On their way to Coachella last week, Radiohead unintentionally delivered this challenge to all other performers who will play the Santa Barbara Bowl this year:  let’s see you top this!  The primary contender to attempt the challenge hits town this Sunday when the big-banded Bon Iver will bound onto the stage at the Bowl (a quantum leap from their last show in Santa Barbara a few years ago at Muddy Waters).  Their eponymous 2011 album was our second-ranked album of the year (behind Radiohead’s The King of Limbs naturally).  After two sequential Saturday shows at Coachella, a clean-shaven Justin Vernon, heavily underrated multi-instrumentalist/singer S. Carey, Canadian sax colossus Colin Stetson, and a multitude of other great players in the band will try to knock Radiohead off its pedestal.  We can’t wait.  In the interim, check out Bon Iver below performing three songs at Coachella last Saturday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHikJ3LDA0A&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSgXXf_VQT8&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX97hfbYHYA&feature=relmfu