There's a Jewish tradition saying that there are fourteen truly righteous men in the world at any given time, for whose sake alone God keeps the universe going. I doubt I'm one of these fourteen, but I'd like to nominate someone else for the position: Thom Yorke. I can't make any claims about his righteousness, which I'd suppose is no better than average, but halfway through last night's concert, perhaps around the time Radiohead played the song "Kid A," I had the sudden sense that this peculiar, elfin man's soul was somehow keeping the planet on its axis.

In other words, Field Day was well worth the fuss, and in the end, it was all about Radiohead. I'm not sure if this would have been the case if Field Day had gone off as planned. It was supposed to be a weekend event with three dozen performers and exhibits on hundreds of acres, but it ended up as a rainsoaked megaconcert at Giants Stadium that really felt like a Radiohead show with seven opening acts. There was little doubt about whom most of the crowd had come to see, and most of the other acts seemed to sense this. At the end of her set, which was about eight hours before the end of the concert, Beth Orton complimented the crowd for staying in spite of the rain, noting, "You must really like Radiohead!"

Other random comments: Blur rocks. It was great to see Liz Phair, whom I've loved since early adolesence, even if her set was somewhat perfunctory. The crowd gave an enormous cheer at the line in "No Surprises" when Yorke sings "Bring down the government / They don't speak for us." The only problem with the Radiohead-as-Beatles analogy is that the evolution of the Beatles was clearly the result of two or three extraordinary personalities and their artistic interactions, while Radiohead seems to be following Yorke at every step. I could be wrong about this. But it's amazing how much sense Radiohead's catalog makes in concert, scrambled set list and all, when Yorke decides to channel it.

Unfortunately, Beck didn't perform, apparently because he slipped and fell backstage at some point. (It was quite rainy.) It's a shame, because I finally bought Sea Change the other day, and it's beautiful. I recommend it highly. It's the sort of CD that makes me glad that I'm as hollow and emotionless these days as an empty pot, because otherwise, if I'd somehow discovered it a year and a half ago, it would have broken my heart and ended up on a much of ill-considered mix tapes.