DOWNLOAD BOTH LINKS OR THOM YORKE WILL COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND PUT THE HURT ON YOU.
Link 1
Link 2
For a moment there I lost myself. I forgot how utterly obsessed with Radiohead I am. I don’t care what anyone says. They are by far the most creative, relevant, talented, dynamic, adaptive, emotive, influential, and awe-inspiring group of musicians of all time. People say that to claim they are the new Beatles is blasphemous, but I would go as far as stating that they will go down in history as even more legendary. No one even comes close to them. They are, in effect, untouchable. They soar over their competition with grace and ease as they create real art in an era that is cluttered with garbage pop music and talentless bands trying to make a quick buck and become ‘a part of something’. For Radiohead, it’s completely different. They are something. They are everything that any musician should aspire to become: independent, creative, and free. They are known all around the world and command legions of die-hard fans, such as myself. People wonder why Thom Yorke is such an asshole, but it’s pretty obvious. The man is expected to be the figurehead of modern music and he’s only 40 years-old, yet somehow everything he puts out is gold. Their sounds are inventive and nostalgic spanning several genres in a single song. Radically evolving over every album they release and putting on the best live concert that man has ever known. It’s almost unfair to use words when describing them because I feel I will never do them proper justice. For a moment there I forgot about my love for Radiohead, then I listened to this live set once again and was instantly transported back to the happiest day of my life.
Weathered and worn, but kept for sentimental value
It’s been 271 days since I first saw my favorite band perform live at Lollapalooza. I had planned on taking the megabus the day before, but I had scheduled it for the wrong date and didn’t realize until I was denied the ride by the bus driver. Upset, but in no way deterred, I got picked up by my mom who left work to drive me home from downtown. I left my home in Cleveland, Ohio within a half hour and drove for 6 1/2 hours by myself. To be perfectly honest, it didn’t fade me in the slightest bit. Sure, it was boring as all hell sitting by myself for that long while driving straight through the mid-west, but the excitement running through my veins made it go by pretty quickly. When I finally got into Chicago it was pretty surreal. For the past four months, I had dreamed about the events that were going to happen in just 24 hours. It was the only thing that I could think about for weeks. That night, I struggled to fall asleep. The next day, I was going to one of the most well known music festivals in the United States, let alone the world, to see the biggest band on the planet perform. The following days would bring the second two days of Lollapalooza and seeing Radiohead once again in my hometown, bringing it to a total 4 days of music, making it the summer of my dreams condensed into 96 hours. Not to mention, a week later I drove to Pittsburgh to see Deerhunter in a tiny venue and got to hang out with Bradford Cox afterward.
Who wants to play volleyball?
I have been to many shows in my life and I knew that this was going to be the best before Radiohead had even taken the stage. We went to the AT&T stage about 3 1/2 hours before they were scheduled to play. Gogol Bordello was playing and they were extremely rowdy. We came along the right side and crept in as the set was ending. I used my size to my advantage and squirmed through people as my high school friend, Mike, who I was staying with, and his friends followed close by.
That’s a pretty big bloc, guys…
Bloc Party was set to perform before them, but they played with a fill-in bassist, as theirs was not there because his first child had just been born. It affected their stage presence but I thought they still did a pretty good job. And so, we waited. I watched as the most amazing light show I have ever seen was brought out and set up. About 15 minutes before the set started Mike put me up on his shoulders and I saw the seas of people behind us. We were only 20 people back with at least 75,000 behind us.
Seas of people.
Everyone became extremely excited as we saw that the banners were dropped revealing huge speakers. Everyone rushed another 20 feet closer and I literally climbed over people. Soon we saw Thom, Jonny, Ed, Colin, and Phil take the stage. Something came over me and everything else in the world shut off. I remember feeling more alive in that moment than I have in years.
This was my view of the show at the beginning
They started off the set with some electronic bleeps and bloops and transitioned into the 5/4 beat that signaled 15 Steps. I remember being in disbelief that this was happening to me and felt as though in some way myself and the other 75,000 + people were connected. We shared the same beam of life if only for a moment. “One by one, one by one, it comes to us all.” the lyrics seemed all too fitting for such an occasion. The Oxford band quickly switched to an older number, Airbag, off of what is arguably their most successful release, OK Computer. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown to me, that song is not included in the soundboard recordings that I have uploaded. Next up was There There off of their 2003 release Hail to the Theif. I must admit that during this performance I cried multiple times, this being the first occurrence.
