Review: Radiohead rock in the rain

by Rachel Nixon | August 19, 2008 at 11:18 pm

4476 views | 49 Recommendations | 27 comments

"We're Radiohead and we brought the weather with us."

A chatty, relaxed Thom Yorke and his band took the stage on Tuesday at Thunderbird Stadium on a terrible, torrential night in Vancouver, the first stop on the West Coast part of their tour.

They've played the Thunderbird before and are said to have loved it for the Pacific sunset and the geese flying overhead in formation. This wasn't to be on this rainiest of evenings but the soaking weather definitely did not dampen the band's spirits or those of the audience who packed the stadium.

Radiohead's arrival was keenly anticipated following the release of their most recent album In Rainbows, widely acclaimed as a critical return to form for the Oxford band.

Backed by a vibrant, multicoloured light show, they kicked off with 15 Step, the first track from In Rainbows and moved between albums and periods with There There, Morning Bell and back to In Rainbows with Nude, a track that took years to perfect. But they really hit their stride with the melodic and complex Weird Fishes/Arpeggi.

Bangers and Mash ("this is a nasty little song," said Thom) provided a dissonant contrast to all the harmony. Towards the end of the main set they revved things up with some definite rock-out crowd pleasers: OK Computer's Karma Police followed by Jigsaw Falling Into Place from In Rainbows, and then back in time to The Bends for Just.

The insistent beat of Everything in its Right Place closed the first encore and the crowd were left wondering whether Radiohead would return. And they did, for three more tracks, and giving fans a difficult choice.

As the show drew to a close, Thom Yorke asked: "This is the last song, and you the viewers get to choose: Idioteque... or Paranoid Android?" Overwhelming screams for Paranoid Android, which contains the apt lines "rain down on me, from a great height..."

And just a few minutes later the band were whisked away below umbrellas, off into the rainy night.

Here's the set list:

1. 15 Step
2. There There
3. Morning Bell
4. All I Need
5. Where I End And You Begin
6. Talk Show Host
7. Nude
8. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
9. The National Anthem
10. Bangers And Mash
11. Faust Arp
12. Videotape
13. Karma Police
14. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
15. Just
16. Exit Music (For A Film)
17. Bodysnatchers

First Encore
18. House of Cards
19. Optimistic
20. You And Whose Army?
21. Planet Telex
22. Everything In Its Right Place

Second Encore
23. Reckoner
24. 2+2=5
25. Paranoid Android

16 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

Vinny

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 03:53 on August 20th, 2008

Rachel Nixon, I like this story. It's good stuff.

roboteque (not verified)

at 04:09 on August 20th, 2008

radiohead rules i don't care how much it rains

Sanjay Jha

at 05:18 on August 20th, 2008

Hey Rachel, It must be a great fun but it looks weather was terrible. Hope you enjoyed it

Rhonda J Mangus

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 05:46 on August 20th, 2008

Rachel Nixon, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Uwe Paschen

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 05:56 on August 20th, 2008

You must be a fan!

Rachel Nixon

at 06:13 on August 20th, 2008

Many thanks everyone for the flags and comments. I am indeed a fan - can you tell? ;-)

It was a fantastic gig, just a shame about the rain.

Albert Milliron

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 07:24 on August 20th, 2008

Rachel Nixon, I like this story. It's good stuff.

poolparty

at 07:55 on August 20th, 2008

I still wish they would have played Idioteque and Fake Plastic Trees...nonetheless I still had a good time in the rain :)

Jarrett Martineau

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 09:20 on August 20th, 2008

Rachel Nixon, great review. An amazing show, fantastic set list, and heaps of witty Thom Yorke banter. What more could you ask for. It's almost inconceivable to me that these five gentlemen have created so much beautiful music... I'm still spinning.

Serge Warez (not verified)

at 10:35 on August 20th, 2008

Thanks for the review dude. First time I saw them and totally loved them. It was hilarious how Thom had to ask the crowd to calm down ("This is not a Rage against the Machine" concert) lol. I only wish they would have come back to play idiotec, I feel like three songs where missing to make it perfect: Pyramid, Spinning Plates and No Surprises.

Chameleo

at 14:54 on August 20th, 2008

Great review!

I enjoyed the show a lot - and got some video too. It'll be up soon on youtube.

