Over the past ten days, I’ve said a lot of things about Radiohead’s performance at Bonnaroo–none of them here. Maybe it’s because I’ve been busy “live” blogging Desdemona or celebrating my birthday with two of Elephant 6’s finest, but whatever caused it, I’m sorry.

Part of the reason it’s taken me so long is because I’m not sure how to put what I saw into words. If you’ve seen Radiohead, then you probably know about what I experienced; if not, all I can do is hope that you’ve seen Sigur Ros.

I had a lot of expectations going into the Radiohead show. I’d always made a Radiohead performace out to be the end all, be all of my concert-going life. Plus, I had just waited eight hours to get a good spot for their show. By all accounts, I was setting myself up for a major fall.

I’ve always kept a mental list of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. Past four or five it gets a little debatable as my memory gets fuzzy, but I now have no problem identifying my number one best show of all time–it’s Radiohead at Bonnaroo.

Predictable? Too obvious? Yes and yes. But that doesn’t make what I saw any less spectacular.

From the opening “There, There” to the closing notes of “Everything In Its Right Place,” Radiohead’s setlist was perfectly arranged. We all joked about how we “hoped they played [blank],” but I can’t imagine any fan or newcomer having been let down. Even songs I had never been a fan of on the album (”Kid A”) were completely transformed into something both magical and memorable.

I’ve always thought of the members of Radiohead as untouchable pillars of serious dedication and unwavering, humorless focus. While the perfection with which they performed might have reinforced that opinion, their actions certainly didn’t.

The first peek of Thom’s personality came when he joked with us about how we’d have to space out for the next song, but that it’s Bonnaroo and we were all spaced out anyway. During the encore break, audience members started throwing glowsticks on stage. Upon their re-entry, Johnny took two of them and put them in the top of his guitar. Later Thom’s move to the front of the stage would be met with a hail of these very same glowsticks. Instead of getting pissed or unhappy, he actually laughed and started ducking and dodging around, eventually throwing a couple back.

After the show, we retired to the booths to pick up food and return to our base camp. Those who had seen Radiohead before agreed that this was their best performance, while we “virgins” were practically struck dumb.

Was it as flawless as I make it out to be? Probably not. It was a concert by a band, and that’s about the long and short of it. Still, I can’t help but be thankful that I was able to be a part of what happened there. It alone was worth the flat tire, three hour drive, sleepless nights, eight hour wait and no showers for three days; and that’s saying something.