Photo: WENN
"We're going to play a new song," shrugs Thom Yorke with a sideways smirk, " because it's all getting a bit 'hits-filled'. Or not 'hits-filled'... depending on how you look at it."
Well, these are Radiohead fans - most of whom have paid £65 a ticket, some even more. The streets outside London's Roundhouse tonight are lined with desperate fanatics holding handmade signs pleaing for any spares. Thom Yorke could fart into a walkie talkie and we'd hail it as genius. This could have been a mindless exercise and self-indulgence and they'd get away with it, but the truth is that their first London show in four years was an absolute triumph - hits and all, in a night of constant peaks, never a lull.
Roars rolls around the circumference of the room as they're beckoned onstage to movie soundbites, before opener 'Burn The Witch' is given a more old-school Radiohead rock groove-driven sense of purpose on stage, already landing as a favourite as the crowd croons back "this a low-flying panic attack" at full volume. A chilling, deathly silence then covers The Roundhouse for the crystal-cut heartbreak of 'Daydreaming'. Your heart rises to the back of your throat and your centre of gravity lifts a little as you realise that you're watching a band still reaching for the top of their game after all these years.
Fellow A Moon Shaped Pool tracks 'Decks Dark' and 'Desert Island Disk' again blossom with much more opulence when given space to breathe in the live arena, but it's the sci-fi, horrorshow nightmare of 'Ful Stop' that smacks the most of 'future Radiohead classic' - as Yorke beckons the crowd into a full-on rave as he jerks across the stage with handheld synthesizer.
From then on, it's mostly back to more familiar ground. 'Lotus Flower', once so awkward and claustrophobic on first release, now a resplendent anthem, but it's just a warm-up. "Have I passed my GCSE," chuckles Yorke, struggling to tune his guitar before plucking away at those oh-so-devastating opening notes to 'Talk Show Host'. The sound of the Roundhouse hollering back the words "I'll be waiting with a gun and a pack of sandwiches...I'm nothing", is one that shall certainly endure - let alone the knowing nod that Yorke shoots Jonny Greenwood to simply let rip and go ape-shit on his guitar.
Just when we think Radiohead have been generous enough, Yorke lets out a mischievous mousey snigger as Greenwood guitar sustains a long-howl, opening the post-grunge Bends classic of 'My Iron Lung' - greeted with awe and disbelief, before a feral frenzy. This is mental. The menace of 'The Gloaming' provides some rest-bite, before OK Computer's magnificent opus of 'Exit Music (For A Film)' is given a new lease of life.
Among the smattering of classics, the newer material also shines on its own terms - and all we can say about 'Idendikit' is that it's loaded with all that makes Radiohead great: haunted paranoia, emphasised by skittering beats, playful guitar, a sinister refrain of synths, one of hell of a stadium chorus in 'BROKEN HEARTS, MAKE IT RAIN'. Think of it as the snotty younger brother of 'Idioteque' (which again is tonight pumped full of a newfound insanity tonight).
We're left breathless once again after Hail To The Thief's finest moment with 'Myxomatosis' before Yorke smiles "you just don't know what's gonna happen next - it's like Uber in London," leading into a gorgeous rendition of 'Reckoner'. He's not wrong, as the evening is seen off with every barrell being unloaded - they simply could not have done more. '2+2=5', seeming all the more prevalent today with Trump on the rise, shatters the illusion that Radiohead fans spend the evening stroking their beards and sipping on ale as its schizophrenic brilliance erupts one mighty moshpit.
This connection to what their fans want emphasises that quality that lies at the heart of all that's great about Radiohead - they're human after all. That runs through Yorke's dry wit on stage tonight - mocking Greenwood as an intrusion of synthesizer messes up 'Nude', forcing them to start again. "The fuck was that...this is showbusiness darling...Yeah, we'll do it again - why not? You in a hurry?"
Playing the rarely aired opener from The Bends 'Planet Telex' was just the cherry on the already perfect cake, before using cocaine as icing sugar when going that final mile for 'Paranoid Android'. Just like A Moon Shaped Pool itself, Radiohead's live set is tailored to highlight every shade and flourish of what makes them so essential. Exposed, they give everything, and they're doing this for you. Make the most of them while you still can.
- Radiohead's headline tour tickets have sold out, but you can still catch them at these festivals
Radiohead played:
Burn the Witch
Daydreaming
Decks Dark
Desert Island Disk
Ful Stop
Lotus Flower
Talk Show Host
My Iron Lung
The Gloaming
Exit Music (for a Film)
Separator
Identikit
The Numbers
Myxomatosis
Reckoner
Idioteque
Everything in Its Right Place
Encore:
Morning Mr. Magpie
2 + 2 = 5
Nude
Planet Telex
There There
Encore 2:
Present Tense
You and Whose Army?
Paranoid Android
