This past weekend was the Field Day Festival, originally a 2-day camping festival on Long Island that ended up in Giants Stadium. Albany Dan, Ned, Presley, and I, after overcoming severe disappointment upon the relocation, decided that we would partake in the concert. What followed could only be described as sustained misery with occasional bliss:

For starters, Ned's car broke right after picking me up from work. Good timing actually because it happened so soon in the trip, but it was a bump in the road. Presley came up with the great idea of renting a car, so we got on the road a couple hours later just in time to hit rush hour traffic headed out of town! After a couple of hours of driving, the three of us became so bored that we were trying to come up with our own trivia questions to stump one another...nerds. We did have good time hanging out with evil monkey and glendo on friday night(thanks to monkey for letting us crash at her place!).

On to Saturday, the day of the show, we realized that it was going to rain ALL FUCKING DAY. We proceeded to buy some full rain gear which made us look...well picture yourself in rain gear, exactly. After taking a couple hours to leave the city, we finally arrived at our glorious destination: NEW JERSEY! Are you jealous?...We stopped at our hotel, got into full rain clothes and proceeded out into certain wetness. Walking along the highways to get to the stadium and getting our feet completely soaked...this concert better be good.

Now to the concert:

First up was Beth Orton, who was very English and bubbly. She had a very folkish sound and a great voice, so that was a nice start. Next was Spiritualized who absolutely sucked. They had some of the most ridiculous lyrics ("Jesus, when are you comin' round again"); let me just say for the record that JESUS AND ROCK DO NOT GO TOGETHER. What happened to singing about drugs, sex, ex-girlfriends, the road...but I digress. After the guitar/bible thumpers came Underworld, a great techno group. Now I'm not a fan of techno but this stuff I would to dance to, or at least attempt to dance to. The main guy was wearing all black with bright, white sneakers and bouncing around the stage constantly, fun to watch.

Up to this point we had been sitting under the second tier in Giant's stadium, therefore remainng fairly dry. But we decided to to move down closer to the stage to the very edge of the field (this was around 4:30 in the afternoon). Ned's favorite band, Blur, came on next and played for a solid hour. Damon Albarn, the lead singer, began by handing out ponchos to the crowd. He proceeded to sing in the rain for a good part of the set, raising his arms as if to say "bring it on." Damon defintely knows how to charm the crowd. After Blur, we sat waiting for Beck to come on...more disappointment lay ahead.

After watching the roadies setup Beck's stage, we then saw them take it down and replace it with another set. A guy came out to announce that in fact, "Beck took a stumble and had to be rushed to the hospital."...fuck..."but the good news is the Beastie Boys are up next!"...maybe for some people that's good news, I'm not one of them. The Beastie Boys came out and did their show basically bouncing around like a few old farts. Several times they had to stop and figure out the words, they were obviously out of practice. There are a lot of groups that I don't like but I understand why people like them-- the Beastie Boys, I don't get. Every song sounded the same to me.

After the Beastie Boys came an hour wait, during which girls started showing their tits to the camera this made the wait slightly easier to bear. Now on to my favorite band, Radiohead...this would be the culmination of my entire day standing in the cold rain, this would make it all worthwhile...and in fact it did turn out that way.

Radiohead came on with blazing lights and launched right into amazing versions of "There There" and "2 + 2 = 5" off of their new album, "Hail to the Thief." Other highlights were "Exit Music(for a film)", "I Might Be Wrong," and "Just" among many others. They played for almost 2 hours, including an encore with ended with "How to Disappear Completely," from Kid A. This was easily one of the best sets I have ever seen. The best concert I had seen was them 2 years ago at Suffolk Downs and I believe this might have topped it. My toes and fingers had been completely numb when they came on, but their performance gave me real chills. With all of the misery, hassle, and expense that this weekend provided it was Radiohead who made it worthwhile.

A word to those of you considering going to an outdoor concert, if you don't end up seeing the best show of your life, you might be let down.