Radiohead are exactly the type of band who would headline a gigantic festival and then, while in whatever town, visit the local vintage-synth noodle factory. So it’s fun to read that while Radiohead were in Austin to headline the Austin City Limits festival this past weekend, they also took the time to visit Switched On, a Austin store that specializes in vintage synths. One Radiohead fan happened to be in the store when the band came in, and the story he’s shared on the /r/Radiohead message board makes the whole thing sound like just about the coolest possible experience:

So, we drove 10 hours to see Radiohead last night at ACL. Third time seeing them, and they were incredible as always. The other reason I was excited to visit Austin was to visit a synth shop called Switched On. I’m an avid modular synth builder/user and there’s not a store like Switched On anywhere near where I live. It’s a pretty niche hobby to say the least.

As I’m working on a patch on their demo wall, I look over my fiancé’s shoulder and see what appears to be Johnny Greenwood jamming on an old ARP. I stand up, draw my fiancé toward me and say “that’s Johnny Greenwood.” As that sets in, I hear the stool I had been sitting on roll up to the case of modules. I turn around, and there’s Thom Yorke, sitting six inches from me and messing around with a couple of modules.

I turn back around to my now-understanding fiancé and say (safely muffled by the numerous sick jams going on all around us), “and that’s Thom Yorke right behind me.”

As I’m saying that, I notice Clive Deamer, Portishead’s drummer that’s currently touring with them, checking out an old Korg.

I also notice I’m wearing my Radiohead shirt.

We stay for a while and listen to the store clerk and Thom talk, playing it cool and just trying to soak up this incredible interaction. Thom walks away and I sit back down to keep testing modules. I was determined not to make this a fan moment, because I knew the most valuable thing I could give him was a normal moment in a synth shop.

I say under my breath to the clerk “this is crazy,” and he just grins.

As I’m patching, I hear “what’s that there?” from over my shoulder, and there Thom is, checking out what I was doing. We talked and patched for about an hour, joking about how esoteric and complicated some synth modules are. He was super interested in the Mutable Instruments Braids. I showed him a couple of my favorites and he said, “see, anything with a grid like that immediately gives me a headache. I’m just a singer, so I can do vocal effects and oscillators, but some of this is too much.”

We looked at a very small dual sampler and he commented “see this is much too small; this one here is the sampler for people with really good glasses.”

It was all like a dream. We jammed a little more. He was at least remotely interested in the music I was making. He bought an Intellijel Metropolis sequencer, and they loaded up Johnny’s sequential circuits prophet into the back of a cab and left. I waved at them and they waved back.

That’s about it. I feel like I’m both here and not here. It was really beautiful and validating seeing my absolute hero geeking out over the same convoluted hobby that I do. We didn’t discuss who they were, we didn’t discuss the show, and we didn’t discuss how I was about to pass out from joy.

I didn’t get a picture, since I’ve heard he’s not crazy about them, but I thought if any community would appreciate this story it would be you, /r/Radiohead.

Side note: I bought some modules we both were using that he left behind, so I finally own some music gear used by Radiohead.

A note to all fans who randomly happen across your favorite artists in the wild: Be like this guy and play it cool. It’s a better experience for all involved.

A photo posted by kitty (@katooine) on Sep 11, 2016 at 11:11am PDT