Radiohead/ Kid Koala/ Beta Band,
Hollywood Bowl
Los Angeles
August 20, 2001

Radiohead is a band who many hate. His voice is too whiny or his lyrics are too depressing are the usual reasons. However, for those who can see Radiohead's greatness, they worship them. It's almost a cult. Thus, with the opportunity to see the boys themselves up close (the venue was General Admission), the line began to form since early in the morning as their fans made sure to get a close spot to the stage. In fact, the line got so big before doors were set to open that the venue opened doors half an hour earlier. The Beta Band came on stage with no big entrance half an hour before the original show was set to start. They said hello, and quickly began to play. While at first, the crowd kept yelling out "Radiohead" in total dismiss for The Beta Band, claps and cheers overcame the setting as songs like "Broke" brought out their amazing musicianship with their use of two drum sets for the song's precious end. All in all, the only fault of their set, was the very short length (30 minutes). Lead Singer Steve Mason quickly said, upon announcing their last song to "complain to the management." He should have said how!

While The Beta Band was playing, few people were seated and most were arriving. Nobody could really appreciate the Beta Band’s greatness for this show. Not only was the public bad, but the band could not gather any energy from the show. It came to my attention that it is rather difficult to gain any momentum when you have a singer who switches instruments so often. The band was highly placing their emphasis on their music rather than on the stage show. While they certainly did not impress many people, they did have a few high points such as the amazing drumming sequence in “Broke” as well as “The House Ending” which ended their show in rather good terms.

A true surprise for this show was Kid Koala. Most of the crowd was already there when Kid Koala took the stage. He started with a very nicely done scratch on a jazz song. He continued to amuse the crowd with different innovative tricks as well as a very well thought out selection of phrases and his own take on Radiohead’s song “Pullkpull Revolving Doors” from Amnesiac.

Radiohead took on the stage very quickly and to almost everyone’s surprise. The light show was spectacular. Radiohead took the crowd to another world as they soared through “The National Anthem.” Sound effects of fading in and out from the speakers made this a very intimate performance as Thom Yorke managed to find a way to whisper into every fan’s ear. Jonny’s technical work and guitar work were superb. Everything in the show was absolutely astounding. While Thom Yorke did not talk for most of the show, as the band was extremely dedicated to their music, there was a much deeper connection with him during “You and Whose Army.” It is characteristic of Thom to show a camera at his piano where the crowd can see his face while he almost eats the microphone. However, for “You and Whose Army” Mr. Yorke made certain endearing faces towards the camera including some winks as the crowd laughed away in pure joy. After their 2 encores, the crowd did not move and just cheered for more. Ultimately, Thom Yorke came out and protested to the crowd for not letting him leave to get drunk. With this wonderful last comment, he sang an acoustic version of “True Love Waits” which finished the most spectacular rock show this humble reviewer has ever seen.

Arturo Perez

Kludge Sound
08.01