It’s another Radiohead related gig! This is, by my count, my 11th, and my third time seeing The Smile. It’s good to be back.
This obviously requires that we are queuing for about 2 hours before doors, an inevitability that Alasdair takes in good humour. We pass the time with food, mostly, with burgers and donuts fuelling us and with the occasional sip of water to find the fine balance between not being dehydrated and not be holding in a piss for the duration of the gig. The reward for all our efforts, though, is to be on the rail on Thom Yorke’s side of stage, and that is worth it to actually be able to see things.
And the things we see! It’s a fantastic gig. Wall Of Eyes is covered almost in its entirety, with an imperial rendition of Read The Room and a beautiful rendition of You Know Me! to send us into the night. The previous album is well represented - Thin Thing still absolutely kicks off live, the vocoder dominating the mix more than it ever does in the studio, Thom Yorke making playful facial expressions and shrugging with the lyrics. Jonny Greenwood declares “I’m scared!” before starting one of the three new songs in the mix, which is arguably the most I’ve heard him speak. It is almost impossible to take your eyes off Thom Yorke, an unintuitively charistmatic and magnetic performer. The whole thing is masterful.
After the gig, we wait around with some of the actual obsessives, hoping for an autograph, but eventually we must dash for Victoria Coach Station to get back to Bristol and also another few minutes there might have meant the absolute insanity of those people rubbed off on us. Never be a weird fan, kids.
James Holden’s support slot is a mixed bag. When it’s good, it’s very good. Unfortunately, for a large chunk in the middle, something has gone awry, his MPC seems to be malfunctioning because nothing’s quite in time with anything else, the crowd gets lost, and he only just about gets them back again. This is compounded by the PA cutting in and out throughout the whole evening. You expect better.