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This was the first time i had been to see Radiohead, and it was stunning. I think it was one of the last shows played in Meadowbank before it got closed to gigs. Here's what i remember of some of the songs:
I remember the opener "Airbag" being quite special because i asked one of my friends beforehand what song they would play first and he got it right. "2+2=5" was crazy, the crowd started going wild and there was a massive surge forward, right at the point of "You have not been paying attention!". A lot of people fell over. Thom finally stopping half way through "Morning Bell" to say "You're at the wrong gig if you wanna do that. If you wanna bond with your fellow man then there are clubs round the corner you can do that".
New songs "Videotape" and "Nude" [it was called "Big Ideas (Don't Get Any)" back then] were interesting, two slow and new tracks led a man behind me to comment "these are a bit slit-your-wrist to, aren't they?".
During "The Gloaming" and "Where I End and You Begin", the songs were so bass driven i could feel it in my brain.
"Pyramid Song" was pretty special, they pulled off this light-through-a-cheese-grater effect which sent little dots of light all around the stage. Went really well with the song, they looked like little fish swimming around. During "Fake Plastic Trees", Thom cut everything except the vocals at the second "..wears me out...", so it was just him and the crowd (singing every word of course).
The first of the rare songs that night was "True Love Waits". They very rarely bring it out, but it was worth it. One of my friends who is a big rare songs fan pointed out as soon as the lyrics started. I didn't recognise as quickly because they started playing "Everything In Its Right Place", then sang the words to TLW over the top of it. After the first verse and chorus they bled into full EIIRP. They've only played in once since [that's twice in almost three years(!)]. Looking at comments on YouTube, as far as i know they used the same TLW/EIIRP arrangement there as well. Took them a while to decide that it came out well!
Then came the big one, "Creep". There was talk of them playing it, because they dusted it off a week before at their comeback gig in the UK when they headlined V Festival. i hadn't quite realised the colossal-ness of this - with the exception of V and one other show in Oxford, this was the first time they had played it in nearly 10 years. Didn't realise that the one-hit-wonder heckling had hit them so hard! So this was almost like a first-UK-gig-back for it. Thom was so drowned out by the stunned fans that he didn't even finish the last line, the crowd did that for him. It didn't end on bad terms though; Thom simply smiled, stood back from the crowd, and took a huge bow.
A great end to a brilliant night!
submitted by: Chris 6:25 PM [US Pacific time], Thursday, December 25, 2008
