All photos by Jing Zhou except first, by Brad Flora
Just got back from Radiohead. Notes:
1. There were a lot of people there. A regular multitude. This cell-shot is murky, but it conveys the scope of the event. I'm pulling a number of the air, but I'm guessing there were 75,000 people in attendence (which is in line with this prediction via the great Greg Kot of the Tribune.)
2. Radiohead played the hits. And then they kept playing more hits. I don't have a setlist for you, but they definitely played:
- 15 Steps - The band started the night off with the first song on their latest album, "In Rainbows." (ID'ed by commenter, Kevin, below.)
- Everything in its Right Place - The crowd went nuts for the opening chords of this one.
- Paranoid Android - Not the best live rendition I've heard of this one, but who's complaining
- Optimistic - Thom Yorke hit a few opening chords before this tune...and I recognized them immediately, turning smugly to Jing to announce (correctly!) what the next tune would be.The falsetto drones that run through the tune were HAUNTING.
- The Bends - The soaring telecaster solo sounded incredible in the flesh.
- Idioteque - Last song of the night.
- Airbag - This was song #2 (after a tune from the new album that I didn't recognize). Huge crowd pleaser. That cut-up bassline never gets old.
- Fake Plastic Trees - Nice mellow song. I wanted to rouse my whole section of the crowd into a singalong...but they were way to busy yelling at people and getting angry (watched show from a precarious spot near the stairs. Much pushing/shoving.)
- National Anthem - This sounded pretty darn good. I didn't care for the radio samples they layered over the tune, but so long as they nail the rhythm section it sounds great. Of course they did.
- No Surprises - Another crowd pleaser. I was honestly a little bored by this one in parts, though I like the recorded version of the song a good deal.
- Bodysnatchers - They ripped into this one like it was a bag of nacho cheese combos fresh off the rack from a Marathon Station. Just fun, raunchy rock.
- Dollars and Cents - Yorke's voice really screamed on this one.
- 2+2=5 - More on this in a bit as it was the highlight of the night.
Police helicopter hanging overhead during Radiohead's set.
3. Highlight of the night: Perfect song at the perfect moment in the perfect city.
Chicago's Police have been getting a lot of bad press lately. Security at the last "big event" (Taste of Chicago) was sorely criticized after a stabbing occured nearby. Lollapalooza's a big event for the city. The festival program includes a message from Mayor Daley. They're not taking any chances with safety this year, errecting a police tower at the northern Hutchinson Field.
If security was beefed up this year, I sure didn't notice it during the day. What I DID notice, however, and everyone else watching Radiohead, was the helicopter hovering over the crowd throughout the night, shining a spotlight down on the assembled masses. It was downright creepy, conscioiusly knowing that you're being watched. That you're all being watched.We'd all just seen Batman, too. It was a little too "Gotham" for me.
And it was during the helicopter's second flyby that Radiohead let rip with the opener from their 'Hail to the Thief' album, 2+2=5, a song that, while not baldly political, certainly has anti-authoritarian, anti-Bush overtones, with its refrain of "All Hail to the Thief!"
Seeing the copter overhead, hearing the band belt out the angular chords, I wondered if the crowd saw the connection. It sure seemed like it, judging by the applause the song received. Here was a tune that addressed what was happening that very moment to all 75,000 us. Who in the crowd didn't want to shake their fist at the blinking lights gliding overhead? Only at a rock festival, eh?
4. Strangers really do bond at rock shows...sometimes. I hadn't been to a festival-style concert in quite some time. So I'd forgotten the weirdo bond that can grow between people stuck together at random in the crowd, but who both enjoy the music together. Jing and I stood next to a really scary-looking skinhead covered in tribal tattoos who told us he snuck into the festival. I made a few comments to him here and there as people jostled into us and eventually we were talking Radiohead and having a grand old time. He confessed that he knew all the songs but couldn't remember any of their titles. I admitted I knew all their titles but hadn't heard the latest album yet. So we helped each other out. Everything was pretty chill, other than the moment when someone looked at him funny and he shoved the guy into next Tuesday...at least it wasn't me!
But sometimes the bond just isn't there. The hipster gal in the purple tank top standing on my left glared daggers at me all night long, first for *gasp* talking during the show, then (I think) for bobbing my head a bit too much and belting out a line or two of The Bends. I responded with a smile every time, but she only gave me more hate and eye-rolls. Boo!
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I can't say whether this was one of Radiohead's better or worse performances. It was my first time seeing them live. Truth be told, the crowd seemed pretty subdued. Late in the set, Yorke called them out actually, saying something along the lines of "You don't have to be so quiet." Of course, this elicited a roar from the audience, but even then it was far from deafening.
There may have been just too many people there. My perch was about 400 yards from the stage with an unobstructed view. But thousands were stuck clear across the field, with only suspended monitors playing live feeds from the stage. I can imagine I'd feel somewhat underwhelmed from that point of view.
On tap for tomorrow: Rage Against the Machine, plus a look at the most colorful and weirdest tattoos at the festival.
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lollablog
What'd you think of Radiohead's set? Was it up to snuff?
Did I misread the helicopter/2+2=5 moment?
Were you also the unwitting target of a hipster hate?
More Photos
Parts of the set were accompanied, to great effect, by fireworks.
Radiohead's lighting rig was pretty nifty. Here are some captures from a few of the better setups they tossed at the crowd throughout the night.
