Today, Radiohead kicks off its In Rainbows world tour in West Palm Beach, Florida, which means that D.C.-area fans are mere days away from getting their fix.
The boys from Oxfordshire dispatched a press release today, announcing the launch of a new section on their website: The Most Gigantic Flying Mouth For Sometime. Die hards will undoubtedly note the allusion to the Hail to the Thief-era video series, but this particular announcement has far less to do with warped videos of marionettes and Thom Yorke talking about “petrol” in a pitch-shifted voice. Oh wait — maybe it does have something to do with petrol after all: it’s a website about what Radiohead is doing to help combat climate change while on tour.
According to the release, the band commissioned a report by carbon footprint analysts Best Foot Forward on the environmental impact of its two previous tours. Unsurprisingly, fans driving to the venues was found to account for the greatest amount of carbon generated.
“After the Radiohead commissioned report by Best Foot Forward was published, a lot of questions were asked about the way that we tour,” Radiohead tour production manager Richard Young wrote on the Flying Mouth blog. “The main issue is how the audience moves to and from the show. With the location and public transport links now a more significant factor when choosing venues, fans are being encouraged to think about alternative ways of traveling.” To further encourage fans to take public transit, the band has even launched a carbon calculator, which allows show goers to calculate the amount of carbon they will generate on the way to the show, depending on their chosen mode of transport.
This is all fairly ironic, however, if you consider the fact that there’s really no eco-friendly route to the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, Va. There’s no Metrorail or Metrobus routes that go to the venue whatsoever, as far as we can tell. Driving is just about the only way to get to the Pavilion, which means that the band’s D.C. date is bound to generate a whole lot of carbon despite Yorke and Co’s urgings.
