But I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Anyone who has seen Radiohead live will not need to ask what I mean by that. So, for the uninitiated: Thom York dances to his music like a little kid. It’s so much fun to watch! This is a band with great energy.

The Radiohead show was the best thing I saw at Bonnaroo 2006. I went to the festival having listened to several of their records several times — hardly what you would call a superfan. Upon leaving the festival, I have become a full-blown Radiohead convert.

Radiohead was the headliner on Saturday night. There were kids camped out at the main stage by dawn in hopes of getting good positioning for the show. Those that decided to do that had to sit through whatever was on the menu for the main stage, in the hot summer Tennessee sun, all day long.

That looked like a lot of work, so, being the eternal optimist that I am, I decided to just get to the main stage in time to squeeze my way as close as possible. That had worked great all day the day before, and all day Saturday. As you can see from previous posts, it had been a pretty good strategy.

Not for this show.

This was the first photo I took at the show. The camera was confused by what I asked it to do, so what it captured is not what things actually looked like that night…but believe it or not, this is kinda how it felt.

Bright Stage

As you can tell, I was WAY further away than for previous shows.

Here is a shot of the stage as it actually looked early in the show.

Radiohead Stage

Erik, this one’s for you:

Thom York

Because I was so far away, I took less pictures. In a way, it was kind of good, because it forced me to enjoy the music. Of course, being the perfectionist that I am, I found myself frustrated that I was holding this great camera and could barely get a steady shot through all the bobbing heads. And, the fact that I was using my long lens at maximum zoom meant that the slightest shake blurred the shot…and all the shots I did take I had to stand on tiptoe, straining to capture something worth posting.

Whew!

More Radiohead coming your way!