Radiohead Live
I just had the pleasure of seeing two dynamic veteran bands in the span of a week. Nine Inch Nails tore it up with an amazing show in Connecticut last week, and Radiohead was just phenomenal in an open air venue in Massachusetts on Wednesday. Both bands are now making good use of really elaborate light shows and, in the case of NIN, screens and projections. This was the 5th time I saw Radiohead and i’m rating it as my favorite concert.
The setlist was solid, spanning their career (except for Pablo Honey). What really set it apart from previous shows were the lights (the audience collectively Oooohed during one sequence in Idioteque) and my perception that they were doing new and extra things for each song. For example, Optimistic and Kid A are by no means my favorite Radiohead songs but each had something different (a spastic guitar sequence and backing vocals by drummer phil selway in optimistic and vocal manipulations and sampling in kid a) that really demonstrated to me how masterful and innovative the band is. I even screamed at the end of optimistic…and i never scream.
Every song was a highlight, but i was very pleased to see A Wolf at the Door and Cymbal Rush (the last track on Thom Yorke’s The Eraser) live.
Setlist:
01. Reckoner
02. Optimistic
03. There There
04. 15 Step (very spastic dancing)
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 (Thom messed up on this one and just smiled and shook his head)
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 (played solo on piano)
24. Karma Police
25. Idioteque
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
It sounds like a good one. I’m really disappointed I’m not going to get to see Radiohead this year, especially with the new light show. My understanding is that there’s already new material in the works and they’re looking at releasing stuff in different ways, so hopefully it won’t be another five years before we have some new songs to listen to.