Radiohead live in Newark (Night 2) – Live Report

OMG! and I, here doing homework

What is going on with Idioteque?! Second night in a row?

And whomever is live tweeting this is HILARIOUS. Most entertaining thing happening on my timeline right now. THANK YOU. xx

Good set list. but it’s basically been the same for the entire tour so far. They really need to diversify.

That was Ade tonight and he was actually at the show (we’re usually not) so he was able to provide more commentary. Plus, pretty sure he’d had SEVERAL beers.

YOU ARE AWESOME. Thank you.

I’m thinking I should do the same when I’m live tweeting it from my couch.

Thom skipped a verse during Paranoid Android and apologized briefly citing a long day. Idioteque got dropped before the typical live ending. Kinda rare even after last nights timing slips. Highlights included How to disappear (Possibly inspired by Stipes reported attendance?) and Kid A. Go to sleep had an extended guitar solo on Jonnys end. All things condidered it was a fantastic show.

Wow… night 2 is so much better than night 1.
Kinda jealous.

I wrote this as a comment for a BrooklynVegan post but it might be more relevant here,

The whole “messing up” Idioteque I’m pretty sure is a joke with the eventual punchline being, we aren’t performing that song anymore on this tour, Jonny forgot how to play it. It was weird cause the rhythm kind of shifted around although being the infectious party rocker that that song is some of the fans near the front of the stage, around and including me, were still compelled to try to sing, clap and dance to it. Which speaks to the greater point of them messing up any of their songs. It seems that they are attempting to draw out some kind of contentiousness between them and their louder fans. I’m not sure if it’s playful or mean-spirited but it was certainly there. Particularly if you consider the lyrics of Morning Mr Magpie, when they decided to not sing them and what was going on with the singing in the crowd. During “Paranoid Android” Thom Yorke dropped his vocals during the “you don’t remember, you don’t remember, why don’t you remember…” part and the crowd sing-along didn’t remember or care to continue to sing the ones that followed. They even prefixed this song with Thom saying something about James Dean, a “Rebel Without a Cause” reference? Personally as a city dweller and as a fan with an emotional connection to alot of these songs there is certainly a level of catharsis to letting loose and singing/breathing along. I can also see how it can be annoying to others, particularly when people don’t seem to actually know the words or where they fit in the instrumentation. The lack of talent as far as the crowd members vocal ranges and whatnot isn’t really as much of a thing to me as long as the people are into the music. For me as a spectator the random shouting and just plain old chattering during the set I’d say is more the thing that borders on being rude. Although, I’ve read things in interviews over the past in response to these issues I’d be interested in hearing what the band had to say about them in 2012. I wonder if they want to be able to to take some of their songs in a more jam band or jazz direction live and feel stifled by the crowd participation. Perhaps they prefer complete silence during their performances or maybe they are perturbed by the half-hearted nature of people’s singing along. -brandon

Re: my earlier comment, sorry it wasn’t Paranoid Andriod because I just watched the video, but there was another song where Jonny leaves in the middle to go talk to a roadie and Thom was expecting him to come back for a solo and when he didn’t Thom just sang the verse again to buy more time. I thought there was something wrong with the sound mix because Jonny’s solos were getting buried. Anybody remember what song it was?

I guess I’d agree with the latter part of your last sentence, but not the former. There’s no way they really do want “complete silence.” In all honesty though, I don’t think they’re trying to play some sort of psychological game with their fans… During the first night, they were smiling quite a bit at the audience members who were singing along or showing general enthusiasm. They also seemed particularly thankful to the crowd at the end of it. Maybe they’re just having trouble getting their machines to work properly – Thom said something like, “They say we have too many machines. I say we don’t have enough.” You might be looking too far into it.

Agreed

I have to say i thought idioteque was awesome regardless of Thom saying Fuck it and walking off the stage during the end of it. I thougth the entire show was great. Yes, they didnt play There There and Weird Fishes as i was hoping, but still getting to hear How to Disappear completely was amazing. And Supercollider is fantastic live. So all in all I thought it was a great show. I am seeing them on the 13th in Trenton and looking forward to it very much.