Radiohead
9 out of 10 - Simply Amazing. Can't wait to see 'em again.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Madison Square Garden
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I don’t think I’m capable or writing an unbiased Radiohead review, so forgive me if I come across about as fair and balanced as the election coverage on Fox News. I recently saw Radiohead perform at the theater in Madison Square Garden. It was my second time seeing them, and though it may not have been as mind-blowing as the first, it made me think. In general, I don’t believe thinking during a concert is a good thing. A good concert should be an organic experience in which the self is seamlessly melted into the whole of the audience. Thinking too much is distracting. And when what’s happening on stage is so complex and interesting, it’s best not to be distracted.
It was an incredible show. Though I personally would say that about any Radiohead show since 1995, so lets say it’s a 9 out of 10 for any band, and about 6.5 for a Radiohead concert. Thom Yorke has a stage presence that no other artist can truly replicate (no matter how hard Chris Martin may try). He flops and grooves like nobody’s watching, and the crowd loves it. Jonny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien are both guitar shredders that also know when to take it down a notch. Jonny has a tendency to play some obscure instruments during the show, but always for the sake of the music, not kitsch. When he plays the guitar with a violin bow, he makes you believe that a guitar was always meant to be played with a violin bow. Colin Greenwood and Phil Selways’ bass and drums are the solid driving force that holds the songs together with rhythms both steady and complex.
The theater at MSG has the feel of a college auditorium, and a lesser sound quality (at least where I was sitting, my friend sitting right behind the soundboard said it sounded great). It’s intimate enough that if someone shouted loud enough you could hear him pretty much anywhere in the theater, a fact made clear when Jonny waved to a fan towards the back who wouldn’t stop screaming his name. The crowd was into it from the very beginning, cooled off a bit during some of the many new songs, but was generally solid throughout. As the opening music subsided (which was some awesome techno/hip-hop I had never heard before, anyone know what it is?), and the speakers played a remixed Brahms piece off of the local classical radio station, there was a tangible thrill in the air. Then the lights came up on Thom sitting alone at a piano, with the piano’s perspective shown on angular video screens behind the stage. He played the first chords of “You and Whose Army” and the crowd uniformly shifted from audible anticipation to awed silence, punctuating the song with small contained bursts of hooting and applause. The rest of the band joined in one by one as the song escalated into rock territory. They maintained that intensity as they went straight into “The National Anthem,” probably their hardest-edged song this side of The Bends. The relentless bass-line and wailing guitar were peppered with odd bits of canned sound, mostly out-of-place dialogue and bursts of violin, making for an altogether frenzied effect.
Yorke spoke to the crowd for the first time, saying only “New York City, New York City,” before playing three new songs out of the next four. The first, “15 Step,” is soulful and jazzy (in a distinctively Radiohead way) and has a beat that left a clapping New York crowd so befuddled that they quit after about 30 seconds. “Arpeggi” is the sound of a pleasant battering, like the score of a dream sequence involving a car chase. The last in this spate of new songs is “Videotape,” similar to “Arpeggi” in its lilting piano that somehow makes for troubling easy-listening.
The new songs were interesting to hear, but there’s a different level of excitement when you hear the first few notes from an old favorite. There is also something to hearing songs removed from their perfectly produced context. For instance when “Kid A” is stripped of its lullaby synth and distorted vocals it reveals what a well-crafted song lies beneath. They played the OK Computer album track “Climbing Up the Walls” as a bass-heavy menacing sneer. Instead of the dystopian paranoia evoked on the album, the live version climaxes in a guitar battle that’s more angry than alienated.
After those two and a frankly underwhelming “Fake Plastic Trees”, they played another two songs from the next album. “Nude” has been around on their live set for years, it’s also sometimes called “Big Ideas (Don’t Get Any).” Though in the past it has been more of a heart-broken piano ballad, they jazzed it up a bit this time, robbing it of its emotional undercurrent. Along with “Videotape,” “Arpeggi” and the excellent and demure “House of Cards” it sounds like the next album might be a little more approachable and easy listening than the past ones have been. I wouldn’t say that Radiohead is Californicating on us just yet though. These are still early versions of tracks that may not even make it onto the album. Also there are some harder to swallow new songs like “Bangers and Mash” and “Bodysnatchers.” The first of those two is an unremarkable stop-and-go, well, mash. But “Bodysnatchers” is an exciting and varied blitz wrapped around a riveting bass-line, that’s been dancing around my head for a week.
The best thing I can say about “Bodysnatchers” is that it fit seamlessly into the meat of the setlist. In a stretch that covered all of their major albums since The Bends, they played “Idioteque,” followed by “There There”, “Street Spirit”, “Bodysnatchers”, “Lucky” and “I Might Be Wrong.” I would consider myself lucky if I attend another concert this entire year that packs the same punch that Radiohead put into these six songs. Thom sang the first verse of “Idioteque” a little harshly, then said “Hold it” and decided to start again, this time a little softer and more frightened. Ed’s backing vocals were particularly good when they kicked in. And when they reached the verse “Ice age coming” the crowd just lost it, screaming along with every word as the band kicked into a higher gear. Jonny’s guitars sounded like sirens in the apocalypse, which continued long after the vocals ended. I can’t tell you how much longer because at some point during the song I completely lost my mind and I don’t think I recovered until midway through a flawless “There There.” Though “There There” was not the emotional highlight, it may have been the best technical song of the night, with everyone hitting the right notes, vocals, guitar, drums, audience, sound, lights, visuals, dance, etc, all coming together exactly as it should have. Then as the first notes of “Street Spirit” played I let out an unconscious squeal that might have been more fitting for a teenage girl at an ‘NSYNC show in 1999. It is remarkable how well they are able to link songs from such disparate albums together in the live show so seamlessly. “Bodysnatchers” is my favorite of the new songs, and I think an audience favorite too.
The barrage of great tunes continued with “Lucky.” The no-holds-barred performance combined sonic guitar power with raw emotion and reminded me why I became a Radiohead fan to begin with. “I Might Be Wrong” had a funky edge to it that begged the audience to dance, and they dutifully obliged. Thom thanked the audience for listening to the new songs, which was very gracious of him, and they closed out the first set with “Down Is the New Up.” It sounds like a dancehall “Punch-up at a Wedding” with some extra bits of “Paranoid Android” outtakes thrown in for good measure.
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