Review by Josh, Philadephia
...Bittersweet.

My heart sinks at the end of Radiohead.

If I could have it my way, Thom Yorke would still be locked in a hotel room in 1997 telling himself "I'm not here; this isn't happening..." It wasn't easy watching the band humanize itself--but it was perfect at the end of 10 hours of the soggiest depths of the Meadowlands and so much time counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike. OK Computer and Kid A, on a side note, have had a greater role in my life than my collective extended family. I feel as if I've seen my own stillbirth backwards. So in the first 5 minutes, this show made one thing clear to me...

Radiohead is just a band.

It'll never happen again. Radiohead, that is. Just like David Byrne will never put down the congas and jump start the Talking Heads, Yorke can't un-become a successful family musician and freak the crap out anymore. So I'm confused, and I won't make up my mind. At least, not until the "next Radiohead" changes my mind. Then I'll decide I've got it all figured out 5 tracks into their third album, and then give up again at the third concert I see. The way I see it, It was either finish like this, or in some epic quadruple love-suicide... and I think it's close enough that the powers that be decided to flip a coin.

So I loved it. I loved the lights, the music (it wasn't loud enough however), the fans (absolutely the most peer-conscious and sensitive group of misfits on the east coast... I was 15 feet from the front, and about 2 dozen people NARCed this poor glassy-eyed girl out to the POLICE because they all thought she was overdosing on E or something. She had fallen over once or twice and was sitting on the ground talking spacy but perfectly. I WAS WORSE after 10 hours on my feet. Everybody did the "afterschool drug-special" HERO thing and SCREAMED for help, ruining this girl's chances of seeing an excellent show, and getting her in trouble when she would be fine in 5 minutes. I hope you are full of shame, you know who you are.) and the songs, finally I got to hear them play How to Disappear and I got to hear Thom bounce and sneer smiles to the crowd thru Kid A's title track.

BIZARRE. COMFORTING. CLOSURE? UNSETTLING. WATERLOGGED.

And the worst part is, I think I have to wait another 20 years for the next piece of the puzzle.

Review by TC:
I've always wanted to write a review of this astonishingly talented band, but always 30 up by the time I get there, so not tonight and here we go..first I want to thank the lovely 'kids' who took an older guy, on Wed.night, and took me into the group who knew each other and dryed me off and helped me sleep...(chris,rich,maryna,rachel,all the rest, lots of love and thanks). I'll skip the horrific treatment at the hands of the beacon staff, but this is a need to discuss both shows, for there was a great difference in purpose and the band is frighteningly adept at perception and format, the Thursday show was indeed a show for 'real RH fanatics, the diehards, and Yorke new it, and fed off the energy and the performance was blistering, loud like thunder, because the Beacon has a limited PA, and the blistering inferno in the performance was outrageous...that night Thom had so much fun, it was his friends in the front and he knew it so he could do 10 new songs and the audience knew all the words and stood up and sang them with him, much to his delight, and they blew the roof off the joint, the musical hero of the night was Jonny who played like a posessed demon, he reproduced sounds on the guitar that he used to use effects for, but without the effects, yeesh, and his sheer virtuosity was intense and spectacular, Ed grinned at him all night...lots of songs, lots of encores, and I even had a "tom yorke moment"...I'm kind of tall and so being in the 3rd row center, we locked eyes a lot all night, I thought it was my imagination...but on the last round of "this is what you'll get" on Karma Police, I cracked up and so did he and he hit a wrong chord and I fell back on my seat hystertical...wow, I made him laugh and he wasn't pissed off...now tonight at Giant Stadium, they couldn't even think of trying that show because even though many of us were there, it was a varied crowd for other artists and they wouldn't have understood so they got 'lucky' and then a raving 'just' for a 4th and 5th song, to keep it familiar to those who aren't devotees, and it was great...the real hero of tonights show was Nigel, who this time had an incredible sound system to play with and somehow let them turn a huge venue as close too intimacy as possible...instead of compensating for lack of toos with sheer volume and intensity (this is by no means a complaint either), he mixed the band so that the drums were smashingly fat and used the subwoofers to make the stars in the sky dance, and tonight, the fifth time I've seen them, Thom Yorke's vocals were so up front in the mix, so pristine and clear and vivid, like liquid crystals swimming in your mind, just absoulutely gorgeous and pure, when he did Exit music, I was so stunned by his voice I almost cried...good on you Nigel, a big tip of the hat, and also, tonights guitar hero was ED, who just ripped, while you could see them loving him come not a little but a lot more foward and especially on Talk Show Host, he seemed more like Jonny, he was blistering and off the rails. Tom apologised for the circumstances and felt badly for us, and for Beck...for those who like to know, he dedicated "Lucky" to Beck, and after a rousing 'Just' he said 'lots of dreadfull songs to go', said it twice, and with that silly smirk , he's a very funny man...after a dance-your-pants off 'I might be wrong', he just said 'WICKY', maybe you know what it means, I don't...maryna and I got filmed dancing during this song for a documetary being done, that was fun, I look like a spazz, she looks cool, o'well..at the very end of the show he said "You have to go home, it's cold and wet go home, drink something hot, get hot, with someone hot and please don't have a siezure" , then he broke all our hearts again with that band, that voice, and that song,'how to dissapear', and that was it, he danced like a firecracker was in his pants, and showered us with love...but this was a show as much for those who don't get them, he won everyone over with his huge heart matched by his huge voice....the Beacon show was exactly like the MSG show in 01, all RH devotees, he knew and the bar of intensity was raised considerably....tonights show was more like Liberty State Park, huge and grandiose, not too intense, but just as jaw-agape-dropping.....this is the most important band in the world and they seem comfortable with that now, nothing to prove, they can go where they want and we aren't leaving....I could write tons more but I'm sorry to have gone on this long...I do have one minor gripe, they appear to have dropped my personal favorite song "Airbag', three shows in a row without it and we were begging him to do it...almost did at the beacon, Yorke either thought so or was playing with us cause when they started lucky instead, he grinned like "Oh, well errr, oh'...but 'Where I end and you begin" has some similar chords and sounds, just a very different drum pattern and vocal, but they are similar so maybe it's been replaced...anyway thanks to the whole amazing band (oh yeah, one more, Phil was in a suit and very controlled on Thursday, tonight he ripped and did amazing fills and beats, he really showed off tonight, along with Ed, way cool), and the lovely audience it has attracted...my new friends, who came up tonight and hugged me and were glad I was there...thanks for all of this experience...forgive the length, it is heartfelt..cheers, mates

