Somehow i refrained from writing this at 2.00 am last night:-) I FINALLY got to see Radiohead in concert yesterday, Saturday 7th of October, Thom Yorkes birthday. this show was way outside Dublin so we had to get buses. just let me set the scene, teh all-Ireland replays were yesterday, so there were some very merry Kerrymen on the bus wih us to the concert and they had the entire bus ecstatic. they had us singing, cheering, and dancing (well, i made up hte dancing part, it was a bus afterall!) so we were well and truly excited before we ever got to the site of hte show. we got to Punchestown around 5.30pm and we could see the Radiohead big top from the bus. it was a big blue tent with about seven or eight peaks with a blinking red light on top of each pead. it was designed to allow the best sound possible for the delivery of their music. it was also designed so htat the biggest crowd they would perform to was 10,000. apparently in 1997 Radiohead were playing their biggest crowd to date in a show (which i missed for stupid reasons) here in Dublins RDS -(that's where my college exams are eld:-( -they were playing to 38000 people, and they were very anxious. they didnt like the fuss. they didnt feel they could live up to the hype. the night before the show thom had a dream about hopelessness. and his song How to disappear completely from Kid A is about this experience. there were three flood light type things shinign up into the sky, and they were meeting in the air. apparently they were supposed to look like the "farmgirl" teddy bear that acts as symbol for radiohead lately. well, i'd been waiting for this day for years, at least since i missed the 1997 show. for the past few days there have been stories of Radiohead and Michael Stipe parteeeeeeeeing in U2's hotel The Clarence in Dublin's Temple Bar.....i was in the area on Friday night but i didn't get to see them (i was in U2's nightclub The Kitchen, an awful place) but i was affected by the atmosphere. we had been led to believe that there was no support act, so there was a general air of confusion when Clinic came out on stage. on wiht the show......i may be mixing up some of the details, but then i was so overjoyed to be so close to RADIOHEAD that i'm surprised that i remember anything at all!! Thom and the guys finally came onstage about 8.40 and launched in to an unrecognisably rocky version of National Anthem.....no more Charles Mingus influenced sax....just plain old guitars and drums.....and some technical jiggery pokery noises generated by an odd looking box that Jonny Greenwood was leaning over. the crowd went wild! I got to the very front during this song and was duely crushed! after the song, they stopped for a few seconds for Thom to getr a guitar and the whole audience launched into an unplanned sequence of Happy Birthday; he was scarlett! i swear to God, the man blused and laughed! somone threw a teddy bear (cuddly toy for our american friends) on to the stage and he picked it up and read teh card attached and laughed! Airbag followed! i really don't remember the entire set list or what order they played things. here's what i do remember; the songs from the new album were greeted very well by the crowd, even if i was one of the few that knew the lyrics. the songs from OKComputer met massive appluase,as did those from the Bends. they didn't play Creep (i expected that), they never played High and Dry or Fake Plastic Trees which was disappointing, but i won't dwell on that. they did play My Iron Lung, No Surprises, an amazing version of Karma Police with Jonny on piano, Paranoid Android, Lucky, Everything in its right place, Kid A, Optimistic, Idioteque, and Motion Picture Soundtrack, and Just. they played a song from the My Iron Lung EP but i dont remember which one it was. one of those magical momnets for me was when Thom sang " float down the Liffey" in How to disappear conpletely and the crowd went wild!!! they did, to my surprise, sing Talk Show Host, which was awesome. they covered a song called The Thief by a band called Can (i think). they did two sets of encores. included was Exit Music which was slowed down and very moving. and i think that they performed a Tim Buckley song. either that, or a new radiohead song which really reminded me of Tim Buckley. i'm no Tim Buckley fan though, so i'm not sure. this was another of those magical concert moments. the piano had been brought to the front of the stage and Thom Yorke had his back to where i was standing. it was a beautiful song, highlighted by teh amazing lights. about a minute into the song i realised that i could see Thoms face reflected in teh wooden panelling of the piano as he sang. that was a defining moment:-) the official barometer of "how much did i enjoy the show" tells me it was *almost* as good as teh REM satdium gig in Lansdowne Road last year. same barometer, of course, means that i can't talk out loud this morning, i cant move too fast, and despite that fact that i didn't drink last night i feel hungover ( i realise that it's four o clock in the after noon, but right now this IS morning time!) i was crushed, and shoved, and kicked, and knocked about, and i loved it folks! it was a great night:-) GARRET np(imh)- My Iron Lung from last night, remembering losing a shoe in the middle of this song!