A really tall bro wearing an aqua polo was standing in front of me. He had to be at least 6′ 5″ and didn’t know any of the lyrics. I asked him if I could move in front of him as I had never seen my all time favorite band before and he scoffed at me. I tried to get around him but he wouldn’t let me through. Soon enough though, a kid crowd-surfed and he was hit in hit head since it was towering above us. I saw my opening and I took it, getting me another 10 feet closer. He saw me soon after and gave me a dirty look but I couldn’t have cared less. I didn’t consider him to be as true a fan as myself and therefore he shouldn’t have any right to be upset that someone who actually cared about the event was able to get closer.
Soon the band moved onto another In Rainbows track, All I Need. During the breakdown near the end of this song I remember having an out of body experience and since the music was so loud I couldn’t help but rock out harder than I have in my entire life. Next up was Nude which was equally as awesome. You know that break halfway through that song before the soothing oohs that Thom and the rest of the band sing? I again started to tear up again right then. This isn’t real I kept telling myself. This isn’t happening to me. Weird Fishes-Apreggi (In Rainbows) quickly lead into The Gloaming (Hail To The Theif). The lights for the Gloaming were incredible but nothing compared to those synchronized for The National Anthem, which was the first Kid A track of the night. The song started as it always does with a different radio broadcast track. This time it was two DJ’s (I think it was the guys from Sound Opinions) talking about an artist who “Mixed Liquid Liquid with Frankie Goes To Hollywood”. During the recording of The National anthem Thom told the session musicians to “go crazy as if they were stuck in a traffic jam”. The result is one of my favorite Radiohead songs and a great one to dance around to. Flashes of red light surrounded me and it was the most amazing thing my eyes have ever beheld.
“OMG, GREEN LIGHTS!”
Ed, Phil, and Colin stepped off stage as Thom and Jonny played the acoustic song Faust Arp. The other men joined to play another Ok Computer song, No Surprises. During this song, after Thom sings “bring down the government, they don’t speak for us”, everyone cheered incredibly loudly. You can hear it alright on the recording, but actually beeing there was a different story because somehow it actually drowned out the band if only for a second. Jigsaw Falling into Place was another great song live as expected, but the song that I was really looking forward to see was just up next. Reckoner is easily my favorite song off of In Rainbows and for good reason. “Dedicated to all you, all human beings” those words describe how the song made me feel better than any I could produce. Another fan favorite Lucky was up next followed by The Bends, the title track off of their 1995 release.
Having heard my fair share of live recordings I knew the next song’s live intro before the melody to Everything In It’s Right Place kicked in. The screen slowly spelled out the song title in as if it were a scrolling news reel. Since I was so close I couldn’t see it but there were fireworks from a baseball game that just so happened to appear right above the stage for that song and the following one, Fake Plastic Trees. Can you say epic as fuck? They played Bodysnatchers and left the stage. Soon the sound of music was replaced by tens of thousands of people cheering on five men to come back. I couldn’t possibly imagine what that feels like. To have that many people concentrated purely on you. In fact, Lollapalooza organizers didn’t even bother putting anyone else in their timeslot because they knew that Radiohead would draw everyone. Hell, most people didn’t even watch the Raconteurs because they wanted to get a good spot. They were the only band playing the festival who were granted this treatment.
For their first encore Radiohead started with a slower song but at the same time, one of their most powerful, Videotape. The song is about Thom recording a day with his children so that they can watch it again after he has left this plane of existence. Paranoid Android was next and the breakdown at the end was of of the most intense musical moments any of us had ever witnessed. Dollars and Cents was the first and only Amnesiac song that they played.
They played House of Cards next which is in my opinion the weakest track on In Rainbows, but playing it meant that they had played every song off of In Rainbows. Unfortunately, non were played off of the second disc. Another Kid A track, Optimistic was played just before they left the stage again, but the song was among the best of the night and a great one to leave the stage on.
Near the end of the show I was incredibly close to the stage.
For their second encore they played 2+2=5. It’s the first song off of Hail to the Thief and one that encourages you to fuck shit up, which is exactly what happened as people forged their own path out of the park over broken fences and flocking people acted like lemmings, myself included. To end the night, they played Idioteque off of Kid A and we were treated to Thom’s dancing one last time. We cheered for a couple of minutes, none of us completely comprehending what had just happened
Then it was over.
People were sitting on the ground crying and hyperventilating. I remember being in a state of such high euphoria that i forgot where I was entirely. I just sat down and thought for a few minutes.
Once again, I told myself that what just happened wasn’t real. Luckily for me, it was.
- James
