R A D I O H E A D: Live in Atlanta

[Josh]

Wheeeeeeeeeeeew boy!

What a show! Radiohead was absolutely astonishing last night. Thom was a total madman, every band member amazed me with their skills as musicians, and the setlist found the perfect balance: they worked in plenty of surprises without making any of their fans upset.

Check out some of the curve balls in this setlist:

01 the gloaming
02 there there
03 2+2=5
04 where i end and you begin
05 exit music
06 morning bell (Kid A version... what a surprise!)
07 myxomatosis
08 paranoid android
09 in limbo (WHAT THE HECK?!? Thom: "Well, that was worth a try, anyway.")
10 sail to the moon
11 creep
12 scatterbrain ( :zoinks: )
13 go to sleep
14 i might be wrong
15 idioteque
16 you and whose army? (WOOO HOOOO!)
17 sit down. stand up

Encore #1:
18 no surprises
19 national anthem
20 a wolf at the door (WOOOO HOOOO!)
21 fake plastic trees


Encore #2:
22 airbag
23 everything in its right place
 
I'll have a full review up someday...

[bloop]

That's a great setlist.  Opening with "The Gloaming"...who would have seen that coming?  It isn't a typical opening song for them at all.  I like that they are breaking out "Creep" again from time to time.

Did Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks open for them at that show, or was it just Radiohead?  I like Malkmus (and Pavement in particular), so I'm just wondering.

[murlough23]

GREAT setlist. (Well, besides "Wolf" and "Scatterbrain"... and "In Limbo"... hey, when a band plays that many songs, I ain't gonna complain!)

How was the atmosphere? What was the crowd like? Does Radiohead use any visuals or interact much with the crowd, or do they generally let the music speak for itself? These are factors that affect whether I will ever attend a Radiohead show.

[bloop]

(Well, besides "Wolf" and "Scatterbrain"... and "In Limbo"... hey, when a band plays that many songs, I ain't gonna complain!)

"Wolf" and "Scatterbrain" are both good live, and at least Josh and I think "Wolf" is good, period (with the early bootlegs from Portugal and Spain, it was the first track to catch my attention).  Very Bob Dylan-esque.  I also like that the song quotes liberally from Beethoven.

I don't have "In Limbo" on any bootlegs, and they didn't play that at the show I went to back in the day.  I still think "In Limbo" works on the album, but I think of it as more of a dizzying ride than a song, hence my voting it off very early in the Rh thread.  (some people say "Treefingers" is its equivalent to "Fitter Happier"...I think "In Limbo" is and "Treefingers" is a whole other beast).

To respond to your questions, I went to a show on the the tour in support of Amnesiac.  Generally, the crowd was excited but polite . . . not much head-butting, you know.  The only complaint here is that there was many joints.  I see it as an insult to the band if you smoke marijuana...it's like saying the music isn't enjoyable unless you're high.

If I remember, they had cameras and a screen to show closeups and so forth during the concert.  They also have a light show during concerts, and it is very well done.  They interact with the crowd on some songs, but for the most part, the band is in their own world on stage.  

Thom is either completely subdued, eyes shut, or in a state that can best be described as catatonic (see "Idioteque" on SNL).  Jonny gets very into his guitar playing, or whatever instrument or gadget he is on, so he doesn't really interact much...just kind of bops his head a lot.  He's a monster on guitar, though.  Colin, the bass player, likes hopping.  Ed probably interacts with the crowd about as much or maybe a little more than Thom.  The drummer is the drummer...hidden behind the kit.  That's how that usually is.

[murlough23]

"In Limbo" gives me a headache. I appreciate that attempt to have different members of the band playing in different time signatures and all, but it's like the aural equivalent of one of those magic eye things that gives me eyestrain. (Tool does a much better job of this in their song "Lateralus".) And I've heard live versions... essentially the same as the album, except it doesn't explode into weird electronic noise at the end. You're not missing much.

And I agree with you about the marijuana. Doesn't sound like it could have possibly been worse than the Dave Matthews concert I went to (I think every hippy on Earth must have been in attendance, especially since Widespread Panic was the opening band), so I could probably tolerate it.

[murlough23]

they worked in plenty of surprises without making any of their fans upset.

I find it ironic that one of the surprises was "No Surprises". I had heard that the band had taken a hiatus from playing that song live.

[bloop]

"In Limbo" gives me a headache.

It's never bothered me in this way to be honest.  I'm good with Magic Eye, too.  

"Lateralus", the song and the album, are very good...I have to add that.  I'm not sure that I'd try to compare it to "Kid A" or "In Limbo" in particular, though.  Tool are Radiohead are specialists in very different things.

*edit*  put up the revised final round in the Radiohead best-of disc.  Josh, you planning on doing one for U2?

[oneafroboy]

U2!  =D

(Another superfluous post by yours truly.)

[murlough23]

It's never bothered me in this way to be honest.  I'm good with Magic Eye, too.  

"Lateralus", the song and the album, are very good...I have to add that.  I'm not sure that I'd try to compare it to "Kid A" or "In Limbo" in particular, though.  Tool are Radiohead are specialists in very different things.

