Radiohead touring in 2016

[Badlands]

There's a flatness to Thom's live vox in last nights videos that I'd never noticed before. Is this a recent decline or a one off??

[arcade fireman]

Great night. Not perfect, but a great way to start the tour. The fun of tonight was never going to be seeing the best performance of the tour, but the excitement of seeing the songs performed for the first time.

They nailed Idioteque, which has been an issue before.

Things I loved:

They all looked like they were having a great time (except when Jonny was having technical issues). Colin's always particularly enthusiastic but even by his standards he was in high spirits. Thom and Phil too. I don't think we need to worry about this final album nonsense. There's a theory on atease Thom wasn't having a good time - absolute rubbish. 

The crowd were fantastic. First night of the tour, first gig in 3.5 years, Burn the Witch was bloody exciting and then...perfect hushed silence for Daydreaming. Loved the awe on people's faces.

Burn the Witch! We were all wondering how they'd do it without the strings - of course Jonny on e bow! The way they built it up was great too. 

My. Iron. Lung. Nothing more needs to be said. 

Liked the version of Identikit they did - was this similar to the previous live versions? I try not to pay much attention to unfinished live versions of songs. 

Jonnys guitar bits at the end of Decks Dark were a nice surprise.

Sometimes they phone in Paranoid Android. Tonight was not one of those nights. 

Jonny was definitely MVP tonight. Was great to see him let rip a few times.

Things which didn't go as well:
Not sure about playing 5 new songs to start with. Part of the fun of a Radiohead gig is wondering what's coming next, trying to guess from what instruments they're holding or the sound Jonnys guitar is making. That mystery was lost a bit with that sequencing. 

Magpie after those five songs? Really? To be fair it does sound quite impressive live, but essentially it's still six brilliant musicians performing an fairly average song very well. Considering what else is in their back catalogue...

Desert Island Disk didn't need to be played. And Tinker Tailer sounds much better on record. The highlight is those strings falling in on themselves at the end, something which Jonny on synth doesn't really match. 

EEIRP was reworked a bit to fit the middle of the set. Was a bit subdued compared to previous versions. 

Anyway great night and looking forward to doing it again tonight! 

[FloorFiller]

aye, without the full orchestra backing, the five new song run to begin with did seem to fall a little flat, and following it with a TKOL track didn't help. obviously wasn't there so can't really comment, but judging by the streams it definitely didn't seem to pick up properly until There There. hoping they mix it up a bit for the rest of the tour

[arcade fireman]

8 minutes ago, FloorFiller said:

aye, without the full orchestra backing, the five new song run to begin with did seem to fall a little flat, and following it with a TKOL track didn't help. obviously wasn't there so can't really comment, but judging by the streams it definitely didn't seem to pick up properly until There There. hoping they mix it up a bit for the rest of the tour

They didn't mostly fall flat. Burn the Witch was reinvented as a slow burner building up and It worked really well in person. Daydreaming only has those strings in the final bit, Decks Dark had some added Jonny guitar at the end and Ful Stop was massive - I saw them play it in Sydney and this was a lot more fully fleshed out as you'd expect. The main issue was grouping them all together at the start. I think BTW, Daydreaming then non new song would've been much better. 

But yeah DID wasn't very exciting, Tinker Tailor was quite boring but I get the impression the band didn't think that worked all that well either. Even The Numbers which is great on record for me didn't hit those same heights live. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

58 minutes ago, Badlands said:

There's a flatness to Thom's live vox in last nights videos that I'd never noticed before. Is this a recent decline or a one off??

A falsetto's always going to be subject to a lot of wear and tear, and he's definitely at the age where he needs to look after his pipes. Yer Jaggers and so on all have vocal coaches and need extensive warm-ups and so on, and if the Yorkester's not yet in that sort of regime he might need to start thinking about it.

[jparx]

I imagine the setlist will be very tonight and they will have a better idea of what worked and what didn't. Desert Island Disk, Tinker Tailor, Magpie and Bloom were complete wastes of space I thought. Get those out and add True Love Waits (if they even intend to play it), Fake Plastic Trees, 15 Step and HTDC.

[arcade fireman]

Bloom was great! Agreed on the others though. 

[brettredmayne]

Unsure why the band are so persistent with KoL, hoping gradually more classics will come into the set list 

[stuartbert two hats]

2 hours ago, Badlands said:

There's a flatness to Thom's live vox in last nights videos that I'd never noticed before. Is this a recent decline or a one off??

I'd say neither.

I've noticed it a lot in the past. Particularly around Kid A time. I did notice his live voice picking up around In Rainbows. I'll see if I can find some videos of his erratic tuning over the years. Thom has never been one with perfect pitch, despite his beautiful singing.

Let's hope he's just getting into the flow of playing live again.

[PastRecedes]

Don't hate me for this - I'm aware this is a very early judgement considering they've only played one show on their tour so far. However, the general agreement is that TKOL is one of Radiohead's weaker albums, but the songs sounded a lot stronger live, right? Well after watching videos from last nights show, perhaps AMSP is kind of the opposite - the album is very popular, but without the strings perhaps the songs are slightly weaker live. Maybe they just haven't worked out a proper arrangement yet - it has only been one night. It is also a bit unfair to judge like this just from watching Youtube videos, but that's the impression I'm getting.

