Radiohead at Victoria Park
It's almost impossible for a band as obsessed-over as Radiohead to live up to the anticipation. You imagine it for so long that when they finally appear they are, as Scroobius Pip pointed out, just a band. Outdoor non-festival gigs of this size are notoriously hard to pull off. The last time they tried they had both Supergrass and Beck on-hand to drum up the fervor; but with the flat Bjork rip-off Bat For Lashes for support, technical issues and the anti-climatic 15 Step as an opener, some were wondering if even the great Radiohead could make it happen.
It's been five years since Radiohead toured the UK but despite the prolonged absence, the vast arena, and huge giddy crowds, they were as stripped down and intimate as they would be playing in your front room. Rather than a disappointment, once you got used to the idea this gave the gig an unpredictability that had fans keeling over. And it was just that - an intimate gig for the fans, albeit in a far from intimate setting. To follow the practically unheard b-side 'Bangers 'n Mash' with 'The Bends' opener 'Planet Telex', and to do it as an encore; it had the devoted almost weeping with gratitude. And for those worried they would never hear tracks from 'The Eraser' played live, Thom Yorke threw in 'Cymbal Rush', also as an encore, of course. Rather than self-indulgent, the set was almost perfectly balanced, the absence of tired crowd-pleasers like 'Creep', 'Karma Police', or 'No Surprises' was balanced with classics like 'Just', 'Climbing Up The Walls' and 'Airbag'.
Guitarist Ed O'Brien claimed recently that he felt the band had found their swagger, that effortless confidence great bands find after countless world tours; and although he claimed to have been 'shitting it', Thom Yorke seemed perfectly at ease, grinning and dancing and playing with the cameras, working the crowd into a frenzy with the merest wave of the hand or wiggle of the eyebrows, his vocals more controlled and professional than ever. Jonny Greenwood on the other hand seemed his old self, reluctant, hiding behind his fringe, entering the stage hidden under a hood and often cradling himself in his arms or shaking his head in apparent embarrassment during old numbers he's clearly tired of. That doesn't stop his guitar solos stealing the show as usual.
They might just be a band, and this might not have been the revelation some fans expected, but no other live act can raise hairs on the back of your neck with such regularity as Radiohead, and few other bands have a back-catalogue as vast or as brilliant to draw from.
