Thom Yorke
Shoreline Amphitheatre
Mountain View
October 26, 2002

Rating: 4/5

Thom Yorke takes the stage slap-bang between LeAnn Rimes and James Taylor as part of Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit concert. Talk about fish out of water. But with eight songs, an acoustic guitar, and a "lend" of Young's piano, there's enough otherwordly energy for fans to forget that his Radiohead mates are an ocean away. He focuses on Kid A and Amnesiac, but treats the crowd to OK Computer's "Lucky", Young's "After The Gold Rush", and a pair of new songs - the fragile piano-based "Sail To The Moon", as dedicated to San Francisco peace marchers, and the nearly-straight-ahead rocker, "There There". He glows, he howls, he hypnotises. And Rimes fans scurry for the exit.

Verdict: Thank God for bootlegs. This is definitely one to keep.

Neal Weiss

Q
28.10.02