CONCERT HIGHLIGHTS: Radiohead @ Comcast Center 5/29/2012

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This one was personal. Radiohead has been my life soundtrack, old reliable and all-around feel-good music since I started actually putting on headphones. This band powered me through seemingly endless study sessions in high school and college, comforted me during transcontinental transportation mishaps, and motivated me during any summer job I had. This concert was more of a life event than just another show.

Radiohead does not let down at their live show. Each band member builds off one another, as frontman Thom Yorke, lead man Jonny Greenwood and utility man Ed O’Brien switch between guitar, vocals, piano, synthesizer, organ and appliance. Additional touring drummer Clive Deamer augments the thundering rhythm section comprised of drummer Phil Selway and bassist Colin Greenwood. The double drum kit setup is especially fun in the more rhythmic numbers off of their most recent release The King Of Limbs.

There are qualities to their live show that are not there in studio: bridges and transitions in “Morning Mr. Magpie” and “There There” build up with driving intensity; delicate ballads such as “Give Up The Ghost” shush and lull the audience into polite silence. It is still interesting to see how the band divies up the instrumentation in abstract and avant-guard songs off of Kid A and Amnesiac. My favorite live songs, though, are those with the triple guitar assault; “Weird Fishes”, “Lucky”, and “Morning Mr. Magpie”.

Highlights:

  • Most danceable numbers: “15 Step”, “Myxomatosis” and “Everything In Its Right Place”.
  • Cool thought: At this show, these songs instigated multiple girls into a bogey; if any of them were played at a college party they would clear the dance floor.
  • Crowd variety: As expected, there were plenty of hipsters, but also a mix of bros, hippies and artsy-looking folks. It is refreshing to see how a band as weird as Radiohead appeals to such a broad cross-section of people.
  • Crowd devotion: After playing the first few seconds of any song during the night, the crowd would roar with appreciation as they realized what song was about to unfold. It is so nice to be at a show where the crowd is not just there for the “hits”.
  • Improved back-up vocals: Ed O’Brien sounded much better since the 2008 In Rainbows tour on the back-up vocals, especially on “Weird Fishes” and “Lucky”.
  • Happy with the setlist: I was glad they played “Lucky” and “Pyradmid Song”, two numbers I did not quite expect.
  • Still on wishlist: “Little By Little” and “Go To Sleep”.
  • Setlist disappointment: I wish they did not play “The Gloaming”; that song is a bit of a cop-out. Also there were no songs off of sophomore release The Bends.
  • New songs played: “The Daily Mail”, “Staircase”, “Supercolider”, “Identikit”. The first two, thankfully, are on their From The Basement album, so I was prepared.
  • Band exits: A jovial Thom Yorke deeply bowed after the 2nd encore. Ed placed his hands together and gestured toward the crowd numerous times as they exited the stage.

Setlist:

  1. Bloom
  2. 15 Step
  3. Airbag
  4. Staircase
  5. The Daily Mail
  6. Myxomatosis
  7. The Gloaming
  8. Separator
  9. Pyramid Song
  10. Weird Fishes
  11. Morning Mr. Magpie
  12. Identikit
  13. Lotus Flower
  14. There There
  15. Feral
  16. Idioteque
  17. Supercollider*
  18. The National Anthem*
  19. Lucky*
  20. Everything In Its Right Place*
  21. Give Up The Ghost#
  22. Bodysnatchers#
  23. Reckoner#
* Indicates first encore.
# Indicates second encore.

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