Radiohead had a great show at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ just across the river from Philadelphia on August 12. This was my second time seeing Radiohead after seeing them at the Nissan Post Pavilion during some pretty rained out conditions. This time the weather was much more cooperative.

Here’s the setlist via MTV News whose correspondent referred to it as “the second-best show I’ve ever attended”:

“15 Step”
“There There”
“Morning Bell”
“All I Need”
“The National Anthem”
“Videotape”
“Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”
“The Gloaming”
“Where I End and You Begin”
“Faust Arp”
“No Surprises”
“Jigsaw Falling Into Place”
“The Bends”
“Idioteque”
“Climbing Up the Walls”
“Nude”
“Bodysnatchers”

First Encore:
“House of Cards”
“Lucky”
“Go Slowly”
“Just, Street Spirit”

Second Encore:
“Reckoner”
“Planet Telex”
“Everything in its Right Place”

In a followup to the Nissan Post Pavilion story, I’m happy to report that the I had a much greener experience more inline with the bands ecological message. They encouraged carpooling before the event and every car I saw had 2-4 people in it. Getting in was a bit delayed which seemed to caused by directing people to each spot individually, but leaving we had no problem and zipped right out of the parking lot.

You might also want to check out what some others in the blogosphere:

Radiohead: August 12th 2008 (Camden, NJ) (”Last night’s Radiohead setlist included none of their major radio hits; no High and Dry, no Karma Police, no Paranoid Android, no Creep. But then again, if you’re just a casual radio fan, you have no place at a Radiohead concert.”)

YOU BOTH LOOK INCREDIBLY HEALTHY - Radiohead Live, August 9th and 12th (”The National Anthem was great as always. I still can’t get over how amazing the light show for that song is. That awesome candy apple red lighting with the red scribbles on the screen that dance and jump around like hairs stuck on the projector lens.”)

Radiohead Comes Like A Comet In Camden (”The set list I expected to see was turned completely upside down. Radiohead weaved through a performance that showed no mercy and kept the crowd standing and dancing all night long.”)

Radiohead Shares Meaning of Life with Camden Crowd (”And while I was taking a piss, they supposedly shared the meaning of life with the couple thousand fans in attendance.”) No idea what he’s talking about.

What it means to be Alive (”The set list itself was immaculately constructed and while personal highlights are too numerous to number my most vivid memory was their performance of No Surprises. Ironically enough, a song about ending your life in a carbon monoxide filled garage, by a band that specializes in feelings of alienation and depression, brings about a greater understanding of what it means to be alive.”)

James Houston brings us Big Ideas. It’s the Radiohead song, played on old computer equipment. It’s great to see people think way outside of the box. The idea of this remix is to illustrate how something can be more than what they were designed for. That’s an inspiring sentiment and makes for a nice art piece.

Big Ideas (don’t get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

Want more Radiohead? Read about my trip to their Nissan Pavilion Concert

Remember Lisa Loeb? I think everyone does that I’ve asked and they wonder where she’s been. Back when, she had a ton of great songs and the awesome reality show #1 Single. Last night she was at the Recher Theatre right in Towson, Maryland. It was just her and her guitar on stage pretty raw. She’s just really funny talking about karaoke, bar hopping, having odd conversations with the small and intimate audience. It was a great time. Her new album is filled with kids and camp songs. So she talked about all of her camp experiences.

Lisa Loeb was at the Recher Theatre in Towson last night

You can read more about the concert out on the web:
• Lisa at Recher Theatre

I had a great time, I really did. Tons of people had a horrible experience. It was rainy (flooding), traffic was bad and poorly managed. I drove in my little Toyota Yaris. It took hours leaving from Potomac Mills to the venue. Roads were closed due to the flooding and many people were turned away from the thing. A handy poncho helped make it bearable and I didn’t really mind the rain. The band sounded and looked great from the field, moved a little closer, got a t-shirt. Good times.

Leaving … the traffic was horrible, there was no control over the parking lots. No lane markers or anything, just dozens or lanes of cars trying to go straight for the exits and dodge the parked cars. The cars next to us were inches away at points. If I didn’t have a GPS, we would have been confused in the detour mess like most of the travelers at the nearest 7-eleven who scrambled for directions collectively. Leaving the concert around 11, we made it back to DC at 2. It should have been about an hour away.

