October 2003, Sound Advice Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, Fla.
I can’t confess to being a Radiohead fan from the start. When “Creep” came out, I enjoyed it like many others did, but I didn’t buy the album, or the one after it. When OK Computer was released, I remember watching the video for “Paranoid Android” and finding it intriguing, but the song didn’t hit me at the time. It wasn’t until I met my wife to be, who was a huge Radiohead fan from the start, that I really started to listen to Thom Yorke and his bandmates. Kid A came out a month after we started dating, and we listened to it at a steady clip. It is my favorite Radiohead album, one of the best albums of the last 25 years as far as I’m concerned.
I was introduced to all of Radiohead in 2000, somewhat late by most people’s standards, and came away a little pissed at myself. I could have been listening to The Bends for the past five years and I wasn’t? What an idiot. As for OK Computer, my bad, my total bad. And Pablo Honey isn’t as good as the others, but it’s still pretty damn good. We’re never as cool in our musical choices as we pretend to be, and my overlooking of Radiohead (and Oasis too) was too my detriment.
I mean, The Bends rules. It’s OK, music always lets you catch up.
And so it was, in 2003, Radiohead decided to tour to South Florida on Hail To the Thief, the last album the band would make before giving their music away for free (those crazy guys). It harkened back to The Bends, so I gravitated to it right away, though it still rang with all the electronic blips and bells that filled the band’s most recent albums. Since this was back in the day when people still went to music stores to buy tickets (I know, weird), one Saturday morning my wife and I lined up for tickets to a show we both really wanted to see.
Tickets were going quick. We wanted to get three tickets together — our friend Jon wanted to go as well — but three in a row meant sitting at the very back. So we chose one, one and one. It meant my wife got a seat near the front, and Jon and I were back a bit, but not too far. Not ideal, you want to enjoy concerts with others, but sometimes you have to be separate to get a good seat.
We all bundled into one car, entered the amphitheater and went our separate ways. I had a pretty good seat, maybe 30 rows back dead center, and sat amidst the crowd of 15,000 or so for what I assumed would be a good show.
Yeah. Understatement.
The band walked out, and to the guitar plugged-in feedback of “2 + 2 = 5,” began the night’s journey. The song, the opening track on Hail to the Thief, has a harried pace on the album but live takes on an anxious and furious feel. Yorke settled into the opening verses with a slow build, working his way to the repeated chorus “You are not paying attention” which he yelled in a frantic pace. It reminded me of Robert Smith’s repetition of “And Again” from “A Forest,” which I’ve seen him scream several times live. “2 + 2 = 5” is now one of my favorite Radiohead songs, based on this five-minute stretch to open the show.
The band, working the new material, moved through “Sit Down, Stand Up” and “Where I End and You Begin” before delving deep into OK Computer for “Lucky”. It was interesting to watch the band prepare as each song ended and started — a choreographed dance involving pedals, guitars, electronics and placement. The speed of the turnaround was impressive — there was lots to be done but it never interrupted the flow of the show.
A pair of songs from The Bends followed “Just” and “Talk Show Host” (yes a B-side, from The Bends) — before the wonderful and awesome (yes like mountains) “Paranoid Android”.
The light show was superb, backed by a huge electronic board which illuminated in different shapes, colors and video. During the bridge of Paranoid, when the band slows down and Yorke sings “Rain Down/Rain Down/Come on rain down on me,” the electronic board slowly dripped red lights from top to bottom in a scattered pattern. The song, which is really three songs in one, took on a distinct attitude with the light show. The ending, a broad explosion of instruments, was halting and beautiful.
The main set would include “Airbag,” “Morning Bell,” “You and Whose Army?” and “Idioteque,” which had Yorke dancing about in a fit of utter madness. “There There,” with its two set of drums, brought a rousing end to the set, giving the crowd a chance to breathe.
Yorke came on stage alone for the start of encore one, sitting behind the piano noting “This song is for the people at Comcast” before singing “We Suck Young Blood”. A camera with a fish-eyed lens was mounted on the piano, and Yorke mugged for the camera while singing “Are you hungry?/Are you sick?/Are you begging for a break?” Pure delight.
And then, and then, “The National Anthem”. My favorite song on my favorite Radiohead album, it was one of those concert moments that never leaves you. The textured drums and bombardment of sound overwhelmed, it was too good to be true. The band could have ended there, and I’d been happy, but of course the band upped the ante with “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” and added a second encore of “Karma Police” and “Everything in Its Right Place” to assure the night reached legendary status. Sure, this is something they do at every show, but it was more than special for me.
Afterward my wife and Jon were silenced, in a bit of awe. Great bands will do that, and Radiohead is among the best of them.
