Radiohead fans flock to Brightwood Park...mistakenly

Photo: Benjamin R. Freed/Washington City Paper

Well, this is...unusual, especially in an age in which everyone and his mother has access to Google Street View. But these folks are clearly solid Radiohead fans who will do whatever the band says to do, without checking first to see if the band and their people are, um, completely wrong.

Benjamin R. Freed reported in Washington City Paper that about 30 Radiohead fans showed up at the Brightwood Park United Methodist Church after being instructed to go to 784 Jefferson Street NW to retrieve a free, limited-edition souveniry band publication.

I assume the people who set up this promotion aren't too familiar with the lay of the land in DC. I can't imagine what address they really meant to give, though. Jefferson Street NW doesn't even have a 784. And it's not like this is a case of "wrong quadrant"; 784 Jefferson St. NE is in the Queens Chapel neighborhood (no more a haven for rock fans than Brightwood is); 784 Jefferson Street SW doesn't exist, and if it did it would be somewhere around the Air & Space Museum Hirschhorn (which is actually Jefferson Drive). The Air & Space Museum Hirschhorn seems like a more Radiohead-ready environment...could that have been where the band meant to send its fans? It's a mystery, as of now...I'm interested in hearing what Radiohead's people have to say about this geographic blunder. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Apparently the correct location was indeed the Hirschhorn, and some of the fans who went to Brightwood did find their way there and retrieved their Universal Sigh.