Credit: Dasein, Red Elephant
It’s been almost a month since I saw Radiohead play twice on their In Rainbows tour. Why have I held out for so long to deliver a play by play? Writing about Radiohead is a massive undertaking. There’s so much going on in their music that I personally don’t understand and cannot begin to put into words, but it’s something that completely consumes me every time I hear it. In fear of sounding too dramatic, it goes beyond love or admiration of a band. It’s witnessing modern day musical perfection, live. It’s something that anyone with a passion for music can appreciate, even if they don’t necessarily know of them. It is for this reason, and also out of fear of receiving scathing emails of jealousy at my seeing them twice, that I have procrastinated on this piece. But enough is enough. Here is my humble attempt to place you at the whirling feet of Thom Yorke & Co.

I’ve always been a bit hesitant to see the same band twice on the same tour. The Holden Caufield side of my mind envisions cookie cutter performances; bands using similar banter with the audience between songs, and barely changing up their sets. The duplicity could potentially destroy any emotional connection I have with their music. As a person who associates most memories with songs, I cannot afford to let this happen. I’ve avoided the two-show concert the way Dr. Gregory House avoids patients. Until now.

When Radiohead pre-sale tickets went on sale, my friends and I refreshed the W.A.S.T.E. website for over an hour, desperately wanting a chance to hear In Rainbows live. We had an extensive web of communication, using email, phone, texts, and gchats to relay our purchasing status. The result landed me with two tickets to the Radiohead show in Camden, NJ, and two tickets to the show in Boston, MA the very next night after Camden. I love to roadtrip, and after hearing that Radiohead planned on changing up their set lists for each venue, I figured I could make an exception to my above-mentioned concern; especially to hear an album that I haven’t been able to stop listening to since it’s release in October 2007. In Rainbows is epic, much like the brilliant OK Computer.

The six hour drive to the Camden, NJ, show at the Susquehanna Center was well worth it - it was the nicer of the two venues. The concessions were diverse and spread out, offering freshly squeezed lemonade and Hoegaarden on tap. They also had an indoor section that you had to walk through to get to the seats under the pavilion close to the stage. This lobby area housed mixed drink stands, bathrooms with no-nonsense attendants that made bathroom lines nonexistent, and gig posters on the walls displaying every artist who has played the venue. Maybe it was the better sound system, the cheaper merch, or the yawning familiarity of the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA (aka the Boston, MA show, for those who aren’t locals) that made the NJ venue so appealing. See a show there if you have an opportunity, but if you are going to drive six hours for it, don’t drive six hours back afterwards. Don’t make that mistake.

A brief mentioning of the opening act - after the drive, I had waning patience for the seemingly thrown together set of Grizzly Bear. To be fair, though, they were much tighter in Boston, and worth checking out, especially if they hit a small venue near you. Let’s be honest - Radiohead doesn’t really need an opening act.

Both nights when the lights went dark and Radiohead took the stage, the crowd was deafening. Both nights the band members were modest, grinning, intensely focused, and simultaneously having a great time. And both nights, Radiohead’s set list changed significantly. Here is a statistical breakdown for you:

- Each show totaled 25 songs each night; 2 encores, the first encore being 5 songs, the second being 3 songs.
- Each night In Rainbows was played in its entirety. The New Jersey show also included “Go Slowly,”off of Disc 2 of In Rainbows.
- There were 15 additional songs; six of those songs were played both nights (and I was enthralled to hear the duplicates each night).
- 9 songs were unique to each show, the Boston show being slightly more Kid A heavy, and including the unreleased “Cymbal Rush,” which premiered in October 2006, in London.

The light show exceeded expectations, even after an incredible display during their Hail to the Thief tour. The light columns suggested that Radiohead were playing inside an ethereal cage, cut away only in the area where they were performing, as though to include you in their electrically charged solitude. The difference between the Hail tour and this one is that in between this show’s songs, the band had the stage house lights come on, rather than seemlessly going into the next song as they did back in 2004.

Their stage presence, individually and collectively, was unparalleled. Thom rocked his head back and forth to the beats, and moved around the stage in his typical saccadic fashion. You could see him get lost in his mind as the music consumed him. Johnny Greenwood was running around stage, choreographing the blended intricacies of guitar, piano and various mixing machines. Colin Greenwood was set back between two Tibetan flags with his bass, occasionally seen with his hands over his head, attempting to get the crowd to sway back and forth, with a mischievous grin on his face and sniggering. Ed O’Brien was busy singing backup and mixing, while drummer Phil Selway was in the zone, producing ridiculous rhythmic patterns as if it were second nature.

It’s impossible to give you individiual song highlights, because every single song was awesome. What I will do is selfishly pick out the ones that blew my mind. Let’s start with the obvious. “Paranoid Android” was as clear sounding as if you were listening to it on your iPod in a padded room. The guitar chunking when Thom sings, “You don’t remember / You don’t remember” followed by the guitar solo, and the pairing of the spectacular lights, could be the single greatest “rock out” moment of my life.

Credit: My PopRoks

The stripped down piano at the end of “All I Need” was beautifully tragic with Thom’s wailing, and something I wanted to listen to on a live loop for hours. “Street Spirit” and “A Wolf at the Door” were entrancing, Thom belting the notes while his bandmates built on the repetition. “Weird Fishes” was indescribable, and every track off of In Rainbows was engaging and emotional. “Idioteque” had the entire place jumping, fists raised in the air, chanting “ice age coming / ice age coming.” They didn’t play anything from Pablo Honey, but that’s not a criticism. I’m still chasing the holy grail of hearing them perform “Let Down “live, which they haven’t played in years.

Radiohead really cannot be compared to any type of music in the world. They don’t fit a genre, a mold, or the bill when it comes to America’s mainstream airwaves, as big as they are elsewhere. And this is why we love them, because imagine how much harder it would be to get concert tickets.

Set Lists

Camden, NJ

01. 15 Step
02. There There
03. Morning Bell
04. All I Need
05. The National Anthem
06. Videotape
07. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
08. The Gloaming
09. Where I End And You Begin
10. Faust Arp
11. No Surprises
12. Jigsaw Falling into Place
13. The Bends
14. Idioteque
15. Climbing Up The Walls
16. Nude
17. Bodysnatchers

Encore 1
18. House of Cards
19. Lucky
20. Go Slowly
21. Just
22. Street Spirit

Encore 2
23. Reckoner
24. Planet Telex
25. Everything In Its Right Place

Boston, MA
01. Reckoner
02. Optimistic
03. There There
04. 15 Step
05. Kid A
06. Nude
07. All I Need
08. The Gloaming
09. The National Anthem
10. Videotape
11. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
12. The Bends
13. Faust Arp
14. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
15. Everything In Its Right Place
16. Exit Music (For A Film)
17. Bodysnatchers

ENCORE
18. House Of Cards
19. I Might Be Wrong
20. Paranoid Android
21. A Wolf At The Door
22. How To Disappear Completely

ENCORE 2:
23. Cymbal Rush
24. Karma Police
25. Idioteque

Last 5 posts by Holly L. Perry

• Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue Review - October 16th, 2008
• Evangelicals (Middle East Upstairs, Boston, 10/1/08) - October 3rd, 2008
• What Were They Thinking? (Throw Me The Statue - "About To Walk") - October 2nd, 2008
• Weezer (Tsongas Arena, Lowell, MA 9/23/08) - September 29th, 2008
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