If you haven't done so, you should check these guys out: http://www.radiolab.org/

They first caught my attention when I was listening to an episode of This American Life on NPR, which had a Radiolab segment. Instantly hooked. In a nutshell, both their shows remind me of what it feels like to be genuinely entertained. Not by passively being fed garbage in front of a television, but by finding myself asking questions and getting immersed into a story, which rarely happens when you have the attention span of a goldfish. Great stuff, and really put well together. On par with TAL. Which is a pretty high bar. In this decade of cheap thrills, it's always a great blessing to find gems in the rough and tumble that we call the internet (and the radio).

And so I could not contain my excitement when I heard via The Scenestar about a live taping at UCLA's Royce Hall. The first show sold out yesterday, and I was hanging around Ticketmaster's site until they stopped selling tickets at 5pm. I knew there were still seats open in the balcony, so I head to the box office alone. The only other friends who care enough to know who they are, are in SF (hi Kat and Basso) but I had no hesitation to do a solo flight, as usual. It's kinda weird to finally see what you're familiar only hearing. So when I heard the show's opening theme when Jad pressed a button on his monome as they were starting, it brought a real smile to my face.

Zoe Keating did the live scoring and a few numbers during the night. Love her music also, very rich using only a cello and a loop machine to layer her sound. I've seen other artists layer their sound using a loop machine (lucky enough to see John Scofield), but she creates a really complete orchestra and complex textures that you really need to see (and hear) to appreciate. I don't know why I just bought a Radiolab shirt and not her CD, but if she plays again anywhere near soon, I'm totally there.

I'm still amazed at the entire thing. And I didn't even get to write about the theme of tonight's show. I just hope I have my hair parted at the correct side. More on this next time.