office for the requisite stuff admissions offices at every college give out to students who show interest in their college. I have to say that Cal is a beautiful campus, man. And I'd be all for it if Kid1 got in.

We crossed the Bay Bridge, drove through downtown to our good friend's place. Get this: The Rudd's live on 30th Avenue in San Francisco. You know how most folks have pictures of their kid learning to ride their bike and in the background of the photos you'll see the neighbor's houses and cars? Yeah. In the Rudd's photos of their kid learning to ride their bike and the freakin' Golden Gate Bridge is in the background. Anyway, the entrance to the concert is at the end of 30th. We can see it from their driveway.

After a nice visit with the Rudd's, we were off to the show. Joshua's gift from his wife for his birthday was a ticket to the concert, so we were all off to the show.

Kid1 highly recommended we take in a band called the Cold War Kids. Kid1's recommendation was not overhype at all. I gotta say they were very, very good. They may not look like rock stars, but it'll be a shame if they don't become rock stars some day. They must be well on their way if they kicked off a festival like this one.



The three of us walked in at a leisurely pace and took a look at the main stage and took in the park a bit on the way to the Cold War Kids...we were about 20 minutes in front of the downbeat time. It was pretty strange to walk from the back of the crowd to pretty much the front row with no real break in stride. But we did it. Oddly, after about 10 minutes, we turned around and realized we'd beaten about 7,500 folks to that:



Like I said, the Cold War Kids put on a great show, and there was only 20 minutes between sets and Beck was on the same stage after them. Needless to say, we stayed put.

And then the magic happened. I own all of Beck's CD's but had never seen him live. Manalive was he good, too.







In what would later prove to be a poor choice, we decided to move to the back of the crowd to hear the last few songs of Beck's set. Our rationale was that we could beat the majority of the crowd and get some halfway decent view of the night's headliners, Radiohead.

This proved to be a poor choice because, first, we missed the end of Beck's set, and second, because about 20,000 people ignored everybody but Radiohead (you can buy one-day passes) and by the time we got to that stage area...let's just say that there was a football field between me and Radiohead. Now, we could hear them very well and even see a giant screen. And, I'm sure if you think Radiohead is pure genius, well, you might be right. They are brilliant on CD. But live? Well, I like their early stuff and they played mostly their later stuff, so I could take it or leave it. Especially from a football field away. But, if you like In Rainbows and smoke a lot of pot or happened to pay $100 for the ticket to see it, you'd feel obligated to tell everybody how incredible it was.

Interestingly enough, Kid1 and I left about an hour and 10 minutes into the set and we could hear it pretty well from the Rudd's.

Tomorrow we'll take some time to explore the grounds & people-watch, so I'll have more observations for you on that front. But, I'm off to bed with Beck's "Modern Guilt" rambling in my brain...