Radiohead roar at Roseland

Radiohead blew minds in 1997 with OK Computer; then did it again in 2000 with Kid A; then told us in 2007 that we could pay whatever we wanted for their new album, In Rainbows; in February, they sold their latest album, The King of Limbs, at a flat and inexpensive rate. The band rarely does interviews, especially in America, and rarely does much to promote itself outside the cult-like legion of fans they have around the world.

So, when Radiohead first announced they were going to be on the season opener of Saturday Night Live, New Yorkers took it as a big deal, camping out for days hoping to get in. The band then announced they would be doing a one-hour special on satirical late-night comedy programme, The Colbert Report, and just last week they announced two intimate shows at New York’s legendary Roseland Ballroom. Aside from their guerilla Glastonbury set this past June, these would be the band’s only live performances of 2011 and only US appearances for the year.

Tickets went on sale on Monday and those fortunate enough to get in were the luckiest people in the music world: the two dates sold out in less than ten minutes. The anticipation was high on Wednesday, the first of two nights, as fans wondered what the band would play; what the stage would look like; and for how long they would play.

By Thursday, after reports had flooded in almost immediately after Wednesday night’s show, the only question going in was, how will they outdo themselves? Playing nearly the same set list both nights, Radiohead still found a way to take the crowd to places they have never been.

 

Arriving on stage just after 10pm, the band opened with ‘Bloom.’ Thom Yorke sang ‘don’t blow your mind with why,’ the final line in the first chorus of the song and a good way to sum up everything about this band. Don’t try and think too hard, just let it happen, let them do their work and enjoy it, and once you do that, the experience will leave you speechless.

With a list of songs that focused heavily on the band’s last two albums, they sprinkled in songs from Kid A, ‘Like Spinning Plates,’ from Amnesiac, ‘Subterranean Homesick Alien,’ from OK Computer and ‘Myxomatosis,’ from Hail to the Thief. What was clearly omitted was work from the band’s early days of Pablo Honey and The Bends, as well as the band’s biggest hits from OK Computer.

Under a rack of LED rods and lights, Yorke danced around onstage with his hair coming loose from his ponytail; he seems relaxed and comfortable in front of room full of eyes gawking at him. Most impressive is multi-instrumentalist and virtuoso Johnny Greenwood: watching him switch from drums, guitar, piano, homemade mixers, bass and computerized contraptions projecting bizarre sounds, it is as if he is Mozart for the jilted generation.

With support from an additional drummer, Clive Deamer, every blip was heard, every part of Colin Greenwood’s bass was felt, and every distant sound was audible. This band sound as brilliant in concert as they do listening to them with a good pair of headphones.

If these concerts are any indication of what Radiohead will be doing on the road in 2012, start queuing up now. It will be worth the wait.