Radiohead
Coachella Festival
Indio
May 1, 2004

Rock bands powerful enough to cause an oversized audience of screaming fans to literally erupt with the awe-inspiring sights and sounds of rock and roll music, are in essence a drift of the past. In the 90s, bands of this approach were becoming a long forgotten concept usually bringing to mind aging rock stars and faded dreams. Today on the other hand when a music lover demands that sense of complete and total satisfaction that comes from being surrounded by hoards of people equally prepared to be mind-numbed by a live act, the experience and comfort can simply be provided by a band known as Radiohead. Five mild mannered and soft spoken lads off the stage, Radiohead assume the roles of musical tyrants on the stage, commanding as they go and cramming every bit of their sonic thunder into your soul.

Walking out onto the main stage of the Coachella Festival on a 107 degree day deep in the Southern California dessert, Radiohead were awaited by 50,000 burning up fans. Singer Thom Yorke moved front and center and cracked a brilliant smile as he paused to survey the fleshy landscape and suddenly the air felt cool. Whereas the desert they were in had spiritually become the setting to the original Woodstock, Radiohead had become the epicenter of everything anyone wanted to do with themselves that day. Radiohead began and ended this last show of an inter-continental tour on an even plane ensuring that a constant stream of energy would hit the crowd. While on this tour the band have been pulling aged cuts from their unmatched stock of rock/electronic masterpieces; even the single that once pigeonholed Radiohead as one hit wonders but nevertheless that made them famous, "Creep", occasionally reared its head to audiences and did as well that evening in the desert.

As a headlining act, having a group of your idols, The Pixies, actually take the stage before you must be an extraordinary yet rewarding experience and such was the case for Radiohead at 2004’s Coachella bash. Thom Yorke made reference to this just about ironic situation by putting in the picture, "When I was in college, it was the Pixies and R.E.M. that changed my life". Props to the Pixies for supporting a band they influenced and also for having changed a soon-to-be rock star’s life back in his college days.

Eleven years after the release of their debut album Pablo Honey, Radiohead still stand strong enough today to effortlessly secure the headlining slot amid a line up of more than 70 of "today’s" bands. Nonetheless, accompanied by this incident of triumph, when the band left the stage at Coachella they also left the question: where is Radiohead at now and what are they are going to do next? Guitarist Ed O’Brien recently stated that the band is "recharging their batteries" before they plan another album or tour. Interestingly enough, Radiohead "recharging their batteries" could always leave time for a possible career path that has been rumored for a while, a solo album by Thom Yorke as well as solo projects by other band members.

Chemistry is everything in a band and haphazardly pumping out another set of material in order to please the masses could easily damage that chemistry. Branching off and taking the Wu Tang route of solo projects may be the next logical step for Radiohead. Guitarist Johnny Greenwood sort of got the ball rolling in this direction by writing music on his own for a film called Body Song, causing many to wonder who is next to detach and what will the result be.

Radiohead have hit a wearisome point in their career where they are teetering atop a body of arguably the most significant music of the past 10 years. Though in typical Radiohead fashion, their future will likely remain uncertain and mysterious as clues and speculation of what lies next pop up occasionally on fan sites. Whatever move the band makes though, one can be certain of two things: Radiohead will either yield another record of material sure to be unlike anything else we have heard, or this one of a kind band will have left long-time devotees with a catalog of music unparalleled by any other artist.

Dan Masek

Slap
10.04