More random Radiohead impressions that continue to ebb forth... I’ve got to jot these things down now because the funny thing is: while I love Radiohead, I can’t listen to them all the time. That level of morbid/paranoid songs (even the uplifting ones!) mixed with unconventional song structures takes the right mood for me to be able to take. I’ve got to be in a position to positively apply the depressive nature of it, or else it just becomes a pure downer. By contrast, where Killing Joke deals with some of the same themes, their relentlessly driving beats and orchestral guitar chords can form the soundtrack to a wider variety of my moods.
Backing vocals I hadn't realized how great guitarist Ed O'Brien is at backing vocals. That's far from a backhanded compliment. Parts of songs on In Rainbows that I assumed were Yorke singing over himself are actually part of a sweet harmony or accompaniment by O'Brien, and it was a treat to discover that at the show particularly on Weird Fishes/Arpeggi. While Yorke's high voice is now treated almost as much as an instrument as it is a "vocal," O'Brien's lower, rich voice provides a great complement. Watching him rear back from his mic and carefully put his all into just the right pitch was just another sweet detail of the show. His howl on Weird Fishes is not something I expected to be faithfully recreated live.
About that crowd On a slideshow of photos at the RFT, you could comment on each individual photo. I saw one photo with a comment. The person (username: ____inKC) raved about the show and then added something like: "one thing to keep in mind about seeing shows in St. Louis, the people talk over the freaking show." Wow, thanks for commenting! I love random blanket regionalism, particularly from someone in a mirror town in the same state. But I really wonder how many life music shows -- oh the variety! -- you'd have to see before concluding that audiences in a certain area like to talk over the show.
Incidentally, that's one thing I hate about Riverport: except for a jam band's show, the lawn of this self-proclaimed "amphitheater" is worthless. You're completely disconnected from the stage, and the roof of the pavilion in front of you only adds to the feeling that your watching a TV through a periscope at the end of a tunnel. It's completely unfulfilling, so of course even devout fans will be tempted to talk over the show as they essentially watch it on TV.
Anyway, during the beginning of a quieter song – perhaps it was “Fake Plastic Trees,” which starts with acoustic guitar and Yorke singing softly before, typically, breaking into a chill-delivering crescendo, many in the crowd screamed and whooped their general approval. But in this instance, whichever song it was, many recognized the delicacy – and the fact we were MISSING OUT on the sounds – and started a wave of “shhhhhhhh”-ing to get people to pipe down. Considering it was a beautiful rendition that put a new face on (if “Fake Plastic Trees”) a song that was a hit single in the middle of the ‘90s, I’m glad the shhhushing worked. F-ing St. Louisans. *snorts*
More about those video screen I was describing the stunning video screens to my wife, and she said "so, like the Arcade Fire show?" That's when I realized I hadn't made it clear yet. At Arcade Fire, they had a similar set of camera angles displayed on screens throughout the stage. But while instructive, that was more of a stylistic feature. The screens were each in little pedestals suggestive of old-fashioned TV sets.
Radiohead's screen, on the other hand, was larger, was at the back of the stage, and had a constant mix of shots and illustrative angles of various band members. These black-and-white images were then enhanced by the different colors that lit up the rest of the stage through each song.
The effect was such that, while you watched in person as Thom Yorke played guitar or Jonny Greenwood played the ondes, that real-life visual was almost superimposed on the background, which displayed giant views of their fingers actually moving on the strings/keys, next to a shot of the rhythm section keeping each other in time with eye contact.
I can't overstate how significant these screens were. As Radiohead has evolved, its members have toyed with many tools beyond the traditional rock setup to the point that many of the sounds on their albums, while working beautifully, leave you scratching your head wondering where THAT sound came from. Sometimes it's just a guitar effect or the result of them strumming the tight part of the guitar strings beyond the neck; other times it's an undefined noisebox distortion thingy or an obscure French instrument (Self-taught guitarist Ed O'Brien and drummer Phil Selway apparently have been delving into programming tools since the beginning of the decade, while classically trained, multi-talent, BBC composer-in-residence Jonny Greenwood does a bit of everything, including resurrecting the versatile Ondes Martenot -- which explains much of the variety of keys in the Kid A/Amnesiac sound).
