When the Wind has your Back Everyone looks Familiar

It started last Monday. The Culver Den: Sleep gets a call from his sister. Thom Yorke tickets are going on sale at ten o'clock Tuesday morning..

Sleep: Whoa! This is gonna be crazy! I don't think Thom ever toured for his solo project [The Eraser].

Justin: Yeah! Sounds like fun! ..too bad I'm broke.

Sleep: Just try to get some tickets! You know how anything related to Radiohead sells.. you can put it on my card.. Don't worry.

Justin: okay.. if you say everything'll be alright..

Anyway, the next morning, Justin wakes up ten minutes after Sleep calls from an unfamiliar number, and seven minutes before tickets go on sale to the general public. Justin tries and fails to get ahold of Sleep. He tries and succeeds at getting ahold of Thom Yorke tickets, panics, then proceeds to finish purchasing the tickets with money that he'd reserved for food and shelter.. only to find that, due to a paperless ticket procedure, Justin was now obligated to show up in person on the night of the event (sun. oct. 4) to claim the two tickets.

At this point, now, I have two seats at the Sunday night Thom Yorke show and one hundred forty less dollars in the bank.. So I do the only appropriate thing there is to do: call another starving musician, who also happens to be a die hard 'Head' fanatic. In hopes that instead of only one, there would be two morons wallowing in their irresponsible, but everso chivalrous decisions.

Long story, short.. I spend Sunday recuperating from a Saturday night out on the town with the fam.. Croby, Stills and Nash at the Greek.. And after a very frustrating time with the old voice, I meet up with Sleep, Jon (Stinky Pinky), and The Doctor, Chris Yenny back at The Culver Den. We spend some time talking about the possibility of future independent publication endeavors and synthetic opiates. We talk about the moment and maybe making some beats to trade for rent.. And we enjoy Downtown and The Orpheum Theatre. And we enjoy Joey Waronker on drums, Mauro Refosco (percussion), Radiohead producer, Nigel Godrich (utility), and Flea on bass.. And we enjoy Thom Yorke and the band playing The Eraser, in its entirety (not to mention some rare solo performances of old and some new Radiohead songs). I enjoy bumping into Edward Norton and Jon could hardly pull himself together after shaking hands with Colin Greenwood.

It was a night of running, with the wind at our backs. One of those nights when everyone looks familiar and you're just trying not to order another bacon wrapped hot dog freshly grilled on someone's newly converted shopping-cart-stove. And you're doing your best not to order another whisky..