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48 weeks 2 hours ago
The crowd was really really subdued. I'm thinking that the heat and general claustrophobia played a big role here, people were so squashed together that they couldn't concentrate.
I actually thought that they went a little light on the hits. They played almost all of the last album, and only a small sampling from OK Computer and earlier. It wouldn't have killed them to give us something off of Pablo Honey.
48 weeks 2 hours ago
Pablo Honey! Bah! Snoozefest. Maybe my take on it being "hit-heavy" was based on expecting to hear 2 hours of bleeps and buzzing noises.
47 weeks 6 days ago
As a Radiohead fan, I approached this event with a bit of trepidation: I'd much rather see them play a smaller venue populated by mostly true Radiohead fans. The problem with the giant open air festivals are the sheer amount of boozed-up idiots, who heard there's something big happening musically, and there's this big band that everybody says is really good and of course, being the followers of popular fashion that they are, makes them "big" fans of Radiohead too.
So you end up standing in an open field, miles away from the stage, hearing the music through tinny speakers, unable to see much of the band (as Radiohead purposefully partitioned their images on the big screens into smaller shots showing each member of the band) and, worst of all, being continually jostled by an endless stream of drunk morons precariously navigating through the crowd with a beer in each hand, or on the phone shouting "you are WHERE? which way? i can't hear you!". And being mostly disinterested in what's going on on stage until they hear a song they think they know, and then sadly (for them) - it's not "Creep". Drunken shouts of "Plaaaaayyyy Creeeeeeeep!" ensues.
Nevertheless, even in the face of this adversity, Radiohead did indeed manage to enthrall most of the crowd from time to time. The light show was fantastic. It just got better and better as the night progressed. Pity about their big-screen-policy though: I would have liked to see them switching between band members on the screen though - at least I could have seen something. But the undoubted highlight of the night was the (random?) fireworks show, launched from way behind the Field Museum, that climaxed just as "Fake Plastic Trees" came to a head. Wow, what a powerful moment that was! It's a pity that more people couldn't have been similarly enthralled by the rest of the show.
But I've seen Radiohead three times now (Glastonbury, Newcastle and at Lolla last night) and they're not really a band that "connects" with their audience a la U2. They don't make any effort really - Thom doesn't seek it, nor does he seem to have that kind of attention-seeking charisma/personality. In fact, at the Newcastle show, they almost seemed to rush through their set with Thom hardly speaking to the crowd. Rather, Radiohead engage you with their onstage skill and how "into" they are into their music. I am hypnotized by Jonny, whether he's playing the guitar or the keyboards - he's so into it, and Thom busts some awesome dance moves from time to time. They are such a good band.
So I'm glad you enjoyed the show. Sorry for you that you haven't listened to the new album, as they played it in its entirety. Sadly I think that was true for a large part of the crowd last night. So, for a true Radiohead fan, I'll take what I can get - but I could have done without the boozed-up morons, the fake hangers-on and those cretins who were perpetually searching for other people. Somehow I think that's the story of their lives.
47 weeks 6 days ago
The title of the first song they played is "15 steps", which happens to be the FIRST song off their most recent disc. How you could not have known or recognized that is incomprehensible to me.
47 weeks 6 days ago
Those 2 hours were the most amazing 2 hours of the entire day if not the entire festival. Every song was a masterpiece, its almost shameful how subdued the crowd was up front, it seemed like all the energized people were the ones who hadnt camped for Radiohead and let me tell you, i was in the closest 25% of the crowd to the stage and we certainly were not being quiet. None the less, that tops any concert I have ever been to and most likely ever will go to (until next time I see Radiohead).
Thank you Radiohead
47 weeks 6 days ago
Kevin, Thanks for the assist, I'll add that to the list above. As I mentioned above, I haven't bought the new album yet. Does that make me lame? Quite likely. I really like Bodysnatchers and House of Cards so I should probably pick it up.
47 weeks 6 days ago
Ernest,
I couldn't of said it any better. I wonder if those morons ever found their friends.
47 weeks 6 days ago
Not so incomprehensible if you noticed these lines from the article: "He confessed that he knew all the songs but couldn't remember any of their titles. I admitted I knew all their titles but hadn't heard the latest album yet." That said, I'm surprised that he hasn't listened to the new album yet considering he was going to see them live, and report on it.
47 weeks 6 days ago
Here is the setlist:
01. 15 Step
02. Airbag
03. There There
04. All I Need
05. Nude
06. Arpeggi
07. The Gloaming
08. The National Anthem
09. Faust Arp
10. No Surprises
11. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
12. Reckoner
13. Lucky
14. The Bends
15. Everything In Its Right Place
16. Fake Plastic Trees
17. Bodysnatchers
Encore 1:
18. Videotape
19. Paranoid Android
20. Dollar and Cents
21. House of Cards
22. Optimistic
Encore 2:
23. 2+2=5
24. Idioteque
47 weeks 6 days ago
You, sir, are awesome.
47 weeks 4 days ago
I agree with the "hipster" people dont pay their money to see their favourite bands only to listen to an idiot talk all the way through it. She should have gave the chicago police a reason to be there if the reviewer wouldnt shut it
47 weeks 4 days ago
Hi Terry. Yours and other comments I've received this week via e-mail from readers definitely got the point across that there's a point at which talking is a no-no at shows like this. Whether or not I was over the line is up for debate, but clearly my neighbor thought so. Also, as credentialed media, its easy to forget that everyone else paid good money to be where I'm standing. Certainly something not to lose sight of.
What do you know about this?