So the screens, with their overhead or over-shoulder camera angles, helped show a source to the sounds. I tried a few times to get a screen photo when they were using their pedals or knobs or software (with a display screen) to distort a vocal or a sound or a beat, but the lighting never cooperated with my camera. Also, as a wannabe drummer, it was helpful to see which beats Phil Selway was actually playing, and which ones Jonny Greenwood was actually keying and manipulating.
About those drums and beats One of the things that has changed about the band between The Bends and the Kid A era is that they are much more into alternate beats.
Whereas The Bends has classic Radiohead experimental sounds, its songs are still very much the traditional rock 4:4 beat. But beginning with OK Computer and exploding with Kid A, the beats have gotten funky, techno, improv, jazzy – all over the place, really. And even when the “drum” beat is still 4:4, it doesn’t feel that way because the massive amount of layering the other instruments (including Yorke’s vocals upon vocals) add in create a beautiful collaborative rhythm that is unique to each particular song.
All that said, It makes it very challenging to mimic drums to, and for the life of me I don’t know how Selway keeps up proper drum time for some of those songs while the mixture of other beats and sounds is playing at the same time. There were several moments in concert the other night – the stomach-punching “Idioteque” was one -- where in my head I knew the conflagration of wacky beats that was coming up, and I started to fear for drummer Selway as to whether he could pull his part off while Jonny Greenwood messed with all the gizmo beats to his heart’s content. Of course he nailed them – though again, a nice detail was to see him truly concentrating on hitting it right. But that would be why Selway is a pro drummer and I’m not.
A quote from Jonny Greenwood about recording Kid A applies : "I don't remember much time playing keyboards. It was more an obsession with sound, speakers, the whole artifice of recording. I see it like this: a voice into a microphone onto a tape, onto your CD, through your speakers is all as illusory and fake as any synthesizer - it doesn't put Thom in your front room - but one is perceived as 'real' the other, somehow 'unreal'... It was just freeing to discard the notion of acoustic sounds being truer."
No really, I think this band is good. Seriously. The more I think about this stuff in the aftershocks of thoughts flooding my head, the more I’m theorizing about just how technically impressive Radiohead truly are.
Easy to impress an untrained music fan like myself, I suppose. But I’m thinking about the number of times I witnessed two band members on stage visibly concentrating as they coordinated their parts. And that makes sense: some transitions happen not so much on a count or beat but rather on an almost untimed moment when, for example, a fading synthesized tone reaches a certain pitch.
My hat is off to them for actually mastering and playing complex songs that could have easily been left in the category of “brilliant on a studio recording but way too impossible to pull off live.” I’m remembering now how I was in awe at my first Radiohead concert, because they not only played songs I thought couldn’t be done live, but they were sincerely played (not sampled)!
*takes a breath* I’m starting to feel very grateful that I can see this band now, in its prime, like some of those bands you old folks rave about from the ‘60s and ‘70s (hee hee).
Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, IN Sun, Aug 3, 2008 07:30 PM
I'm going. Need a lift?
By Talll - 5/17/2008 8:38 AM
...holy facka shiii
By no one you know - 5/19/2008 10:23 AM
if the concert is half as involved as this narrative, I might have to see the show 3 times to figure out what is going on. Seriously, appreciate the <many> details. Your writing and photos makes me bounce by knees, salivate, and feel a fullness in my rectum in anticipation of LA.
As you may have noticed, the site has changed. Sampa, the free-site host, did a version 2 of some sort.
Despite an FAQ that made it sound like allowing one's site to go through v.2 surgery would be okay, there were several flexibilities that surprisingly disappeared with the click of a button. (e.g. I cannot believe sidebars like this one are even narrower than before.)
And I'm told -- miraculously! -- that the conversion cannot be undone. Truth be told, I'm actually quite pissed. But free is free. Sampa has otherwise been good to me.
So I need to sort through site "features" to see how I can make do. Except that I don't have the time at the moment, in the middle of graduate classes and Lighthousehockey.com. (btw, I've removed that Lighthouse RSS feed so that you're not clogged with random Islanders hockey gibberish).
But I promise to touch up the accessories when I get a chance, and return to irregularly scheduled blogging.
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Radiohead's screen, on the other hand, was larger, was at the back of the stage, and had a constant mix of shots and illustrative angles of various band members. These black-and-white images were then enhanced by the different colors that lit up the rest of the stage through each song. 
Comments (3) for "'Sentimental drivel' -- Radi...
February, 2008