TV on the Radio in the Distance

Take a look at TV on the Radio's fall tour dates, courtesy of my absolute #1 favorite music blog, I Guess I'm Floating. They totally suck:

9/14 Republic, New Orleans, LA
9/15 Gypsy Tea Room & Ballroom, Dallas, TX
9/16 Zilker Park, Austin, TX
9/17 Emo's, Austin, TX
9/19 Fox Theatre, Boulder, CO
9/24 Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
9/25 Soma, San Diego, CA
9/26 Glass House, Pomona, CA
9/27 Soho Restaurant & Music Club, Santa Barbara, CA
9/29 The Library, Sacramento, CA
9/30 Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA
10/02 Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR
10/03 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC Canada
10/04 Showbox, Seattle, WA
10/07 Playmakers, Fargo, ND
10/08 First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
10/09 Metro, Chicago, IL
10/10 St. Andrews Hall, Detroit, MI
10/12 Opera House, Toronto, ON Canada
10/13 Le National, Montreal, Canada
10/14 Paradise, Boston, MA
10/17 Irving Plaza, New York, NY
10/18 Irving Plaza, New York, NY
10/20 Sonar Lounge, Baltimore, MD
10/21 Starlight Lounge, Philadelphia, PA

The goddamn Hollywood Bowl? I had no idea so many people were into TVoTR at this point. A few years ago, right before the first LP Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes came out, I caught the band in a completely epic, awesome and highly intimate show at the Echo. (I'll be there again September 30th for the Silversun Pickups).

That's a tiny ass space, not more than an empty room with a bar and a few tables and a slightly-raised stage. A capacity of a few hundred at the most.

Their only album since then, the incredible Return to Cookie Mountain, is probably my favorite of the year so far. These guys are a really terrific band with a completely different sound from anyone else out tehre. It's moody, atmospheric, strange music that falls somewhere between indie rock, industrial and hip-hop. I liked the first full album a lot, but it was really (I had assumed) their first EP, Young Liars, that had won over the majority of their fans. Apparently, a lot of people have discovered these guys this year.

Which is great. I mean, good for them. I'm glad their songs are finding listeners, and they're about 100,000 times more talented than the other "buzzy" bands this year. (Attention Wolfmother: You guys blow. Your lead singer's white guy afro looks ridiculous. Get your furry mother off me.)

But I don't want to see TV on the Radio at the Hollywood Bowl. It's bad enough I have to go there for Belle and Sebastian and Radiohead. Can't these bands just stop attracting capacity crowds? I despise the Hollywood Bowl. Not just the experience of seeing shows there. I hate the entire institution, the building and grounds themselves. A small part of me wishes one of these lazy Los Angeles terrorist cells that hasn't gotten of its jihadist ass for 10 minutes to blow something up in five years would just decimate the Hollywood goddamn Bowl already so I could see shows in venues where you can actually get a decent view of the stage for less than the price of an NFL franchise. But only a small part.

The Bowl just has so many downsides. There's nowhere to park. Even if you overpay for lot parking (we're talking $20), it's only located way down Highland, so you still have to walk forever DIRECTLY UP A LARGE HILL to get to the venue. When I lived in Hollywood, I could take a train from near my apartment to somewhat near the Bowl and just walk the rest of the way, which is what I did for Radiohead in 2003. Now, I just have to drive to Hollywood and Highland and then bend over.

Then, once you've hired your trained Sherpas and navigated up the street to the actual front gate, there's the matter of fighting the teeming, impatient masses packed into an exceedingly small area to get inside and then find your seat. If you've hauled in provisions for the intense journey, the Bowl allows you to bring them inside, but if you plan on buying any food or beverages in the venue...well, I hope you've sold a yacht recently or something. That or you consider Robert De Niro's gangster roll from Goodfellas to be "walking around money."

Plus, there are very few quality seats at the Hollywood Bowl. It's enormous, and most of the seats are flat, uncomfortable benches located several miles from the actual stage. I couldn't see Radiohead at all when I went to that show. We weren't in the back exactly, but we were fairly far away. Occasionally, I would make out a jittery, spastic blot in the middle distance and assume that was Thom Yorke doing his trademark mid-song twitching. A few years later, seeing AIR and Stereolab backed by a section of the LA Philharmonic, I had significantly better seats...but still couldn't see particularly well.

And it's not just line of sight that's nice at a big concert for which you are spending $60 or more. It's live music. The whole point is to feel like you're in the same space as the musicians. That they are playing for your benefit. Being at the Hollywood Bowl is only slightly more intimate than watching a performance on television. In fact, watching a live performance on one of the High Definition channels on our TV is actually mroe intimate than being in the back of the Hollywood Bowl.

It turns out, they're opening for Massive Attack, hence the need for the large venue. I know I've missed a tour or two of theirs recently, as I've been going to less concerts. But I'll have to catch them next time they breeze through town on their own, because it will probably be the last time I can see them while remaining Staples Center-free.