Prior to this week, if I had to list our my top 10 bands that I would love to see but haven’t yet, Radiohead would have taken spots 1-5. They’re easily one of my favorites, and I honestly had thought that they would be one of those bands I’d never have a chance of seeing. They don’t tour very often, and they live overseas so it’s a pretty big deal when they make it over to the US. Normally, I wouldn’t consider driving to the other side of the state to see a band on a weeknight, but I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to see them because I really didn’t know if or when I’ll have that chance again.

When I was 16, my girlfriend at the time gave me OK Computer for my birthday. I remember listening to it nonstop in my trusty Grand Am and being pretty amazed by it each and every time. I also will never forget the first time my roommate and I listened to Kid A in college. It was one of the weirdest things I had ever heard. It was totally unexpected yet it was almost on constant rotation in our room as it gradually made me realize just how brilliant it was. Not only do I think Radiohead is possibly the most innovative band in the world, but I also consider Thom Yorke to be one of the true musical geniuses of my generation.

The drive to St. Louis wasn’t too bad aside from some construction. We made good time and stopped to eat before the show. Rachel really wanted to eat at Joe’s Crab Shack for dinner. She’d never been to one and was pretty excited to order food from there. When she did, she ordered chicken. Nice work.

The arena itself was in an odd location. It was planted right in the middle of some corporate office park and the signs and feel of the place felt like we were about to walk into an amusement park instead of a rock concert. We had lawn seats and were able to make our way to the very front of the lawn dead center from the stage. I really don’t think I would have traded spots with anyone else on the lawn. After the opening band, The Liars, left the stage (and none too soon), some words were displayed on all of the video screens telling everyone that, due to the band’s request, the screens were not going to be used. Radiohead is on a big “green” kick and apparently they didn’t want to use the extra power needed to work the screens. The lawn people were not very pleased about the news.

It ends up that not having the screens wasn’t a big deal at all. By the end of their opener, “All I Need”, the stage lighting was in full display. It was possibly the most stunning visual show I’ve seen. The band sounded amazing, too. I was afraid that being a little farther back would take away from the show but I was dead wrong about that. I really can’t do the show any justice describing it because it’s just too hard to do. It was easily among the best shows I’ve seen. Seeing them live added a whole new dimension to some of their more difficult songs, too, and it seemed like the more complex the song, the more impressive the light show for it. There were a few songs I would have liked for them to play (”Just”, “Karma Police, and “Morning Bell”), but all in all it was a mind-blowing show.

I posted some videos I took during the show. The video for “You and Whose Army?” is too far back to see the expressions on Thom Yorke’s face at the beginning. He kept making funny faces while singing with his head close to the camera. The best example of their lighting, I think, is the one I took of “Paranoid Android”

While many people I know where out celebrating Cinco de Mayo in their respective cities, I was in Arizona, a part of the country where the Mexican holiday is really celebrated. That wasn’t the kind of celebrating I was doing, though. Instead, I was there for my grandfather’s 90th birthday party (that’s right, ladies, I have awesome genes).

The party was supposed to be a surprise for him, but he’s like a mischievous little kid trying to find out his presents before the big day and pretty much figured out what all was going on well in advance. I was thinking that there were going to be more family members making the trip but the only other members of the family that ended up coming were my mom and my aunt. He didn’t know I was coming, though, and was shocked when I walked in late to dinner on Friday. Just seeing his reaction made the trip worth it. Hearing his reaction was even better. There’s a reason the term “swearing like a sailor” exists, and it’s because of people like my grandfather. He was a sailor in WWII and isn’t shy about what comes out of his mouth. He took one look at me, got a huge grin, and proceeded to call me an SOB. It was hilarious…that is, until I stopped and realized that, by using that expression, he was technically calling his daughter the “b-word”. During breakfast the following morning, I made a sarcastic joke about how huge my muscles were, and my grandpa said, “All girls care about is your love muscle!”

The party itself was about what I expected. My grandpa is very active with the Knights of Columbus so the party consisted largely of friends from church. Here’s his reaction to the surprise:

For me, the party was awkward beyond belief. There were forty old people there I’d never met before and whom I knew I’d never see again telling me stories and trying to tell jokes. My personal favorite was when a guy put his arm around my grandpa and said to us, “Did you know this guy isn’t really 90? He isn’t. You know how old he is? 71!” Wow. Hilarious. He died laughing after he said it, too.

All of that paled in comparison, though, to the insanely awkward attempt by the married couple (who were hosting the event at their house) to set me up with their daughter. This would have been fine being that she was the only other person at the party who was my same age but wasn’t really my type. From the moment I walked into the house, the mom said, “I want to introduce you to my daughter.” It never let up from there, either, as she told me throughout the night that I needed to move to Tucson so I could date her. The clincher was at the end of the night when I was saying my goodbyes to everyone. I said goodbye to the mom and the daughter who was standing right next to her. As I started to walk away, the mom shouts out, “You two should exchange emails!” I was speechless. I had no idea what to say and was left with no choice but to divulge my personal email to her. As I hurried out of the door, I was left with the feeling of being just a little bit raped and looked for the nearest cactus to jump into. It was very awkward, and I feel bad for her that her mom was so aggressive.

All in all, though, it was a good trip despite it being so short. My grandpa told me at one point during the weekend how much he appreciated me coming out. He also said that he would much rather me have come out to enjoy time together instead of me just coming out for his funeral someday. It’s a morbid thought but made total sense. What’s the point in me seeing him when it’s too late? I just hope it won’t be my last time.

For a pretty long time, my sister has had her sights set on someday living in Chicago.  She has lived in Kansas City for two years and recently decided that the time was ripe to pull the trigger and make a move to the windy city.  After submitting her resume around to a few places thanks to contacts she made through her existing job, she found a job she liked and headed out of town this week to start life in a new place.  Of course, this all happened after celebrating with her one last time.

We first started the night at Manny’s, one of my sister’s favorite restaurants, to eat some tasty Mexican food and have a couple margaritas.  We then headed to The Levee to do it up the rest of the night.  The upstairs was surprisingly pretty dead, but that didn’t stop us from having a good time, especially with Disco Dick and the Mirrorballs rockin’ it downstairs.  It was weird not having Groove Agency bring the funk, but Disco Dick was pretty entertaining.  They had plenty of cheese and the guy even had fans going to keep his locks a-flowin’ all night.

At one point in the evening, my sis and I caught our friend Emily yawning.  We both reminded her that yawning was absolutely not allowed.

It’s always a good time to get a group of friends together, and it was especially fun to kick it with our complete bowling team, The Loose Seals.  BJ and Kerriann are moving to Minneapolis in a couple of weeks so it was great to do it up with them one last time.  Our last game of the insanely long season was Tuesday night, but I had to miss it because of the Raconteurs show.  I’m anxious to hear how we ended up placing and will be sure to blog about it and my horrible bowling skills soon.

It’s going to be weird having my sister so far away.  She’s pretty much followed in my footsteps my whole life — first in high school, then to Iowa State, and then to Kansas City.  While we’re both very different people, we’ve also always been pretty close so it should take some adjusting to at first.  I’m really happy for her, though, and I know she’s going to be happy there.