ARTICLE BY GREG CARUSO
PHOTOS BY TANYA IBARRA
AUG. 25 | HOLLYWOOD—“The greatest band in the world.”
“The lights!”
“Life changing.”
Those are just a few comments you could hear as you walked through the crowd at the Hollywood Bowl tonight. The statements seemed to reiterate the fact that no matter who you are, or what genres of music you may listen to, Radiohead is a band to be respected for their enduring and consistently impressive career. The band knows exactly what they’re doing in terms of creating their music and entertaining their fans. Spanning their entire catalog, with the exception of Pablo Honey, Thom Yorke, the spastic genius that he is, along with Johnny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway, simply annihilated the sold-out crowd with hits and rarities, totaling a whopping 27 songs over two hours.
Though the evening started a bit slowly, it wasn’t disappointing at all. Openers “Reckoner,” “Optimistic” and “There There” set forward a hypnotic calmness that washed over the crowd. The lush arrangements and lyrics of “15 Step” had the crowd chanting along, “Etcetera, etcetera,” as heads bobbed and arms swayed. During “All I Need” and “Pyramid Song,” one could say the band’s roadies were some of the hardest working, as they continuously brought on and off stage all the instruments needed for Radiohead’s intricate music. “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” was perfectly executed, not only by Thom’s heart-wrenching wails, but Phil’s consistent and rhythmic drumming that made everyone swoon. After “The Gloaming” and “Videotape,” the Bowl was treated to the sounds of “Talk Show Host,” a live favorite, and “Faust Arp,” segueing into Neil Young’s “Tell Me Why,” which had the crowd reeling with glee.
Light shows can be either visually stimulating, overbearing or work hand in hand with the music. The latter was the case for Radiohead’s light setup. Placed above the band were about a hundred LED poles that reflected the lights around the stage perimeter and, in turn, lit up with absolute fluidity. Throughout the evening, we saw every color of the rainbow in flashing detail, while the background screen would sometimes coincide with the poles in an extremely tripped out manner. The main set of the evening concluded with the crowd singing along to “No Surprises,” shaking asses to “Jigsaw Falling Into Place,” fist pumping to “The Bends,” convulsing to “National Anthem,” embracing to “Nude” and jumping up and down to “Bodysnatchers.”
The evening’s first encore began with the epic “House of Cards,” which was definitely a new favorite for most of the crowd tonight, given the fact that those around us knew the lyrics word for word. The opening chords of “Planet Telex” had the crowd up in arms, while the Greenwood brothers destroyed us with the tones emanating from their instruments. The one low point of the evening was “Go Slowly,” a track from the In Rainbows bonus disc that seemed out of place in an otherwise escalating first encore. What could be said about “Fake Plastic Trees”? Obviously one of the band’s most revered songs, it was performed by Radiohead in the same regard. And for the first time during this tour, the band brought out of the vaults “True Love Waits,” a song featured only on I Might Be Wrong, the band’s live release. Capping off the first encore was “Everything in Its Right Place,” featuring its ever familiar droning opening.
For the final encore of the evening, the band played “Cymbal Rush,” a tune from Thom’s solo album, The Eraser. It was followed by the double whammy of “Karma Police” and “Idioteque,” both of which brought the Bowl to a near fatal massive coronary on an epic scale. We don’t know when we will next see Radiohead, which is why it was important to not miss out on them this time around. Will it be another two years? Four? It’s up to them, but at the end of the day, they can do whatever the hell they want. They are Radiohead after all, and their fans will always love and support them in whatever they decide to do.
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