There’s always a buzz around Radiohead but in the past few weeks you can’t hide from Thom and his bunch of merry men. The new album, A Moon Shaped Pool, is a masterpiece, an elegant record that involves heartbreak, old favourites and a trip to the train station. With only 3 UK shows this year, all in the 3,500 capacity Roundhouse in London’s Camden, the buzz around these shows were huge. Just walking through Camden up to the famous Roundhouse, you can feel the anticipation, there’s hoards of people outside the venue trying to grab a golden ticket with no luck. These shows are special and tonight was no different.
The band open with, A Moon Shaped Pool’s opener, ‘Burn The Witch’ that captivates the audience from the very first note. Thom’s vocals are strong and haunting as he throws out the high pitches of the songs lyrics. They start off with the first 5 songs from the new record, all of which are done to perfection. Perfection is something Radiohead pride themselves upon, they don’t do half hearted and this tour has showed it. ‘Daydreaming’ sounds as heartbreaking and emotional as ever while ‘Full Stop’ has the crowd moving while belting “You’ve really messed up everything” straight back to the band from Oxford.
Throughout the tour Radiohead have been pulling out the classics from their back catalogue and tonight is no different. Once the new songs have been given their time to shine, Radiohead waste no time in delving deep into their bag of wonders, tonight ‘Airbag’ has the first mass singalong as we are shown why the OK Computers opener is so loved. This was swiftly followed by Kid A’s title track first tour outing. The Roundhouse is drenched in silence as the crowd watch in awe as the opening chords of ‘No Surprises’ rings out across the famous venue for the crowd to belt out the OK Computer favourite.
The Oxford band finish their main set with The Bends closing number ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’ which is a hauntingly beautiful and intense experience but we are far from finished. The bands first encore includes ‘Everything In It’s Right Place’ and The King of Limbs standout ‘Bloom’. The first encore finishes with ‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi’ from the bands 7th LP In Rainbows.
The band return to run through another In Rainbows classic with ‘Bodysnatchers’ sounding huge and having the crowd dancing like its the last night of their lives. Before we are treated to the last song of the bands marathon 24 song set. ‘Karma Police’ is an almost religious experience that has arms aloft and the whole crowd singing at the top of their voices.
Radiohead proved tonight why they are one of the most important bands to come out of this country and tonight they showed the adoring crowd why they are loved by so many all over the world. Despite the fucked up tout situation that surrounded the London shows, Radiohead made a triumphant return to these shores by taking us travelling through the Radiohead timeline. We’ll just pretend Pablo Honey didn’t happen, its for the best.
@mccormackcallum