The crush of people up front was ridiculous though. >_< Had to crowd-surf out... My poor girlfriend...

Rachel Nixon

at 15:01 on August 20th, 2008

Thanks Chameleo. It was a great show - please do post the video here if you can.

You crowdsurfed out?! As Radiohead came on stage we saw literally a wave of people surge towards the front. It looked scary from our safe and dry position in the stands.

Frankie99 (not verified)

at 15:05 on August 20th, 2008

What a great show!!! Even though we got soaked, I think the rain added to the show. The video / light show was stunningly beautiful - I hope to keep seeing it in my mind's eye for a long time. I was proud of the audience for not being wimps and leaving; it was a testament to what a great show it was that people didn't stream out after the first encore.

James Chutter

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:13 on August 20th, 2008

Nice work in getting this out so quickly. Great shots too.

Rachel Nixon

at 15:44 on August 20th, 2008

Thanks James. I thought if I left it till this morning it would never get done. So - home by 10.45, all done by 12.15 am. Phew!

Roberto Alvarez-Galloso

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 16:58 on August 20th, 2008

Rachel Nixon, I like this story. It's good stuff. It was great.

Rachel Nixon

at 17:39 on August 20th, 2008

Many thanks for the flag.

Nicholas May (not verified)

at 19:27 on August 20th, 2008

I saw them in 2003 at T-bird.. and was at the show last night.. and all I can say is that the Rain improved the show.. ten-fold. There is NOTHING like dancing in the rain to one of your favourite bands. A night to remember. I hope it doesn't take them 5 years to come back.

3dpete

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 08:50 on August 21st, 2008

Great story, and thanks for adding my photos too! :)

Another big part of the story would be how terrible it was trying to get out of the stadium! It was crazy - and took some people almost an hour. There's got to be more exits!

Of course, Radiohead was awesome and I didn't mind the rain at all.

Rachel Nixon

at 09:20 on August 21st, 2008

Thanks for the photos and good stuff!

Yes, you're right about the problems getting out of the stadium. I would have written about that too but at the time we had no trouble at all: got out in five minutes, got to our car (parked on the street) and were home within 25 minutes of the gig ending. I was surprised when I heard about all the troubles yesterday. Here's a blog post from the Vancouver Sun that talks about that.

lisamarie

at 09:30 on August 21st, 2008

thanks for posting the set list! what an amazing show.

Rachel Nixon

at 09:42 on August 21st, 2008

Thanks! It was fantastic - they seemed to be really in the zone, I thought. It's the fourth time I've seen them live and this was by far the best they've been - not to mention comfortable in their own surroundings.

Elena (not verified)

at 08:19 on August 22nd, 2008

They actually did play Idioteque - it was song #20 in the first encore. Here is the correct set list (thanks to Ateaseweb.com):

01. 15 Step [Ed encourages the crowd to participate in the 'Yay!' chorus]
02. Reckoner
03. Optimistic
04. There There
05. All I Need
06. Pyramid Song
07. Talk Show Host
08. The National Anthem
09. The Gloaming
10. Videotape
11. Lucky
12. Faust Arp [Thom messes up lyrics several times, starts singing Neil Young's "Tell Me Why"; Jonny tries to follow along but can't quite get the chords. Phil comes out and drops an American dollar bill out in front of Thom and Jonny and runs away laughing. Thom and Jonny crack up completely to loud cheers. Thom tries again, says "Fuck it!", but then continues and finishes the song.]
13. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
14. Climbing Up The Walls
15. Dollars and Cents
16. Nude
17. Bodysnatchers

Encore 1
18. How to Disappear Completely
19. Arpeggi/Weird Fishes
20. Idioteque
21. In Limbo [Tambourine accompaniment by Nigel Godrich. Thom, 'This is Nigel', Ed, 'He makes our records.']
22. Street Spirit

Encore 2
23. You And Whose Army? [Thom dedicates to the people who demonstrated against the WTO in Seattle in 1999]
24. No Surprises
25. Everything In Its Right Place

My absolute favorite song of the night was Talk Show Host....just...wow.

Rachel Nixon

at 09:22 on August 22nd, 2008

Hi Elena, thanks for your comment. I think you're referring to the Auburn, Washington gig. Here's the ateaseweb.com link. I was talking about Vancouver :)