Here’s a disappointing story from SPIN this week:

Supervisors of Chicago’s brand new, gleaming gem — a Frank Gehry-designed music pavilion within Millennium Park — claim that they want to have more popular music performances, but clearly actions speak louder than words: City officials have vetoed Radiohead’s request to play the venue on June 19 and 20. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago’s Cultural Affairs Department turned down Radiohead’s appeal “even though the group would have paid rental fees of $100,000 — because the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra is scheduled to hold a rehearsal June 20.” And it continues…

“Free public programming is part of the venue’s mission,” a spokesperson for the Cultural Affairs Department said. “We have to support organizations such as the Grant Park Orchestra, but we’re open to other events if there are availabilities at other times” — like a private corporate event for Toyota that cost $800,000 and closed the park to the public last summer. According to the Sun-Times, Radiohead still hopes to return to Chicago this summer regardless of whether or not they can play at Millennium.

I came into my Radiohead phase late in life but quickly absorbed all of their catalog and was one of the 30,000 people at the historic Radiohead concert in Chicago’s Grant Park on August 1, 2001 (photo above)– their first trip to the states in over four years and first tour since releasing their revolutionary Kid A and Amnesiac). I then saw the group on their Hail to the Thief tour in August 2003 at Alpine Valley. Both were Top 20 lifetime concerts.

But the Chicago concert, while hot and crowded, was the most memorable, with a serene intimacy echoed in the venue’s positioning between Lake MIchicago and cityscape with a gaping full moon illuminating both. I have the bootlegs for both concerts, but it was the Chicago energy that set the bar high. This is why the above article is such a dismay — Millennium Park is supposed to have tremendous acoustics and would be the perfect venue for this show.

Nothing like reinforcing classical music fan stereotypes on Chicago’s part. And I recall the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra had a concert in 2001 as well, but both groups played that night to little complaint.