Radiohead Live (Radiohead Live)

Member Name: carlmcq

Product:	Radiohead Live
Date:	31/08/09 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Incredible

Disadvantages: N/A

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing for your listening pleasure, the one, the only - Radiohead.

Here's some of the nitty-gritty facts for you...Hailing from Abingdon in Oxfordshire, the band consists of Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway. They've also got seven studio albums to date - five of which have reached number one in the UK - Pablo Honey (1993), The Bends (1995), OK Computer (1997), Kid A (2000), Amnesiac (2001), Hail to the Thief (2003), In Rainbows (2007). To add to that they've also had 12 top 20 singles...thanks Wikipedia.

For those of you completely unaware of Radiohead, or at least think you are, then tracks such as "No Surprises", "Just", "Street Spirit", "Creep" and "Karma Police" you are likely to have heard at some point during your life, you just didn't realise it. For those who are fans, and those lucky enough to have seen them live, then you've experienced something great.

They've just completed performing at the Reading and Leeds festival, the former which I attended for my seventh year. This was planned to be my last visit, and there was no better way than to finish with Radiohead. Why? Well, their show is like anything you'll have ever seen. For starters, the lighting display was an incredible thing to watch which dazzled and amazed every onlooker.

Their style is hard to place, which is what makes Radiohead so unique. Their earlier stuff from Pablo Honey and The Bends is certainly more 'alternative rock', with even a hint of grunge in their, which was obviously popular around the early 90's. When OK Computer came along, and album which is often to be found in 'greatest albums of all time' lists, their experimental side started to show through, with a penchant for electronic styles with a slice of jazz thrown in there. Albums such as Kid A and Amnesiac highlight this clearly, which to many 'older' fans would perhaps not like as they've strayed from the style many fell in love with. But that would be foolish to suggest, as it shows a band doing what any band should aspire to do - move forward, reach out and break new boundaries.

Here's there set list from their performance at Reading Festival 2009...

01 Creep
02 The National Anthem
03 15 Step
04 There There...
05 All I Need
06 Nude
07 2+2=5
08 The Gloaming
09 Climbing Up The Walls
10 Street Spirit (Fade Out)
11 Reckoner
12 Karma Police
13 Arpeggi
14 Just
15 Idioteque
16 Exit Music
17 Bodysnatchers

Encore:
18 You And Whose Army?
19 Lucky
20 These Are My Twisted Words
21 Jigsaw Falling Into Place
22 Paranoid Android
23 Everything In Its Right Place

Now, to an ardent Radiohead fan like myself, there's a few songs in there which mean very little to be as quite a few tracks were taken from their latest album, In Rainbows - an album which made a lot of press last year when they originally gave it away for whatever price the buyer wanted to pay. Yes, if they wanted, they could have got it for free!

That's a clear example of Radiohead breaking those boundaries I've already mentioned. Their live shows do that too. Combining several genres of music to produce an end product like nothing you've ever heard. Opening with a classic track such as Creep could almost be described as a priviledge as they rarely perform it, and songs such as Karma Police and Street Spirit will make you stare and sing along almost hypnotically. Although their electronic material may be 'harder' to sing along to, which everyone likes every now and again, it's impossible to not be impressed.

Elsewhere at Reading Festival 2009, Arctic Monkeys and the Kings of Leon headlined the other evenings, and whereas they were undoubtedly good in their own right, they failed to hold a candle to Radiohead's performance. Whereas they seemed to go through the motions, Yorke and co owned the stage. It is their theatre. We all come to watch and listen in amazement...and it's great.

Summary: Watch them and appreciate brilliance