i caught the chicago show reviewed below. great in unexpected ways--plenty of guitars(!), killer bass work and stunning setting. maybe i need a better stereo, but i thought the Kid A and Amnesiac songs sounded better live than on cd. yorke's a good performer, goofy and convulsively energetic. tho' his on-stage happiness that night took the angst/edge off the lyrics. -------------------- Concert review: Radiohead at Hutchinson Field -------------------- By Greg Kot Tribune rock critic August 2, 2001, 11:11 AM CDT As Radiohead singer Thom Yorke concluded the inaugural concert at Hutchinson Field in Grant Park on Wednesday, strumming an acoustic guitar through a sound system that should be the envy of every rock band on the planet, he summed up what had been a splendid evening on the lakefront. "This is a really cool place to play," the British singer said on one of the year's hottest days as a crowd of 25,000 cheered. "I think you should do it again." Are you listening, Mayor Richard Daley? The notoriously finicky singer knows a good time when he's had one, and this two-hour performance --- with Buckingham Fountain and the city's magnificent skyline as a backdrop --- was one of the better lakefront parties of recent years. If the Radiohead concert was a test case for the viability of Hutchinson Field as a rock-concert venue in future summers, as several park officials have said, this decision should be a no-brainer for the City Hall brain-trust. Despite the city's resistance to large gatherings of young people on its precious parkland for rock concerts (most notoriously pulling the plug on a free Smashing Pumpkins show that was tentatively slated for Grant Park in 1998), the city should be commended for staging this event with Jam Productions, and should be strongly encouraged to do more. Hutchinson Field blows away most major Chicago concert venues for ambiance, and Radiohead exploited that advantage by paying its fans the ultimate respect, serving them an affordable ticket (under $40), a state-of-the-art sound system (marred only by lake breezes), an advertisement-free stage, an imaginative set list drawn from all five of the band's records and a daring performance the equal of any seen at a large concert venue in recent years. The triumph was nearly upstaged by the inability of Jam and the Park District to agree on issues fundamental to the crowd's welfare. On Tuesday, Jam announced that ticketholders would be banned from bringing even bottled water into the event on a 90-degree day, contradicting statements made by parks officials the day before. Fans were eventually allowed to each bring a single sealed bottle onto the concert site, but the confusion could have been avoided, and the onerous rules relaxed. Why shouldn't a paying customer arriving for a midsummer concert on park property--maintained with taxpayer funds--be allowed to bring water bottles or even a cooler? Bureaucratic runarounds aside, the event otherwise ran smoothly, and even the sun-struck crowd was energized by Radiohead's transcendent performance. The major question facing the band before the show was how the more atmospheric, almost vaporous songs from its two most recent albums, "Kid A" and "Amnesiac," would fare in a large outdoor setting. But the band quickly answered those doubts, with Colin Greenwood's surging bass line leading a rampage through the opening "The National Anthem." This was guitar-based rock with avant-garde trimmings, not a gathering of precious art students donning white lab coats in their studio. Even some of the quieter, more disquieting tunes were rearranged to accommodate a more aggressive attack. The sound was still eerily futuristic, thanks to Yorke's vocals, which veered from distress to rapture and back again, and Jonny Greenwood's mad-scientist array of instrumental sound effects. But the foundation of the sound was built on Colin Greenwood's four-string ax--particularly the fuzz-tone venom he injected into "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushed Tin Box" and Phil Selway's nuanced yet powerful drumming. "How to Disappear Completely" turned Grant Park into a cathedral of longing, and "No Surprises" resounded like a lullaby, the city lights twinkling in time with the chime of Jonny Greenwood's xylophone. But nothing surpassed the one-two punch that closed the main set. On "Idioteque," the diminutive Yorke shook with the violence of a rollercoaster passenger enduring a bumpy ride, while "Everything in Its Right Place" mutated from a devastated soliloquy into a majestic symphony of distorted electronics and cataclysmic percussion. If any proof were needed that the new, more experimental Radiohead can still rock, here was the irrefutable evidence. It was a show so good, one hopes Radiohead doesn't wait another three years for its next tour. How about the same time, same place next year? What do you say, Mr. Mayor? Copyright (c) 2001, Chicago Tribune SET LIST, CHICAGO, 8/1/2001 The National Anthem (kid a) Morning Bell (amnesiac) My Iron Lung (bends) Karma Police (OK) Knives Out (amne) Permanent Daylight (iron lung) Optimistic (Kid) How To Disappear Completely (Kid) Dollars And Cents (amne) No Surprises (OK) Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box (amne) Talk Show Host (b-side to street spirit) Pyramid Song (amne) Paranoid Android (OK) Idiotheque (Kid) Everything In Its Right Place (amne) ---------------------- Lurgee (Pablo) I Might Be Wrong (amne) Climbing Up The Walls (OK) You And Whose Army? (amne) ----------------------- Lucky (OK) Fake Plastic Trees (bends) ---------------------- True Love Waits (Thom acoustic) Street Spirit (bends) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
