AMES CHLIBOYKO
adiohead came back, they did, although they almost

cut their trip short only one song
into the first set.

Frontman Thom Yorke was in the mid-
e of mounting the second verse to the
pening track of the night (and opening
ck off of OK Computer), ‘Airbag, and
ang, “In a fast German ca-” but sudden-
, inexplicably, he cut himself off and waved the rest of the
ys down. One by one the quintet’s instruments fell silent.
eeling, for some, like the aborted, penny-riddled set Oasis
layed a year and a half ago, fans gasped in
orror. Rythmn guitarist Ed O’Brien went to
eck out what was wrong, but Thom wasnt |
eady to talk yet. Yorke just paced back and
orth and shook his head and arms.
ventually, he started pointing out individual
ans in the crowd. Were they misbehaving,
everyone wondered.

Turns out that people weren't so much
being nasty as getting hurt in the hysterical
crush at the front of the crowd. O’Brien did
the talking, saying that unless people moved back, they
would cut the concert short. “We can walk off, but we really
want to play to you,’ he said earnestly, almost pleading. The
crowd responded to the threat: from the stands those with
floor seats moved slowly, like tottering mummies, but they
did move back. Then the ominous opening notes of ‘Airbag,
once again rolled out of the speakers. People cheered, but
they stayed back for the rest of the night.

The rest of the night went more swimmingly than the
first five minutes had. The set consisted overwhelmingly of
tracks from OK Computer, the band knocked off ten of the
album’s twelve songs, avoiding only ‘Electioneering’ and
‘Fitter, Happier’ They played seven tracks from The Bends and
included one song that none of my company could identify
(new song? Pablo Honey song?), and an offering from the
Romeo and Juliet soundtrack, “Talk Show Host:

And the night wasn't hurt by the exclusion of ‘Creep,
their first major hit. It showed how far Radiohead has come,
with two solid albums behind them, that they could play
almost 20 songs, and avoid their greatest hit without detrac-

  
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
  
 
  
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
  

ing was a showcase of the band’s versatility. The
doomed sound of their gentler songs (they even

ut a xylophone for ‘Lucky’) contrasted with the
sound of the band’s harder-edged rockers; the band

May 1998 Page 20

Radiohead

 

unleashed itself onto ‘Just’ and particularly on ‘Bones, both
from The Bends. They played ‘Bones’ with particular relish.
Thom Yorke karate kicked at the crowd
and even the gangly, mellow O’Brien
attempted to let loose, doing a little awk-
ward dance at his lonely post at the far
edge of the stage.

Radiohead rolled things up after IS
songs, but were called out for an ;
inevitable, but generous four-song encore.
After putting the brakes on the first song, the group
eschewed any attempts at spontaneity, until ‘Let Down, when
Yorke decided to walk over to the piano for
an extended coda. The Greenwood brothers
tried to figure out what he was doing, and for
a few seconds they put together a strange little
jam. Then Yorke stopped, wiped his nose with
a single triumphant motion and walked back
i to centre stage.

For the Radiohead fan, it was an evening of
hyperbole. People are enamoured with the
band, and in comparing notes afterwards, any
mention of hating big concert bowl shows
was tempered by comments such as “That was the best big

   

concert I’ve ever seen.”

The concert was also a good chance to check out what
type of people gather for a Radiohead concert. Even in the
parking lot, the incongruity of the crowd and their “fans”
was evident. People fixed their hair in car mirrors, and some
seemed to have actually gotten dressed for the event. During
the show, young couples cuddled to the tune of ‘Fake Plastic
Trees, strange for a song about artifice and hopelessness, and
young women attempted to gyrate seductively to the didactic
‘Paranoid Android’ Perhaps it was to them that Yorke dedi-
cated the last song of the night, ‘The Tourist; the last track
on OK Computer. “This is for the people who get the book,
who buy the souvenirs, and who still don’t know what the
fuck is going on,” he said, a statement that seemed to have
had a bad effect on T-shirt sales. No one sported any con-
cert duds in the pot-scented scrum after the show.

Even stranger were the coupons handed out by smiling
PNE staff at the Coliseum’s exits, bright pink pieces of
paper that said, “Keep your ticket stubs and receive free
admission to Playland.” The fans did seem happy, despite the
melancholia of the band’s material, and many considered the
coupons before pocketing them, and resumed comparing
notes about the evening, smiling mysteriously.