Show Review: Radiohead

Wayne Blogged The...Show Review:
Radiohead. Comcast Center, August 13,2008
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My oh my, if the indie rock gods don't smite me now they never will...

Last night's Radiohead concert at the Greatwoodstweetercomcast Center in Mansfield, MA left the 19,889 other fans (a mixture of dads, bros, and hipsters) blinded by the intensity of the performance. But none of them were listening.

Let me precursor this dangerous review with a fact: I love Radiohead. They've made continuley interesting music over the past decade, a feat not many bands can claim. But last night's show let me down.

The stage set up was amazing, the lights were great, the set list was solid, the opening band (Grizzly Bear) was great...but Radiohead's performance just seemed...truly uninspired.

Thom Yorke still did his impression of a chimp doing the running man during the set. The band was pretty tight, and seemed appreciative of the responce they were getting...but they really weren't connecting with the crowd...they were playing TO them. For such a non-conformist, Yorke's stage presence is very contradictory. Early on, you can tell he's uncomfortable in his situation. And instead of making the crowd feel like they're part of the show, or that this is a special night, the band just went through the motions in a very "we are the band, you are the audience, those are our roles." type of way.

And besides the fact that I felt like they were trying to convey the feeling of doing America a favor by touring, their music doesn't translate well live, no matter how hard they try to disguise that with their light show. There's no hope in their music, nothing to smile about. And that's fine, it's part of the reason everyone loves Radiohead. But live, it just brought me down. I don't know about the thousands of over crowd members, but I like smiling at concerts. I even like jumping occasionally (which is more like flailing like a Kermit The Frog puppet), but Radiohead's music just makes me cross my arms and contemplate my existence.

If there was ever a box set of all of Radiohead's albums, it should be called Music For The Bush Administration Years. Just a lot of angst, and uncertainty pumping from the loud speakers in Mansfield last night...