It had been over ten years since I’ve seen anyone play at what used to be the Tweeter Center (né Great Woods), a large outdoor amphitheater about 35 miles south of Boston…NEIL YOUNG and SOUNDGARDEN was that show, far different from tonight’s collection of performers and gig goers (a friend of mind commented that white people really like RADIOHEAD). This was my second time, having seen them in Dublin on the close-out date for the Hail To The Thief tour, and the audio and visual experience was quite a memorable and enjoyable one; I was expecting more of the same, and of course they delivered in spades. For one of the most popular bands going (they easily sold out the 20K venue very quickly), they are pretty unusual in that the more experimental/less commercial they get, the more popular they become. In Rainbows certainly garnered a lot of attention on how it was released initially, but though I don’t listen to any commercial radio, I can’t imagine that any particular track is burning up the ‘Hot 100’.
As is the case with most touring bands, the set list was heavy on the new material (in fact all the IR material was played, starting with “Reckoner” and closing the regular set with an electrifying “Bodysnatchers”). No surprises, indeed. What was a surprise was the heavy reliance on the Kid A material (half dozen!), in my mind their pivotal album, when they broke free from the shackles of arena rockers and into an entirely new realm. Not sure how JONNY GREENWOOD and ED O’BRIEN felt about dropping their propensity for bending guitar notes in place of twiddling knobs, adjusting sliders, and hitting things, but it’s clearly THOM YORKE’s dominanting vision that propels this band forward. To underscore this point, how many other bands would start their second encore with a track off one member’s solo record, as happened when Thom introduced “Cymbal Rush” as being one off The Eraser (‘The what?’ he asked rhetorically). Somehow I can’t see MICK JAGGER penciling “Let’s Work” on any Stones setlist soon. Regardless, the entire band seems entirely at ease with kowtowing to the circuit board and the guitar pickup in equal measures, and an even balance was struck. Percolating percussive stuff like “15 Step,” minor key languidity of “Videotape,” and the internal questioning of “How To Disappear Completely,” (an enduring theme to Thom’s work as he questions his place among others), gave way to thundering versions of “The National Anthem” (which included snippets of a voice over ad for Mac Airbook…the staunch members of Apple Nation were beaming I’m sure), “Jigsaw Falling Into Place,” and especially “The Bends,” where Thom found his way around, over and through the words like SHANE MACGOWAN after seeing the empty side of a few dozen pint glasses. That song thoroughly underscored the irony of a band writing arena rockers before playing arenas, and once they amassed the pull to fill these sorts of venues, they got much more intimate despite the change in scale.
As the set closed with an emphatic rush via “Bodysnatchers,” the ‘what will they play for the encores’ game began. Radiohead is well-known for mixing up the encores, and the consensus I’ve read via the band’s forum was that this night was among the tour’s best, if not tops, with “A Wolf At The Door,” “Paranoid Android” and “I Might Be Wrong” being among the chunks of manna raining down on the pilgrims’ heads. Aside from the very curious decision to start that encore with the plain grey dud that is “House of Cards,” it was unassailable, right to the ender of “Idioteque,” with Thom dancing about maniacally in front of the sepia-toned camera shots on the screen behind him. One final note – Radiohead’s obviously got a lot of leeway and control over what sort of presentation they can execute, and the staging and lighting was among the best I’ve ever seen, and the way they could connect so thoroughly with 20,000 people was frankly impressive.
GRIZZLY BEAR found themselves relatively swamped in the vacuous confines of the shed, and gamely played their harmony-laden songs, layered with guitar and vocals. That the four guys can all sing so well is rather uncommon, and their playing was tight but there was something missing, just slightly. They fared much better the following night when they headlined the courtyard at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the leafy backdrop and lawn-seated audience more suited to their sound and presentation, the gauzy guitar swirling about in the confines of the courtyard rather than sailing away, untethered.
Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear
as always, more shots of the bands (and others) are on my site
