Everything, and I do mean everything, is in its right place. For me, though, Berlin 7/4/00 stands as the one I treasure above all others a perfect, almost indescribably moving document of its demon-haunted era. Because the SBD is so pristine there’s barely any audience noise whatsoever, to the point where the band sounds like it’s playing alone onstage much of the time – fitting given the sad, scared, lonely tone of most of this music.īut the performances are STUNNING: the single greatest version of “Kid A” ever (in its initial arrangement, inexplicably discarded soon afterwards and only resurrected in an inferior form in 2003), the final-ever “Bishop’s Robes,” bracing versions of “Optimistic” and “Knives Out,” and maybe my favorite-ever take on “Talk Show Host.” And it all ends with a valedictory encore that sums up the magic that has come before: Thom Yorke starts strumming the opening lines of “Nude” high on his guitar neck (listen out for the one fan in the audience cheering in recognition) and the band seems willing to join in, when he finally glides into a magnificent “(nice dream)” to wrap it all up.Įarl’s Court 2nd Night, Canal+, Warrington, Utrecht…Radiohead have played many great shows. This is Radiohead taking genuine risks, walking a tightrope, unsure of whether they’d fall off or whether they’d even be able to recognize it if they did. Later shows on the tour (see below) would find Radiohead playing to appreciative audiences of Napster-informed punters in giant circus tents or outdoor venues, but this early show in a tiny German concert hall is the sound of five musicians playing like Mephistopheles was just beneath, reaching up to grab at them – the audience is unfamiliar with the songs and frankly bewildered, and even though the group is shit-hot it’s clear that they really have no idea how it’s all going over. Perhaps no other show better epitomizes the mysterious, haunted desperation of the early Kid A tour, from before the album had actually been released, when the band was unleashing these alienatingly weird new songs upon completely unprepared audiences. What is there to say about this gig that hasn’t already been said before? A pre-FM SBD so perfectly balanced that back in the day the word was that it had been specially mixed by Nigel Godrich (presumably for a live release).
0 kommentar(er)
