This was not my first Radiohead show. It was my second. I bet not too many can say they had two more radically different experiences. First show was in 1993. Creep was just starting to get heavy rotation on the radio. I went out and bought Pablo Honey because Radiohead was listed as the opening act for the Belly show I had tickets to. I liked it, a lot. So I caught the entire half hour or so where they played about all of Pablo Honey. I won’t lie, I was there to see Tanya Donnelly who I was madly in love with. The most memorable thing about that night though, was Belly’s second encore. It was only one song, Tanya came out with just her acoustic guitar and Thom Yorke. He sang the backup harmony with her on Untogether. It made me weep. Maybe they wouldn’t be a one hit wonder, maybe.
The show wednesday night was not for a very casual kind of fan I wouldn’t think. (does radiohead have casual fans?) It wasn’t a greatest hits retrospective. Thank god. It was, from what I’ve gathered since, not uncommon of what they do on tour. If you were hoping to hear your favorite track from their new record, you were not disappointed. They played all ten. That was just fine with me, I love the new record like fat kid loves cake. Gimmie gimmie. OK, so to be honest again, I would trade you a Videotape or a House of Cards for anything from Hail to the Thief, but no, let me not go there. At the end here is the track list. Judge for yourself. A few things jumped out at me from their selections. First, wow, all of In Rainbows. But also, wow, a whoooole lot of Kid A. If you told me that in advance I would have winced. But live, oh man let me tell you, those Kid A tracks were fucking amazing. National Anthem, Everything in its right place, Optimistic. All amazing.
Also, they kind of abandon the band they were the first time I saw them. They played not one song from Pablo Honey, and only the one from The Bends. Again, I am totally ok with that. The Bends sounded great, but at the same time weird and out of place.
They played the songs I love. Precious Roy was well represented. And how would they end this show, I thought. A band with so many killer end songs. Wolf at the door? They played it, fucking amazing, but that wasn’t the end. Turned out to be Idioteque, which was very surprising at the time, considering all the possibilities. But that is their genius.
One of my favorite things about them has to be the real passion they have for their own music. It’s perfectly clear at all times. Thom Yorke loves the shit as much as we do. He flails like a retarded child, just like us. What really brought that home was Faust Arp, the chilling and sweet love song. He got about three lines into it and got all choked up, had to stop singing, a pained look on his face. He picked it up on the second verse. Sounds like nothing, but it was striking. And really that’s what they sound like, they play like they mean it.
If I had video, if I could share any of it with you, and had to pick one thing, it would be Exit Music. I love that song to death, and watching them do it totally floored me. There are few things I can compare it to: seeing NIN do Hurt that first time in 95, Morphine doing In Spite of Me, Donnelly and York doing Untogether. That’s about it. It was that good. It was out-of-body, don’t-wake-me, did-someone-slip-something-into-my-drink good.
Waiting two hours to get out of the fucking parking lot kinda brought me down to earth in an unpleasant way. But still, it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. Shame on me for letting so many years pass in between.
This was the end of my summer concert tour, and oh what a summer it was. The Breeders made a glorious comeback, if you don’t have their new album, go out and steal it immediately. They rocked. As did REM and Modest Mouse in the rain and lightening. Then it was Nine Inch Nails just last week. Great as ever. Better than ever. My favorite bands all summer leading to this week, my favorite band as a finale. Some glorious nights.
Setlist:
01. Reckoner
02. Optimistic
03. There There
04. 15 Step
05. Kid A
06. Nude
07. All I Need
08. The Gloaming
09. The National Anthem
10. Videotape
11. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
12. The Bends
13. Faust Arp
14. Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi
15. Everything In Its Right Place
16. Exit Music
17. Bodysnatchers
Encore 1
18. House of Cards
19. I Might Be Wrong
20. Paranoid Android
21. A Wolf At The Door
22. How To Disappear Completely
Encore 2:
23. Cymbal Rush
24. Karma Police
25. Idioteque