[arcade fireman]

8 minutes ago, dylangraham said:

Don't hate me for this - I'm aware this is a very early judgement considering they've only played one show on their tour so far. However, the general agreement is that TKOL is one of Radiohead's weaker albums, but the songs sounded a lot stronger live, right? Well after watching videos from last nights show, perhaps AMSP is kind of the opposite - the album is very popular, but without the strings perhaps the songs are slightly weaker live. Maybe they just haven't worked out a proper arrangement yet - it has only been one night. It is also a bit unfair to judge like this just from watching Youtube videos, but that's the impression I'm getting.

Going from last night a couple of them are weaker live - particularly the string heavy ones. Tinker Tailor is an obvious one. The Numbers another one. Burn the Witch was great in its own way. Present Tense is about the same as are Daydreaming and Decks Dark. Ful Stop and Identikit are better live. 

[Bradders]

1 hour ago, jparx said:

I imagine the setlist will be very tonight and they will have a better idea of what worked and what didn't. Desert Island Disk, Tinker Tailor, Magpie and Bloom were complete wastes of space I thought. Get those out and add True Love Waits (if they even intend to play it), Fake Plastic Trees, 15 Step and HTDC.

[Bradders]

Weirdly, those are the exact 4 songs I said i'd like to see added as well.

[jparx]

4 minutes ago, Bradders said:

Weirdly, those are the exact 4 songs I said i'd like to see added as well.

Make it so young Thom.

[jparx]

This is so good.

I genuinely reckon this song is up there with some of their best work. I don't feel confident to list it yet, but it's encroaching on the top 10.

Also, Thom's voice sounds spot on here. It seems to come and go throughout the show. Parts he sounded a little flat, parts he sounded like normal Thom.

[stuartbert two hats]

43 minutes ago, dylangraham said:

Don't hate me for this - I'm aware this is a very early judgement considering they've only played one show on their tour so far. However, the general agreement is that TKOL is one of Radiohead's weaker albums, but the songs sounded a lot stronger live, right? Well after watching videos from last nights show, perhaps AMSP is kind of the opposite - the album is very popular, but without the strings perhaps the songs are slightly weaker live. Maybe they just haven't worked out a proper arrangement yet - it has only been one night. It is also a bit unfair to judge like this just from watching Youtube videos, but that's the impression I'm getting.

I suspect you're right, but don't write them off just yet. If I listen to the video of them previewing TKOL at The Park all I hear is a stripped down, fairly straight playing of the songs on the album. No embellishment, certainly none of the looping that made Give Up The Ghost so wonderful on tour and, of course no real presence to the sound because it was a bootleg!

The only problem is, these arrangements are not likely to change much in the next month, so unless they do add an orchestra, this will be pretty  much what they play at The Roundhouse or Glastonbury. Hopefully with better vocals!

[brettredmayne]

52 minutes ago, dylangraham said:

Don't hate me for this - I'm aware this is a very early judgement considering they've only played one show on their tour so far. However, the general agreement is that TKOL is one of Radiohead's weaker albums, but the songs sounded a lot stronger live, right? Well after watching videos from last nights show, perhaps AMSP is kind of the opposite - the album is very popular, but without the strings perhaps the songs are slightly weaker live. Maybe they just haven't worked out a proper arrangement yet - it has only been one night. It is also a bit unfair to judge like this just from watching Youtube videos, but that's the impression I'm getting.

I do kind of agree with you,  the numbers sounds epic with the strings and loses something without them.

I think we will get a bigger tour in 2017 and hopefully have the full strings by then

[T-Mouse]

See I think Bloom and Magpie are worthy of inclusion. Any new songs im more than happy with aswell. Its really only The Gloamings inclusion that annoys me. They seem to love playing it and i just find it so average. Why not change that up for a deep cut. Talk show host, Pyramid Song, Morning Bell, Sit Down stand up. Something that doesnt get a run out usually. Thats my only big gripe with yesterdays setlist.

[jackarmy]

Probably gonna' get shot down in flames here, but I think that sort of setlist would go down pretty poorly with the general Pyramid crowd.

I suppose the Primavera & Secret Solstice headline sets will give a better impression as to what we could expect if they were subbing Adele.

[jparx]

4 minutes ago, jackarmy said:

Probably gonna' get shot down in flames here, but I think that sort of setlist would go down pretty poorly with the general Pyramid crowd.

I suppose the Primavera & Secret Solstice headline sets will give a better impression as to what we could expect if they were subbing Adele.

You're absolutely right and I don't think there's any expectation that if they do play before Adele, the setlist will bare similarity to the one we saw last night. If they get something like 15-16 songs, I imagine it'll be 5 album tracks, fewer songs from TKOL and a couple more from The Bends and OKC.

[dentalplan]

7 minutes ago, jackarmy said:

I suppose the Primavera & Secret Solstice headline sets will give a better impression as to what we could expect if they were subbing Adele.

I think that those festivals would resemble their normal set list more than a big slot at a major UK festival would have them. I don't think they watered it down at any of the festivals on the last tour.

[Waapster]

I'm at Southend airport waiting for a flight to Amsterdam. I won't be liveblogging as I prefer to receive data via my eyes and store it in my brain. But I'll tell you how the gig was later when I'm, er, relaxing...

[Waapster]

And I'm wearing an eFests t-shirt so do say hello if you see me

[Justiceforcedave]

I reckon if they play Glasto it'll be the new album in full. There! Said it.

[Waapster]

50 minutes ago, Justiceforcedave said:

I reckon if they play Glasto it'll be the new album in full. There! Said it.

In ful