RADIOHEAD (London Victoria Park, 25/06/08)

An admission- I’ve never been that big a fan of Thom Yorke and his purveyors of whiny miserabilia. The Bends is a fine British rock album, sure, and OK Computer will forever stand as one of the few stone-cold classics to emerge from that godforsaken era known as the 90’s, but the rest of their oeuvre I can take or leave. So it was a pleasant surprise that I enjoyed the second of their massive Victoria Park shows much more than expected.

That said, I’d like to dispel the assertions spouted by wild-eyed Ateasers that Radiohead are in any way “THE BEST LIVE BAND IN THE WORLD EVAR.” They’re not. They lack the charm and showmanship for one thing- they’re just not all that exciting to behold. On a less superficial note, they’re don’t really modify their songs from their recorded incarnations either, leading to a technically brilliant but surprisingly staid musical performance. But that apart, it was still an excellent night, despite a faltering and uninspired first act. The generous setlist (it had to be, for £45) was too weighted at the start towards In Rainbows material and it took until visceral rendering of Hail To The Thief’s Myxamitosis for the crowd to get going. Twinkly xylophone’d classic No Surprises naturally received a rapturous reception, but the show only truly came to life when the sun began to set and they began delving into the rich seams of the pre-Kid A era. The superb lighting, involving a hundred dangling neon tubes finally reached their full effectiveness in the encroaching darkness, and helped encourage the communal spirit that emerged when they started on the hits. Personally, My Iron Lung followed by the lighter-waving epic sing/warble/screech-along of Karma Police proved the pinnacle of the night’s proceedings but the closing double whammy of 2+2=5 and Paranoid Android came damn close. I may be risking the wrath of the hardcore here, but it was only during these “populist” moments when Radiohead lived up to the oppressive cult of hype that surrounds them; their more esoteric material may get the crowds going at more intimate, fan-centric shows but you need anthems for a show on this scale and ultimately, Radiohead just about delivered.

(Photo: Belly Of A Whale (Flickr))