This was in no way a “green” experience, even though the band wanted an eco-friendly tour. I wonder how horrified they were by the miles of cars in every direction covering every lane of traffic. The venue isn’t reasonable by any form of public transportation except rented bus!

Other people aren’t not as positive as me on this one. And it’s not unreasonable since hundreds of people had worse experiences, you could see them every where. It was great people watching. Read what they’re saying about the concert:

Radiohead at Nissan Pavilion: Fail(”Even in full rain gear we were miserable and cold as were most of the people around us.)
Radiohead at Nissan: Apocalypse Now (”The magnitude of misery (despite an otherwise great show) can not be fully described in this post, but i will try my best.”)
Radiohead Awash in Virginia (”One fan has called it “the concert from hell”: on Sunday night”)
radiohead (”But, as someone as succinctly put it on last.fm, this was probably the best and worst concert experience in my life.”)

It was Mother’s Day, do the brits have that?

Update (May 13, 08)

Radiohead has posted this statement on their blog:

“Due to Sunday night’s torrential rain storm and consequential multiple road closures, many fans were unable to reach the Nissan Pavilion. While acknowledging a lack of control over the ensuing flooding and detours, the members of Radiohead are nevertheless disappointed regarding this turn of events. For further inquiries, ticketholders who didn’t get in are urged to contact: customerservice@nissanpavilion.com”

Update (August 16, 08)

See the follow up post: Radiohead in Technicolor at the Susquehanna Bank Center

music.sketchee.com just got a facelift. A very small bit of redesign to improve the look of it all. I might continue to tweak a bit over the next few days. If you haven’t yet visited the site, it has sheet music of my original compositions and arrangements from classical music and video games. I also have midi and mp3 samples on there.

Today I found out I was featured in the January 2007 issue of The Business Monthly for playing piano at a local gallery reception.

I took these photos just when I was trying to get stuff together for my invitation postcard. I may still use something from this for the program for the recital. I haven’t layed that out yet. We’ll see what I come up with.

There’s obviously no big idea here, just show a piano for a piano recital. I didn’t want to have my face on the thing, that’s for sure.

Yeah so if you’re around, show up. If you know anyone in the area invite them. Hopefully someone will show up!

My Movable Type interface for my music page is broke, so until I fix it I’ll put the new music links in the blog.

This is Rose of May from Final Fantasy IX. A fellow pianist at my school requested it a couple days ago, so here’s the [ MIDI ] and [ Sheet Music ]

It wasn’t too long ago that I had to ask what I should be working on with my art. Now I feel like there’s stuff everywhere. I feel good about that too! The more people see me working actively on these kinds of things, the more advice and tips I get too. Sometimes artists are too shy to say hey, you really need to work on x, y and z. I have my own opinions, but if someone tells me to look into something, I usually look into it. In my brainstorming journal, I’m keeping a list of art goals. Some are more career oriented, some practice related, etc. It’s all mixed together and it’s good. I’m computering too much but hey oh well you’re at the computer too so what can you sy.

I’m prepping for my solo piano recital. The date isn’t set yet, but I hope soon. What, what, what is the best day of the week? My thoughts are family members and others would have work and school on weekdays so too early on a weekday they might not make it. But then people have plans on the weekend. School people would be more likely to attend on a day when school is in session. The obvious solution is to develop an eight day of the week.

Here’s the program in order that Prof Neal worked out: Beethoven: Sonata Op 14 No1, Chopin: Waltz Op 69 No 1 & 2, Scherzo Op 31, Liszt: Concert Etude No 3 “Un Sospiro”, Valse Oubliee, Ravel: Sonatine. So no Gershwin, but that’s okay. These are pieces I know pretty well so it shouldn’t be too much work. I’ve went through Anime from Sonatine over the past week since that is my finale. I think I play it better now than I ever did, I now got it note for note. I did a horrible recording of that movement before. Huh, no… It’s not that kind of anime.