Set List
2+2=5
Sit down. Stand up.
Where I End and You Begin
Kid A
Backdrifts
Lurgee
Morning Bell
My Iron Lung
I Might Be Wrong
Sail To The Moon
Paranoid Android
Punch Up at a Wedding
Go To Sleep
The Gloaming
Idioteque
No Surprises
There There
Encore 1
You and Whose Army
The National Anthem
Wolf At The Door
How To Disappear Completely
Encore 2
Airbag
Everything In Its Right Place
A journey that has taken years in the making. Finally, after all this time I’d be going to see, to witness, to pay homage to one of the greatest bands on earth, Radiohead.
We had made the pilgrimage from Phoenix to San Francisco to see them. Yes, part of that trip was for touristy sightseeing, but mostly the reason for the journey were the five lads from Oxford.
We followed the train of cars from SF to Mountainview. It didn’t help it was during rush hour and we were starving. An hour later, we exited on the Shoreline Amphitheater ramp. Another trail of cars and no restaurant in sight, there aren’t enough restaurants in North Cali. We followed the parking attendants to some dirt lot/drainage ditch under some electrical towers.
Like starving ants buffet-ing on a dead bird, we followed a trail of humanity towards the entrance. We stopped to buy the requisite overpriced souvenirs and food (did I mention we were starving?). Two shirts, two personal Red Baron pizzas, an order of garlic fries and a large drink, then it was time to stake our claim in the very steep lawn. Sitting on grass sucks, btw. The people started filling the confines of the Shoreline. They were the usual ‘concert type’ young, hairy and stoned. The sweet smell of ganja lingered in the air mixed with the salt in the breeze. I tried to inhale as much as I could, but alas it didn’t work.
"Are you such a dreamer…?" Thom asked the crowd as the show began with 2+2=5. Unfortunately for us losers in the lawn, we couldn’t see the very well, we had to watch the screens. If I was going to watch TV, I could’ve done it from the comfort of my own house not a backyard with Potsmoke/beer/garlic-fries smell.
Sit down.Stand Up followed, the syncopatic rhythms of this song with it's stop and go build-up "walk into the jaws of hell" sucks the listener inside the autistic mind. The "rain drops, the rain drops, the rain drops..."
The driving bass of Where I end and you begin got the crowd moving about as much as you possibly can at a Radiohead concert. I really enjoyed that performance, my fave's off the new album. Kid A and Backdrifts played as Thom danced around the stage much to the crowd's delight. The band then kicked into old school mode with Lurgee. That was in and of itself a rarity.
Morning Bell A fan favorite, My Iron Lung made the setlist. This song got the crowd into action with the band. Once again Thom slowed it down with the soft piano of Sail to the Moon and Paranoid Android
Punch Up at a Wedding, the bluesy piano song. "I don't know, why you bother, nothing is ever good enough for you." The band followed with: Go To Sleep and The Gloaming (not one of my favorites). The crowd however really started cheering for Idioteque and No Surprises when Thom sang about how the government "they don't speak for us". The newer single There There
After the break, the band began their encore with: You and Whose Army, The National Anthem and Wolf At The Door
We must’ve been close to the airport since about three planes flew over us at an extremely close range. To tell you the truth, that was kind of cool as I thought about the cover of ‘OK Computer’. I don’t think I was the only one as Thom commented after Airbag how it reminded him of the recording session back in '97: "We wondered what fuck is that?".
During you and whose army Thom sat at the piano and stared into the camera giving the crowd and eyeful as he sang.
The calming of How to disappear completely filled the audience with a surreal inner-peace. Such a hypnotic melody and bass-line. Definitely one of the best songs for introspection.
Johnny played the xylophone to No Surprises which brought out the Bics and a few tears as all of us sang along. The biggest cheers of the night came when Tom mourned to: "Bring down the government, they don’t they don’t speak for us." Obviously reacting to the the current Bush administration and it's war policies.
The show wasn't as good as I hoped, too many Kid A and Hail to the Theif songs. Or should I say not enough Bends or OK Computer, but it was good nevertheless. Even an hour away from your hotel, and packed like illegal aliens in a coyote's truck. To witness a Radiohead show is an experience. You are not ‘seeing a concert’ you are encountering the zen that is Radiohead.
relapse
[Laura]
[Laura]
[Placebo 7.11.03]
return
[in a little while i'll be home]
reach
[every you every me]
release
[radiohead]
[radiohead]