MSG Me. I'm ready and willing.
Radiohead - June 18, 2001
Woodlands Pavilion in Houston, TX
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Sarah and I got away from her house at around noon on Monday, the day of the concert, and made good time. Slow traffic kept pissing me off on the way there even though we put in 3 or 4 hours before the show. We had time to chill with my cousins (whom we crashed with), get Sarah acquainted with Katie, and throw down massive amounts of OFF! before heading out at about 6. We should've left much, much sooner though, because the traffic around 45 was a nightmare and I was under the delusion the show would start on time. We made it to the Woodlands area at a little after 7, and made our way through the woods to the pavilion. Getting a ticket for Katie was a pain in the ass, involving numerous calls to the ticket broker and meeting the guy at will call to get it. We had lawn seats and I suggest to anyone seeing a show at the Woodlands to get there very very early if you also have lawn because you can't see shit. A DJ opened instead of the original opening band (whose bus broke down) and threw out some phat DJ Shadow-esque tracks until twilight. I should say ahead of time this was the most amazing concert I've seen, and I've seen some really fucking good shows. It says a lot that I would rather see a Radiohead show than a ZZ Top/Skynyrd or CSNY concert. Anyway, about twenty minutes after the DJ cut out, the lights dimmed, the eerie stage lights came on, and the single greatest modern band stepped into the purplish glow. 01. National Anthem (Kid A) 02. Morning Bell (Kid A) 03. Lucky (OK Computer) 04. My Iron Lung (The Bends) 05. Bones (The Bends) 06. Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box (Amnesiac) 07. Knives Out (Amnesiac) 08. Exit Music (For a Film) (OK Computer) 09. No Surprises (OK Computer) 10. Dollars and Cents (Amnesiac) 11. Karma Police (OK Computer) 12. I Might Be Wrong (Amnesiac) 13. Pyramid Song (Amnesiac) 14. Paranoid Android (OK Computer) 15. Idioteque (Kid A) 16. Everything In Its Right Place (Kid A) --1st encore-- 17. You And Whose Army? (Amnesiac) 18. Street Spirit (Fade Out) (The Bends) 19. Climbing Up The Walls (OK Computer) 20. How To Disappear Completely (Kid A) --2nd encore-- 21. Talk Show Host (B-Side) 22. The Bends (The Bends) When Colin's distorted bass kicked in playing the intro to National Anthem I jumped about 4 feet off the ground. It has a fantastic intro so what better way to kick off the North American tour? The first very welcome surprise was Sarah's song, Lucky. "kill me Sarah, kill me again with love..." It was like he wrote and sang it just for her. We couldn't have asked for a better set list. In fact, if we'd gotten them to stick around for a 3rd encore (which everyone tried to do) Electioneering would've been my choice. I overheard many people discussing how they'd wanted to hear Creep. This demonstrated to me how many people were fortunate enough to be at that show but didn't know anything about Radiohead. A lot of people knew and went crazy during the famous singles (paranoid android, the bends) but didn't notice How to Disappear Completely. Anytime I heard anyone mention Creep, I wanted to grab them by the shoulders and scream "You dipshit!! Why do you think they played My Iron Lung??" My Iron Lung was written about how much they hate what Creep did to them in 1993-4. Creep IS the iron lung! It's likely the only true bitter Radiohead song and it's bitter for a reason. Learn some Radiohead trivia. It'll help you to better understand their concerts. Bones sort of epitomizes Radiohead to me. "You've got to feel it in your bones" as it says which is exactly how the band is. If you don't feel it, you just don't understand. The studio versions of Everything in its Right Place and Packt Like Sardines are rather slow electronic songs, but they played them as full-fledged rock songs. I love a new version of a song I've heard a thousand times. Idioteque was played almost exactly as it was on SNL in October '00, so if you watch that you'll see what I saw except up close. Sarah likes the studio version better but in that version you don't get Thom doing the flappy hands rubber body dance. Exit Music was simply incredible. That almost drew tears from me, but not quite. It began with only Thom visible on an acoustic and by the time it reached the climax of the song "and you can laugh..." the entire band was playing and then it was back to Thom, all alone, confronted by a sea of lighters and teary-eyed fans. No Surprises was unexpected (ironically) and really mellowed everything out. Having bought Amnesiac only two weeks before, it was great to hear so many tracks off of it. I Might be Wrong is one of my theme songs. And now we come to Pyramid Song, which ranks among the greatest few minutes of my life. Thom said "This is a song about past lives" and played the opening bars on his piano and my eyes immediately welled up, even as Sarah nudged me and laughingly said "don't cry." Oh well. The beginning of the song was so beautiful I didn't know what to do with myself, so I cried. One tear, right as he said "All my lovers were there with me, All my pasts and futures..." I've never felt like that before and I don't know how to describe it. Thom takes a swig of water then says "This next song's for all the people in the back with WEED. HIGH to all the people in the back! This next one's called.... No, I'm not going to tell you what it's called." For Paranoid Android to be so close on the heels of Pyramid Song, I could've died. Paranoid Android is the most musically impressive song off OK Computer which says an awful lot. The bizarre ambient noises ending Everything in its Right Place continued well into the first encore and ended as the band came back out. I was still waiting for my other favorite off Amnesiac, You and Whose Army when I heard "Come on, Come on. You think you drive me crazy." Radiogasm! It builds and crescendos much like Pyramid Song and makes you wish they'd just play it over and over again. At that point Thom said "this next song's for anyone who's seen people on the street that weren't strictly there." Then came the clean electric opening to Street Spirit, yet another tear-jerker for me. At the time I was wishing they'd play Fake Plastic Trees but their choice was better. This was followed by the only truly creepy Radiohead song, Climbing up the Walls, before which Johnny tunes to a classical music station and mixes it into the song. He even got a commercial at one point and it still sounded sweet. How to Disappear almost made my knees buckle. After that I was scared they were actually leaving.... but then they came back and hit us with the biggest surprise of the night, Talk Show Host. I almost came in my pants when the keyboard opened up, and midway through the song I realized it was closer to the remix off the R&J soundtrack than the original. Everyone my age who appreciates that movie really dug that song. And of course, the perfect end to a perfect show, The Bends. "Where do we go from here? The words are coming out all weird Where are you now when I need you?" Surprisingly, a lot of people who didn't really get into any of the songs went crazy during the bends. As many songs as they'd played we all knew each could be the last and I think everyone wished they'd never stop playing The Bends. Sadly, they did. Then Thom says, "Thank you for being so lovely and sweet to us tonight" and then it was all over. I could go ahead and die now. I've seen Pyramid Song, Free Bird, La Grange, and Cinnamon Girl live. Actually I'll stay alive so I can get some fucking decent seats and some weed next time Radiohead comes through. |
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