Review by Dave:
i don't have a whole lot complicated things to say as the new songs are impressive, and they were in good spirits... the stage rotated from the beastie boys set to the radiohead set, and there were a shit load of lights. but this round of radiohead shows seems to differ with 2 things: PHIL and ED. after years of listening to radiohead, we are graced with phil dancing around. and singing! and ed singing has always made live radiohead over the edge.

the thing about tonight's show that best highlights what is so great about radiohead, is at the end of the main set when jonny and ed are fiddling with samplers at the end of "everything in its right place," while everyone leaves the stage one by one, the last person on stage is ed, who's still playing with samplers. he does a quick check around and the jumbotron has him centered looking around with the expression "where the fuck did everyone go?!" completely lost in what he was doing.

the same thing happens in the audience. at the end of it, you wonder where everyone went.
thank you for reading,
-Dave

Review by Conrad:
Rain Rain rain and one of the best shows I have witnessed. And I have seen concerts since 1973. I meet Melon at 11:30 to get my ticket and decided to go home and wait till 6 pm so I could see beck and radiohead. Well Beck gets slammed by a roadie and has to cancel. Beatsie boys came out 40 minutes later and played for an hour. It was fun to see how they created the music but 60 min was enough. Worked my way up to dead center about 50-70 feet from stage. Couldn't meet melon between bands as I would never gotten back. Sorry Then Radiohead comes on and for the next 2 hours I was amazed by what I experienced. Their music on album has so many special effects or sounds and I didnt think at Giant Stadium I would be treated to very good reproduction of those effects. Boy was I wrong. The sound was immpeccable where I stood. I was able to hear every ping ding or bell that they created. Watching the guitarist play with their palet of instuments and toys I realized that radiohead is doing what the Beatles and Pink Floyd did to music by pushing the envelope with the technical and productional tools available at the time. The Drummer is possible as good as any I have seen which puts him in the class of Keith Moon and John Bonham and Charlie Watts. He is able to tie all the instruments together with his solid rythym. The underlying Blues and Jazz that Floyd expanded in their music is further streched by Radiohead. TO review song by song wont work as I dont have the new album. I enjoyed how Tom dances and gyrates accross the stage at certain points. I didnt realize he played so many instruments. All the players are multi instrumental. The guitarist's sits and play with some of their toys and created physcedelic sounds that amazed my senses, Overall the music and light show mesmerized me. I just felt like the whole floor was in awe. There were songs that everyone was so quite you could have heard a pin drop. I guess the show became a conceptual trip that reminded me of the moody blues and pink floyd shows I had seen in the 70's. I would hope to see them in august and bummed I have not seen them before


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