Picture I took at Radiohead. Hollywood Bowl, August 25 2008. Life changing event. My Radiohead story goes a little bit like this…. (I love telling it so those of you who know me well hve probably already heard it)
-Introduced in 6th grade. Never cared for them outside of High and Dry and Karma Police.
-Heard a clip of Karma Police on KROQ in late August 2008 and decided to give OK Computer a fair shot. Heard Paranoid Android and went a little bit crazy.
-Noticed Chris Walker’s facebook status on the 24th said he snuck into Radiohead at the Hollywood Bowl…asked him about it.
-Was sent the following message:
“well you my friend are in luck because Radiohead also plays tonight.
How to get in:
1. Wait till it gets completely dark (you will miss the support act but whatevs)
2. Go to the Refreshment Building (its right next to the ticket box office in that courtyard area)
3. Go along the path to the left of the refreshment stand that leads back to the stacked parking
4. Going along the path and looking to your right (to the base of the hill), about 25 ft past the refreshment stand, you will notice a spot where the concrete braces supporting the hill end and there is just ivy and a water drainage troth - This is where you will climb up the hill.
5. Wait on the path until not very many people are watching and dash straight up the hill.
6. After climbing up through the forest, you will find yourself right below the railing that lines the main path around the bowl
7. Try to scope out the employee situation before running up to jump over the railing (which is only like 3 ft high)
8. When the moment seems opportune, run up to the railing, jump over it, and run into the crowd so that any employees that might have saw you lose you in the crowd.
And thats it, from there you just walk into the bowl like you have tickets.
A couple words of advice:
-No more than 3 people
-Park for free at the top of highland on a residential side street, ride your bikes down the bowl, and lock them somewhere - its so easy and fast to get to and from the bowl its ridiculous.
-Try not to fuck up and be seen by employees while jumping the railing because its only a matter of time before the bowl posts security along that route.
Good luck. Seriously go tonight, its an incredible show. “
-So at registration the next morning I tell Spencer Chase and Mike Knopf about my plan. They are on board and we make some arrangements. I go to summer school (ugh), get picked up by Sp.ace, and we are on our way.
-We get to the spot. Sketchy as a mother fucker. None of us have the balls to go first because tons of casual bystanders are next to us. Some random guy who looks like a mountain goat climbs up the wall and we are out of time. So we go. And we all experience the most terrifying adrenalyne rush we’ve ever felt, possible the greatest one of our entire lives. We run. Up a hill. People are watching us. We are very exposed. Eventually, after what feels like both a split second and a decade, we make it to the top of the hill and have some casual fans help us hop over a gate when security isn’t looking. And we’re in.
-The show is great, they play Optimistic second which seals the deal. Bam. I’m a fan. We hop over some walls and chairs (Spencer eats shit on some 25 year old girl on the way over) and we wind up right behind the pit section for Karma Police and Idioteque.
-I go home absolutely incredulous.
