On Monday afternoon Marty and I drove into Malibu Canyon to pick up Mike and his girlfriend. Mike is one of Marty's best clients and for his birthday he had specifically requested that we take him to see the Radiohead concert at the Hollywood Bowl. We remember this group from our high school days but had no clue that they were still making albums, and were shocked to discover that their fan base is so HUGANTIC that front row tickets were going for $10,000.00 each!!!Marty was able to acquire some amazing seats in the Garden section where you can actually order food from a waiter and dine at a small table in your "box". We brought our own pic-nic courtesy of Bristol Farms and got there early enough to watch the diverse LA crowd take their seats....Patricia Arquette, Rob Lowe, Patton Oswalt, and various reality TV stars were amongst the few we spotted.
Once the show began everyone in the sold out audience (except us of course) became entranced, enthralled and raised their hands in praise....it was surreal to see such a spectacle of worship for something as simple as melodic tunes and a catchy light show. I read an online review whose author described the show as "pop narcotic" and went on to say that "Radiohead’s music enters my ears and makes a beeline to the vein that is the tunnel to my heart. They know every twist and turn of that route, and over the course of 25 songs and two encores the band funneled note by note into my body, causing my pumper to pump harder, pushing blood faster to my brain."
The entire course of the evening felt like an out of body experience for me. I kept imagining the scene at Christs return--- the light that will burst from his glory; his voice like the "sound of rushing waters" (Rev 1); every head bowed in awe. I was sad for the crowd of stoned people around me. It was obvious that they desired to worship "something", experience an emotional high. If only they knew that this longing could be satisfied in Christ. As Beth Moore says "there ain't no high like the Most High."
