In August, I was in Chicago to see Oasis, and before the show, a friend told me he was going to Madrid to see Radiohead in November. What are you talking about, I said. A week later, Radiohead announced its first tour in seven years. It immediately got me thinking about set lists and what the band might play. So here are four songs on my Radiohead live wish list.
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“Lucky”
In 1997, I saw Radiohead perform at a small club in St. Louis during the tour for OK Computer. The album hadn’t exploded yet, but everyone packed into the room that night could feel something had changed. The band opened with “Lucky”, and we were lucky to witness it. To this day, when I hear Thom Yorke sing, “Pull me out of the air crash,” I get goose bumps.
“Just”
Many look to Jimmy Page or Tony Iommi for legendary guitar riffs. But in the 90s, I looked to Jonny Greenwood. And “Just” remains one of the most mind-blowing pieces of guitar playing the 90s offered. (Until “Paranoid Android”.) The Bends is Radiohead’s final straight alternative rock album. You can already hear the band transforming. But before they began a march away from guitars, “Just” offered an explosion of Oxford grunge and Greenwood’s classical music genius.
“Everything In Its Right Place”
When I bought the Kid A CD and first heard “Everything In Its Right Place”, I sat there and stared at my stereo speakers. I didn’t know what it was I was hearing, other than the greatest thing I had ever heard. You see, Radiohead was like The Beatles for me. This track in particular was so radical at the time—how Nigel Godrich chopped Yorke’s voice into little fragments, pitch-shifted and mangled over lyrics about the excruciating taste of a lemon in one’s mouth. I’ve seen Radiohead perform it live multiple times, and it’s like an acid house party from outer space.
“The National Anthem”
Artists performing on Saturday Night Live often play their latest hit. You are there to promote the new album. When Radiohead appeared on SNL in 2000, they ripped through “The National Anthem”. My friend called me at the time and said he’d watched it with his dad, and his dad didn’t understand what was on the TV. This was a band hooked on Charles Mingus and Aphex Twin. Yorke was on a mission. You might come here for “Creep”, but instead, here’s a free jazz experiment with the claustrophobic feeling of a traffic jam.
Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage
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