The Upstate Life

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

TUL's Take: ~~Radiohead~~ Monsoon @ ~~Nissan Pavilion~~ Virginia's Hellhole

I've experienced Hell on Earth my friends, and its name is Nissan Pavilion. I promised to myself I would never step foot into this venue after hearing all the horror stories ranging from traffic to parking to just how plain shitty the place is. But this was Radiohead. Plus I snagged some pavilion seats for cheap so I thought it was worth the trip. I couldn't have been more wrong in my entire life.

This was by far the worst concert experience I've ever attended. What a coincidence it took place at Nissan. Forget about the fact that we left at 6:30pm and weren't able to park until three hours later. Forget about the fact that we didn't find our seats until more than an hour into Radiohead's set. Forget about the flash flooding that was taking place at Nissan. Forget about the fact that many fans were already heading towards the parking lot while we were going towards the entrance.

What a mess. Why LiveNation decided not to postpone the concert I have no idea. We were under the pavilion and still got soaked. The whole experience detracted from Radiohead's otherwise incredible set despite only catching an hour of their performance. It was great to hear "Bodysnatchers", "Karma Police", and "Fake Plastic Tress", but watching with 5 inches of water in my New Balances just didn't add up to an enjoyable time. Not Radiohead's fault by any means, though they could have turned on the video screens for the lawn fans that were brave enough to weather the torrential downpours. I wouldn't have even shown up if I had lawn tickets under those conditions. Radiohead's lighting setup was rather cool though.

Then there was the mass exodus out of this hellhole. I think we were parked in the last spot of the last row of the last section of the lot. The only time we moved within the first hour was when Casey shifted the car from overdrive to park; approximately 8 inches give or take. We finally got home around 2:15am, wet clothes and all. What a miserable time. Never again Nissan Pavilion, never again.

Posted by Brett at 4:36 PM |