Everything In Its Right Place

Warning: This post talks in maths and buzzes like a fridge. Like a detuned radio.

Yesterday, October 2 2008, I saw Radiohead live. I've been clinging to the faintest hope I might get the chance for around 11 years (when I first got OK Computer). Words like "dream come true" seem so cheesy, and yet so right.

This was their second night in Osaka in their Japan tour, supported by Modselektor (German techno duo). In hindsight going to both nights would have been well worth it (more on that later), but we were well rewarded with a fantastic set spanning The Bends to the new album (90% of it). 25 tracks of haunting, discordant Radiohead goodness.

Modselektor were pretty decent, if perhaps a little unsuited for the crowd (who were either a bit old for techno, or mainly from the alt-rock side of the fanbase). Their quality of sound was fantastic, and great visuals (eg. woman dressed in loose yellow ethnic dress waving poles amid gridlines like an altimeter). They dropped Suckerpin (the only song I know by them) which went off, but much of it was quite minimal. All in all though they were a fitting warm-up act, getting everyone a little bit rhythmic whilst not stealing the show. Highlight was their remix of Bjork's Dull Flame of Desire (Remix For Girls). Fantastic track, only made all the more beautiful by destroying the music behind the haunting vocals from Bjork and Anthony.

Roll off the turntables and drop down 60-odd vertical lengths of clear plastic piping in a grid above the stage, resembling an inverted forest of leafless stalks suspended over the band. Intriguing. But even moreso, as Radiohead walk out 20 mins later and the pipes light up like fiber-optic cables. Reckoner from In Rainbows is first up, and a wide screen at the back of the stage displays cameras trained on each band member (a lot like their In The Basement recordings). It's all quite surreal. Radiohead. Thom Yorke is a lot shorter in real life, but his presence lets you forget that fairly quickly.

They roll through an initial set constructed around In Rainbows (House of Cards is the only track missing by the end of the night) but well peppered with tracks you wished they'd play, and others you'd never think they would. Here's where I'd probably quote a few standouts for example, but to be honest it's so hard to pick just one. National Anthem and Jigsaw Falling Into Place did it for me big-time, showing the band really are a rock masterpiece. An unrecognisable version of The Gloaming was odd, then downright creepy. Idioteque was fantastic (I've previously disliked the dance-ish live version but hearing it in person for the first time changed my opinion drastically).
The more mellow All I Need and Wet Fishes were spectactular, along with everything else.

Possibly my absolute favourite moment was Thom leaning into a b&w camera over the piano, his sick/drunken/beaten-up look leering out from the massive screen at the audience, and stumbling over the opening to You And Whose Army? When the song broke, his face accordioned out into 7 different windows of the same camera. Who, I ask, needs drugs when you have Thom Yorke?

He was in a chipper but typically quiet mood, but responded well to heckling: "Radiohead!!"
"Yes?"
"You guys rock!"
"...We may rock, but not in this particular song." - before gliding into No Surprises(!!!)

Back on for the first of two encores, my friends and I had prayed for more OK Computer, and were rewarded with Airbag. The Bends finally got a part, with very rock-heavy versions of Just and Planet Telex. And they would have had more, if not for...

Thom coming back on stage alone to play Street Spirit (Fade Out), but misplacing his bloody lyric sheet! I only found out later as to what he couldn't find, and I'm pretty gutted. Instead he played Fog (a B-Side), which was nice, but doesn't really compare.

Second encore closed out with Karma Police, and Everything In It's Right Place, as the plastic pipes (and the cameras on screen) turned the colour of oily-rainbows. Daft Punk's pyramid suddenly had a serious contendor for most-awesome-visual effects. Burning after-images in our minds, the lights faded, but the buzzing feeling in my head ceased to go away.

Set List
01. Reckoner
02. Optimistic
03. There There
04. 15 Step
05. All I Need
06. You and Whose Army
07. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
08. The Gloaming
09. Videotape
10. Morning Bell
11. Faust Arp
12. No Surprises
13. Jigsaw Falling into Place
14. Idioteque
15. The National Anthem
16. Nude
17. Bodysnatchers
Encore 1
18. Airbag
19. Knives Out (Which they played barely anywhere on tour and so I can't find a vid)
20. Just
21. Where I End And You Begin
22. Planet Telex
Encore 2
23. Cymbal Rush / Fog
24. Karma Police
25. Everything in its Right Place (Our version had rainbow lights...)

The first gig had Pyramid Song, Talk Show Host, Paranoid Android and Exit Music (For a Film), but they didn't get No Surprises or Karma Police. Oh well - you can't have everything. My advice? Go to every Radiohead show you can. Pretty much guaranteed to get a great new setlist every time.

Thanks for coming guys.

Youtube Clip of You And Whose Army: