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By Paul Binnion, Saturday 31st January 2004 03.28pm (3985 views)
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Radiohead @ Nottingham Arena 29/11/03 and The Point Theatre, Dublin 04/12/03
Date: 29th November 2003
Support: +Guests
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Arena gigs are evil. Soulless, corporate and over-priced. However, once a band attains a certain level of success they have little choice but to sell their souls to the arena demon. After seeing Radiohead’s stunning Glastonbury performance this year I gritted my teeth and paid to go to not one but two of these gigs. Was I foolish?
In a word, no. Although Nottingham Arena is a predictably bland enormodome, Radiohead managed to create intimacy even in their louder moments. Old classics like The Bends and Airbag sat perfectly next to the newer songs off Hail to The Thief, and the ‘difficult’ tracks from Kid A and Amnesiac have benefited from being reconstructed in a live environment, Kid A and The Pyramid Song in particular make so much more sense live than on record.
Classics like Paranoid Android, Just, Street Spirit and the like were greeted with enthusiasm, but less obvious tracks like Morning Bell and Fog really seemed to strike a chord with the audience. When Colin Greenwood’s distorted bass kick-started The National Anthem the arena darkened, the lighting man seemed to have an epileptic fit and just for a moment I loved arena gigs. But despite the mostly enthusiastic reaction from the audience Thom Yorke’s only significant comment of the evening was to sarcastically mutter something about The Stereophonics playing the Arena. Frighteningly I have the feeling that a lot of the people in the audience were actually Stereophonics fans. You could see some of them getting impatient during Thom’s awesome solo rendition of I Will, and when he gurned to camera during You And Whose Army there was an undercurrent of laughter.
In contrast the audience at the Dublin Point loved every last thing Radiohead did. When Thom pulled the same faces on You and Whose Army they cheered rather than laughed. It’s rare to hear an audience cheering and shouting during songs, but for the Dublin audience the band could do no wrong. For one night The Point had become a revivalist church.
The set list had been re-jigged since Nottingham and there was a huge feeling of energy coming off-stage, maybe because the Point is a smaller venue or the band were in a better mood, but whatever the room was full of it. The introduction to The National Anthem went on for a good five minutes as a grinning Thom Yorke seemed intent on dancing himself into a trance, and when they launched into Creep mid-set the crowd response was overwhelming. I’m not a fan of stadium sing-a-longs or really of the song itself, but hearing eight thousand people singing their lungs out to it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. In fact, I spent most of the night grinning like a monkey. Anyone who thinks Radiohead are depressing should have seen the euphoric faces of the audience after the show. The guitar onslaught of Paranoid Android, 2+2=5 and Go To Sleep was mixed to great effect with the more electronic songs. Idioteque and The Gloaming were showstoppers and prove that electronica doesn’t have to be cold and soulless. Trademark Radiohead slowies like Exit Music, Karma Police and Sail to the Moon bared the soul of the band, and How to Disappear Completely – a song written after Thom Yorke had an out of body experience at the Point Theatre – was received with outright adoration from the Irish audience. Once again I was feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.
Nottingham was a competent gig by a fantastic band which makes it better than most gigs I’m ever likely to see, but Dublin was a fantastic gig by a fantastic band which means it’s going to be a long while before I see anything this good again. It’s clear that Radiohead as a band feed off the enthusiasm of their audience. At Nottingham there was little banter and the size of the venue didn’t really help build any atmosphere, but in Dublin the band were all grinning and really playing up to the audience - even Jonny was waving at people. Without a doubt the Dublin gig was the best one night stand I can ever hope to have. |
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