November 2003 Archive

A quick browse of the merchandise revealed a load more of bold, brash Hail to the Thief based merchandise, which although looks great on the front of an album, it looks less good with me wearing it. Anyway, I've already got enough Radiohead T-shirts, so we gave them a miss.

The first (and only) support act was Asian Dub Foundation. I hadn't really heard much of their stuff before, but I think they are best described as an Asian version of Rage mixed with the Beastie Boys. They were reasonably good, but not a good choice support act for Radiohead - the crowd didn't really get into it, and ADF's MCs were quite keen on that sort of thing. They finished their set around 7:20pm, giving the roadies about 20mins to sort out the kit, and scale the stage to get the best seats in the house.

The 'head came on about ten to eight, and if the crowd had been subdued for Asian Dub Foundation, they soon rectified that when the band came on. Kicking off with the now customary There There, they immediately had the crowd jumping and singing along. Thom Yorke, dressed in a somewhat hobbit-like jacket and waistcoat, kept the crowd banter to a minimum, while they gave stunning perfomances of half the songs off Hail To The Thief, and an excellent selection of older material, including a soulful Fake Plastic Trees and a huge, album perfect rendition of Paranoid Android. This was contrasted brilliantly with the beautiful Sail to the Moon, only slightly spoiled by a bunch of people who can only be described as dicks, who insisted in shouting Go Thom or words to that effect through half of the song.

At this point the lignting should mentioned. The band had a series of vertical lighting set up (the same ones they had at Glastonbury), which could light up in sections to almost give a giant pixellated video wall behind them. Along with a load of 'normal lights', this gave them a great setup, which I'm sure Mr. Cowley would be proud off.

The band continued their voyage through the last five albums, playing such tracks as Climbing up the Walls, Exit Music (For a Film) and Idioteque. The set was finished off with Idioteque, which is definitely a track to hear live, espcially when you get to see Thom's unique dancing style (look out for ThomTwitch.com, coming to an Internet near you soon.)

After getting a huge applause, the band came back for the first encore. While The Gloaming and Go to Sleep were well received (partically the eerie green backlighting during the gloaming), it was the Bends, which got the biggest response of the night. Bathed in a brilliant swath of orange light, and striking 'rock' poses, Thom sneered has way through the song (where do we go from here, the words are comong out all weird...). Anyone who says Radiohead are depressing obviously hasn't seen them live.

How to follow up the title track of their second album? By playing the ultimate track of that same album. If the bends got the loudest reception of the night, then Street Spirit came in a close second. Perfectly selected to finish off the encore, here was a band who just have such a diverse and high quality back catalogue, they can quite easily play a different set every night, and still have the crowd eating out of their hands.

The band left the stage for the second time of the night, but it wasn't long before they came back, to rapturous applause, to play their final selection of songs. A Wolf at the Door is another great album finisher, and it got a rare live outing. Karma Police, another crowd favourite briefly raised the crowd close to a bends-esque level of euphoria, before they concluded with the opener of Kid A, Everything in Its Right Place. This was extended out and accompanied by a scrolling purple backlight, as each band member left the stage individually, clapping the audience and having clearly enjoyed themselves. As the last two, Ed and Jonny left the stage, the funky purple lightshow had been changing to the message F O R E V E R. We can but dream.

(^*Yeah I know it's called the MEN Arena or something, but I'm an old skool Manchester kid, and Nynex is so much easier to say than M.E.N.)

You'll see it shows the rest of the entry in the main page - isn't that great? Yeah, yeah I know, small minds, small things etc, but you won't believe how long I spent tarting it up today. In addition, comments can also now be viewed inline, by clicking on the » Display Comments link below - go on, try it - I dare you!