So the first stream of my post-Radiohead thoughts are in the previous post. In their unwieldy glory, they continue here, with more specifics about some of the songs played...
When the Live Experience Shows You What You Missed
As for the concert details itself ... they mixed throughout the set a whole lot from their latest, freely downloadable album, In Rainbows. I've liked this album but not yet gotten totally immersed in it. I figured hearing and seeing the songs played live would change that for me, and indeed, it has. When the multitudes of Radiohead fans first woke up and downloaded the much-anticipated album, everyone knew the cracking "Bodysnatchers" would be a hit live. Indeed it was.
But several of the other, slower songs from the album also resonated, with excellent piano, acoustic guitar and machine-beat effects combining to give us a little window into each song: "Oh, so THAT's how they constructed that song!" Which always seems to happen with Radiohead (heh, "always" ... I've now seen them only twice ... but I think it's telling that a friend, quoted below, came away with the same) as their recorded efforts have gotten more and more into experimental sounds and self-sampling.
It is the 21st Century
"Has the light gone out for you? 'Cause the light's gone out for me It is the 21st century It is the 21st century You can fight it like a dog It brought me to my knees"
-- Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows)
And then Kid A. If you aren't familiar with the frenzied "Idioteque" off of the album Kid A -- and a fan of it and perhaps environmentally minded as well -- you can skip the next few paragraphs. After you skip, the setlist appears below along with some much more concise thoughts from another forementioned Radiohead fan.
I hesitate to ascribe too much explicit meaning to someone else's lyrics, but it's my personal experience, so there: As someone who grew up reading about global warming and the effects of carbon burning on our planet ["Who's in bunker who's in bunker? Women and children first and the children first"], someone who wondered as a child why long-term planning -- from the civic to the planetary scale -- is paid only lip service by the majority of leaders both political and corporate ["take the money and run take the money and run"]; someone who watched in awe as W. the Bush essentially pledged in 2000 that we were going to sit out the next planet-pivotal 4 to 8 years as far as rethinking our energy future, 'cause you know it's just uncertain and we should always trust in unfettered business anyway ["We're not scaremongering, this is really happening, happening!"]; someone who's watched corporations fund junk science to intentionally confuse the general month-to-month-bills-focused public ["Ice Age coming, Ice Age coming -- let me hear both sides, let me hear both sides..."] ...
... For this listener, it was a special, chilling moment to hear Radiohead visit a few tracks from the near panic-infused album "Kid A" -- which Thom Yorke once explained is partly about the generation that inherits the Earth after we've wiped everything out. It captures the paranoia and helplessness about the direction human nature's lowest common denominator -- money and greed -- is taking us despite mounting evidence of the risks of pretending status quo is fine. Thus he introduced "Idioteque" as one "we dusted off from Kid A, because it seems even more relevant now."
What can I say? If this is your personal zeitgeist of this era in history, it's moving to see it verbally and musically expressed. It's a moment I won't forget for as long as my memory still functions. After that, perhaps in an interstellar burst my particles will be born again, back to save the universe.
I want to add more -- so many thoughts on individual moments running through my head -- but I think I'll stop here and get this posted now. I may add more in the coming days as I digest everything [editor voice in head: "or probably not, slacker"]. But I'll close for now by excerpting what my friend Lee shared, who was also at the show, seeing Radiohead for the first time:
"Possibly the most amazing sonic experience of my life. The closest I can think of in terms of technical wizardry delivered in a way that also fires up my emotional, creative core is Roger Waters. In fact, it was similar to a Water's concert in that a group of musicians created a layered, brilliantly executed, sonic foundation which combined with an alternately haunting/piercing/unsettling voice and/or lyrics to transport me to experiences of beauty, insight, and ecstasy rarely glimpsed outside of interpersonal relationships.
I was consistently blown away at how five guys used synthesizers, pedals, loops and lots of stuff I couldn't identify to create a seemingly never-ending stream of complex and stunning symphonies of sound. Add on Yorke's voice, the most sublime instrument of them all, and the result was devastating.
The set list: All I Need (In Rainbows) Jigsaw Falling Into Place (IR) Airbag (OK Computer) 15 Step (IR) Nude (IR) Kid A Weird/Fishes/Arpeggi (IR) The Gloaming (Hail to the Thief) You and Whose Army? (Amnesiac) Idioteque (Kid A) Faust Arp (IR) Videotape (IR) Everything in its Right Place (Kid A) Bangers + Mash (non-album track) Bodysnatchers (IR)
Encore 1: Exit Music (for a Film) (OK) Myxomatosis (Hail) My Iron Lung (Bends) There There (Hail) Fake Plastic Trees (Bends)
Encore 2: Pyramid Song (Amnesiac) House of Cards (IR) Paranoid Android (OK)
Now, if you had told me that would be the set list in advance, I would have been crushed. Out of 17 songs that I would have rated (prior to the concert) as my favorites off The Bends, OK Computer and Kid A, they played four songs. And to not get a single song from the following list: "(Nice Dream)", "Sulk", "Street Spirit", "Let Down", "Karma Police" and "How to Disappear Completely"- Yikes!
In retrospect though, I am thrilled with the song selection. First of all, it was awesome to hear all the "In Rainbow" songs - I am really into that album right now. But on top of that, hearing some of the songs from other albums that I haven't completely "gotten" until now in concert completely changed how I feel about them. It was almost as if the band was saying, "OK, you hook-addicted philistine, meet us half-way on some of this stuff and we just might blow your mind" - goal achieved!
I could go on and on about various moments like the multiple times I said to myself, "THAT sound comes out of a guitar" to "Where do they go from here? OH THERE!!!" to realizing a have a man-crush on Jonny Greenwood..."
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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the much-anticipated album, everyone knew the cracking 
But several of the other, slower songs from the album also resonated, with excellent piano, acoustic guitar and machine-beat effects combining to give us a little window into each song: "Oh, so THAT's how they constructed that song!" Which always seems to happen with Radiohead (heh, "always" ... I've now seen them only twice ... but I think it's telling that a friend, quoted below, came away with the same) as their recorded efforts have gotten more and more into experimental sounds and self-sampling.
What can I say? If this is your personal zeitgeist of this era in history, it's moving to see it verbally and musically expressed. It's a moment I won't forget for as long as my memory still functions. After that, perhaps in an interstellar burst my particles will be born again, back to save the universe.
Comments for "Radiohead in St. Louis, part 2"
February, 2008