Radiohead
Hollywood Bowl
Los Angeles
August 20, 2001

By now, Radiohead operates outside all the rules of the record industry. Having stumped a nervous Capitol Records with the success of the anti-commercial Kid A and having followed it up with an equally devoured Amnesiac, industry execs would be happy if Thom Yorke played a sonata of distorted bodily functions.

The world's greatest rock band touched down on the West Coast to give the last show of their U.S. tour in the beautiful, verdant Hollywood Bowl. "We probably won't be back for a few more years," the half-shaven Yorke told the crowd from the stage, which was futuristic, minimal, and flooded with lights. The show had sold out in minutes (not surprising, since the band has over 1,000 websites dedicated to it). Hollywood stars - Drew Barrymore, Liz Phair, Tommy Lee, et. al. - paraded the backstage area. Royalty recognizes royalty.

From the first chugging chords of "The National Anthem" to the final acoustic strums of the band's third encore, Radiohead proved its enigmatic power over the collective psyche of American misfits. Yorke's plaintive, expressive alto wailed and moaned beautifully through songs like Kid A's "Optimistic" and the technophilic "Idioteque." As a statement of their new dedication to musical riddles, the band played nothing from their straight rock/pop debut, Pablo Honey; most of the songs were swirling, elegiac tech-psych offerings from Kid A and OK Computer (seven songs each), with a few from Amnesiac and 1995's The Bends.

On the guitar or piano, Yorke was playful, occasionally making wry faces into the black-and-white, fish-eye camera that fed the large screens flanking the Bowl. The Greenwood brothers were stellar - whether it was the excitable, dissonant guitar of Jonny or the great high-harmonies from bassist Colin. Odd, sound-twisting instruments were rolled in and out to supplement the bed of thudding psych-rock.

For the third encore, Yorke emerged alone to present the spare, acoustic moment of "True Love Waits," a still-unreleased fan favorite. With total immersion in their own core emotionalism, and enough communicative powers to relay it to the crowd, the beautiful freaks once again proved it's possible to create moaning, symphonic rock that both lures yuppies and freaks them out.

Troy Johnson

SLAMM
05.09.01