Yesterday, May 11, 2008 Radiohead played at Virginia’s Nissan Pavilion. At the same time, there was…”some weather.” On the drive down from Baltimore it started to rain. Then it rained harder. Then it rained so hard we could only see about 5 feet in front of the car. By the time we made it down to the venue (about 5:00 pm) the parking lot was a soupy mess. People clad in trash bags, coats, ponchos and slickers of all sizes sloshed through the lot. We hid in the car until the gates opened hoping that things would let up.
At 6:30 we finally got out and walked to the front gate. After the least thorough pat-down of all time we were inside, and totally soaked. Standing water was everywhere, and due to the slight incline in the path around the pavilion a river was starting to form. We fought upstream to the end of the line and grabbed a piece of wall next to a bathroom under an overhang just long enough to shield us from the downpour. It rained as hard as I’ve ever seen it rain. The standing water got worse and worse. The opening band came and went. The sun went down and the temperature dipped into the 40’s. Then it rained harder.
At 9:00 Radiohead came on. We had moved around a bit but the water was inescapable. Even if we COULD escape it we were so saturated it wouldn’t have mattered. Songs started to come and go when something strange happened. A guy came out from under the cover of the pavilion and asked if we were stuck out on the lawn. Then he told us to take his pavilion seats because he was too ill to stay. So just a few songs into the set, we were running as fast as our rain frozen legs could carry us to sweet relief under the roof.
Relief isn’t quite what we found, but we did find a better view than the wall of humanity and umbrellas that was the lawn. The show was great. When it came time to leave the walkway dividing the seats from the lawn had become an actual river, more than ankle deep. I couldn’t help but laugh hysterically as we sloshed through the water, down the ramp and back out into the disgusting mud pit of the parking lot. We lined up to get out but didn’t move for 20 minutes. Out of the corner of our eye we spotted a cop car zooming off to the back of the lot. We followed and managed to circumvent the entire line somehow. The roads we were all funneled out to eventually were whittled down to a single lane on the way back to 66 in the blinding rain.
This brings up an interesting point. This venue has been around for quite a while, and is in the middle of a lot of nothing. Why then are the roads so bad? Why is there only on exit / entrance to the parking lot? Why did the structure handle rain so poorly? I don’t have an answer to any of that, but if someone has some answers I’d love to hear them.
Today I came home from work to find a box on my doorstep. What was inside? A new umbrella of course.
Here’s what Radiohead had to say. Here’s a rundown from the Radiohead 2008 Tour blog. Make sure to read the comments for the full effect.
