This is the second show I've seen Radiohead play. I haven't heard anyone else's feedback for this tour, just stories of the fabled perfect setlist in Oxford and sellouts at Madison Square Garden... but the Amnesiac tour has had a totally different feel than the OK Computer tour-- What I mean is the spite is gone. In mid-1997, I saw them play the electric factory in Philly, disdainfully playing Creep after the lame crowd grew impatient with the actual incredible songs like Airbag and started chanting for the pop-- Thom decided 15 seconds into the song that he wouldn't sing, and let the crowd do it--only to strain and mock himself from 5 years previous in the song's chorus. This show in Boston he did for the crowd. He joked, he talked, he made fun of Jonny's hair. The stage had the look of the bridge of an alien ship from the original Star Trek, just a lot more colorful--mirrored sheets hung from the top of the backstage-- with patterned halogen light bars, horizontal and vertical, thatched onto the backdrop. After about 30 minutes of old 40's love songs when Kid Koala finished mixing, the five walked onstage, all smiles greeting the crowd. Colin looked at Phil and nodded, and tore into the heavy riff of National Anthem. The first 4000 in the crowd had been admitted into a small pen that ran right up against the stage, and with the first bass notes, everyone went wild and stampeded to the front rail, pressing 4000 into about 40 feet of space. The lighting was incredible, the atmospherics were incredible, the crisp clean sound was incredible---all there was to notice was Thom, shaking and pulsing and spitting out falsettos to layered distortion and a powerful driving drum beat. This is the first time i've seen a crowd in America bounce, rather than do it's regular grungy drone "sway". National Anthem, Airbag--"1..2..3..(song starts, stops...) Um, that starts in a FOUR count (Ed laughs)", Morning Bell--which was sung in an orange cloud of fog onstage for a spectacular effect, Ed's vocals were louder than i'm used to, I think it made the performance even better. Lucky, Knives Out, Packt Like Sardines--which Thom referred to as just "Packed" before hand, and was played sans-electronica--instead had Colin pounding the bass line with hard distortion and Thom manning the tambourine. No Surprises, Dollars+Cents, Street Spirit, Pearly--a song which followed a long rap from Thom about his disgust with the Mexico Hard Rock Cafe, for displaying Kurt Cobain's cardigan and guitar from unplugged three months after his death... "The fecking bastards probably went into his house and ripped it off his dead body". Just--which I enjoyed way too much and dislocated a shoulder breifly in the chaos (well worth it), I might be wrong, Pyramid Song, Paranoid Android--"this is a song about ghosts and things like that... well actually, all these songs are i guess", Idioteque-- in-fucking-credible is the only thing i can find to say, Everything in its Right Place--ended the set, Thom played the synth while Jonny manned his toys, at the end of the song the band waved and walked off, leaving only Jonny front center onstage with his little remote-control looking box--and for about 5 minutes to the roar of the crowd he fiddled and mixed Thom's voice from earlier in the song, eventually walking off box-in-hand keeping the noise up for another two minutes or so. First Encore-- "We've actually just started doing this song, it's called Like Spinning Plates." Thom played a rolling tune on the clean piano, looking at Colin trying to get him to find where he was, Jonny played the synth stage right--the piano abruptly stopped. "Fuck. Alright. (Colin containing his laughter)." Talk Show Host, You+Whose Army, The Bends-- i song i was never as fond of until this night, refreshing and spectacular near the end of a set filled with the distance and dissonance of Amnesiac and Kid A. Second Encore- "This is a song for any of you who are in a job you can't stand." I was praying and yelling for How to Disappear, but Karma Police was the next best I could have asked for. "I want to thank the Beta Band, Kid Koala..." Finally, the Tourist--which i thought was perfect. The ended the show how they ended their Darkside-esque Album four years ago. Needless to say, I was in a constant state of pinching myself the whole night... I tackled some people to dive on a setlist that was thrown down into the crowd, and made a run over the rails with a crazy dream of finding the band to sign it. I got about 20 feet, then was grabbed and thrown against a wall, roughed up a bit and quickly escorted out of Suffolk Downs race track. I was close, but next time I'll get it. "If you were a dog they would have drowned you at birth" "I'll be waiting with a gun and a pack of sandwiches" "This is really happening"