*edit*  put up the revised final round in the Radiohead best-of disc.  Josh, you planning on doing one for U2?

I hate those Magic Eye things with a passion. I had a page that looked like one on my old website when I was in college... In actuality it was just a fancy background that people would squint and stare at finally feel the frustration I usually felt upon finding nothing.

Tool and Radiohead are very different bands. I just wanted to illustrate that the idea of playing in two time signatures at once wasn't a complete no-no - it just didn't work for one band in one instance (though there are probably other examples of it not working as well).

Yes, let's do U2 Survivor! That would be fun!

I'm thinking of doing Caedmon's Call survivor over at CMCentral now that Jars of Clay Survivor is winding down. I probably won't include the Derek Webb solo material, as I don't want to be reminded how underappreciated it is by most of the folks over there.

[Josh]

How was the atmosphere?

Great, save for all the smokers around me. I absolutely HATE smoking. I had a terrible headache.

Does Radiohead use any visuals or interact much with the crowd, or do they generally let the music speak for itself?

They more or less let the songs speak for themselves.

Radiohead is a MUST-SEE. Best show I've ever seen.
 

[bloop]

I think "In Limbo" works better than any Linkin Park song.  *raz*

(what can I say?...I just disagree with your assessment of the song)

[Josh]

"In Limbo" sounds much cooler live. A little... jazzier, I guess.

[bloop]

"In Limbo" sounds much cooler live. A little... jazzier, I guess.

I hear a bit of Miles Davis ca. "Bitches Brew" influence in the album version, so I'd imagine when some of the artifice of the album is taken away (things that one can't really do live), you would be left with something even closer to that kind of sound, with different instrumentation of course.  Is that a fair statement?

I want much more jazz-influence on their next record.  Jonny's still in process of learning trumpet.

[bloop]

Great, save for all the smokers around me. I absolutely HATE smoking. I had a terrible headache.

If they were smoking tobacco, it was at least a little better than what was going on around us.  Marijuana smoke is just disgusting.

[murlough23]

Great, save for all the smokers around me. I absolutely HATE smoking. I had a terrible headache.

In accordance with the "Damn!" thread, we could infer that Josh hates fags.

[murlough23]

I think "In Limbo" works better than any Linkin Park song.  *raz*

(what can I say?...I just disagree with your assessment of the song)

Well, not to add more fuel to your fire, but Linkin Park's idea of "seemingly disparate rhythms" is recording a song in 6/8 time. (See the liner notes for "From the Inside" on Meteora.) I mean, they seem to know their stuff as far as getting some enjoyable sounds out of their instruments and piecing it all together with ProTools (say what you what about how derivative it is, but I like the resulting sound), but you'd think that even the most amateur band wouldn't find a song that wasn't in 4/4 to be such a challenge!

[Skrappybiskit]

I think what they were trying to say about the rhythms was that they were mixing two different time signatures together and making them fit. Which you can do with almost any ts, even like 4/4 and 3/4, you just have to be careful how it sounds.

There's one classical song that I can't remember that has a 4/4 treble cleff and a 3/4 bass.

Skraps

[Josh]

"In Limbo" is a song that requires very precise playing. And that's one thing that few bands are better at than Radiohead.

[bloop]

"In Limbo" is a song that requires very precise playing. And that's one thing that few bands are better at than Radiohead.

I can only name two big mainstream bands up to that task:  Tool and Dave Matthews Band.  I'm not huge into either of them, but both are capable of floating around different time signatures with ease, their drummers being particularly confident.

[murlough23]

I can only name two big mainstream bands up to that task:  Tool and Dave Matthews Band.  I'm not huge into either of them, but both are capable of floating around different time signatures with ease, their drummers being particularly confident.

Don't forget Iona. Though I can't think of any instances of them doing two at once... but it depends on who's listening. Frank Van Essen seems to have a knack for beating out 4/4 or 8/8 in a way that fools you into thinking it's something else at first (see "Woven Cord" and "Castlerigg")... Radiohead also pulls this off in "Pyramid Song" and "Myxomatosis".

[Josh]

Tool is right. Talented musicians.

And I guess you're probably right about the DMB, though they're not as skilled as the other two bands mentioned here. Their drummer holds that band together, though, as is so often the case...

[Josh]

Don't forget Iona.

Yes! Man, I haven't listened to them in ages. But yeah, they got mad skills.

[bloop]

Don't forget Iona.

I did say "big" mainstream bands.  Tool and DMB have a mass following that made me mention them.  I couldn't possibly mention every act, big or small, with real musical chops (Iona would be on such a list if we were to try to make one).  There's probably a big one that I'm forgetting, though.

[oneafroboy]

I'm not big into DMB, though I've heard the new album's really good. But there violinist is excellent.  

[Josh]

By the way, everyone, Thom announced last night that today is his birthday. "How old am I gonna be? I dunno how old I'm gonna be."

[bloop]

A review of the concert

No idea how old Thom is, but I'd guess 34.