Radiohead @ All Points West - Sat Aug 09, 2008

Idioteque

It was my first time seeing one of my very favorite bands ever. I have almost all of their albums, I've listened to them uncountably many times, got depressed and sometimes cried with some of their lyrics, and yes, been high with them too many times. Almost six months ago when it was announced that Radiohead was going to play the NYC area (finally), I didn't hesitate withdrawing more than a hundred bucks for them. The best hundred bucks I have spent this year (so far). Was it good? I can't really say. Was it the best show I have had this year? Yes it was. Of course.


I got to Liberty State Park sometime around 2pm. Radiohead was gonna play around 8:30 pm, but I needed to make sure I was close enough for my first experience with them. After more than six hours of watching one entertaingin band (Chromeo), a couple of awful bands (Metric and Kings of Leon), and another of my very favorite bands ever (Animal Collective), without eating or drinking much, everything was just perfect and gratifying when Thom Yorke and his band came on stage and hit the first notes of Reckoner, one of my friends' Radiohead favorite song.

Radiohead is special for way too many people. I was with a enthusiastic group of friends and I think every other song one of us was turning to the rest, smiling and making everybody know how much he/she loved that song, and turning back quickly to the band to miss no minute. We are concert goers tho, and we never do that all that worshiping!


I heard twenty five songs. Twenty five tunes from almost all of their albums (heavy on In Rainbows and I believe they did not play songs from Pablo Honey) with Thom Yorke alternating between standing only with his mic, with one of his many guitars, playing piano, or playing drums (!!!). Jonny Greenwood did the same but going from a box with dozens of buttons and knobs, to keyboards or guitars. This is what they played:

01. Reckoner
02. 15 Step
03. The National Anthem
04. Kid A
05. All I Need
06. Nude
07. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
08. Where I End And You Begin
09. The Gloaming
10. Faust Arp
11. No Surprises
12. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
13. The Bends
14. Bangers and Mash
15. Everything In Its Right Place
16. Exit Music (For A Film)
17. Bodysnatchers

Encore 1
18. Pyramid Song
19. Videotape
20. Airbag
21. Fake Plastic Trees
22. There There

Encore 2
23. House of Cards
24. Planet Telex
25. Idioteque

I know. Too good to be true. Actually they played a couple of my favorite songs on Friday but not on Saturday: How to Dissapear Completely and Paranoid Android. To me, Paranoid Android is the most elaborate song they have ever accomplished and I was really looking forward to see them performing it live, but it didn't happen. Rather I fall in love live with the tremendous There There and its starting drums, and my now favorite Radiohead song in concert, Idioteque.

Man, that song. What a performance of that song. Radiohead really loves Idioteque. Thom really loves it. He loses himself dancing to the crazy beats that Jonny generates, while the lights synchronize, and there's nothing more to do than to surrender. Radiohead did indeed melt my brains on a Saturday night, and I gotta thank them for that. [photos of the show]

♫♫♫♫♫

Were you at the show? How did you like it?

Radiohead Links: Official Website, Wikipedia, MySpace, Green Plastic, In Rainbows

Hercules & Love Affair @ Irving Plaza - Fri Aug 08, 2008

Hot

A couple of days before seeing Hercules & Love Affair in their come back to their city, after an extensive (and needed) European tour, I met Antony Hegarty for less than a minute at a random park in NYC, close to NYU. I didn't have time to ask, but I wondered during those two days whether he was finally going to show up at a H&LA show or not. Nomi has a powerful voice too, and quite engaging moves, but we all missed Antony way too much the first time the band played in town. Those times passed really fast... merely three months after, I don't care if Antony shows up one day or not... H&LA with Nomi and Kim are more than enough.

The night didn't start right. First, we decided we were not going to have drinks just because we don't pay nine dollars for a beer and Holy Ghost Dj set was not being very special at all. And besides, to make us suffer, the band got on stage around midnight, way later than I expected. And yeah, not even a beer on us! But man, love was in the air. You could breath it and that was what got us all drunk. Nomi, Kim, Andy and their band came out and the excitement took us over. Since the first song it was an insane party. It reminded right away of the best LCD Soundsystem show I have ever had, and this felt close. Really close. I couldn't stop dancing, fisting, sweating, with my friends and with my enemies, song after song.

What a difference with the first time I saw them. Kim is dancing more, smiling more, and not trying to sing Antony's impossible parts on Raise Me Up. Nomi is looking even hotter than always, and changing her clothes not twice but thrice during the whole set! And Andy, well, he is finally realizing that his DJ experience could be exercised with the wonderful modern disco he made on his debut album. He was in charge of pretty much blending the songs together, live, one after the other one, and it couldn't have worked better. He is good.

I have no idea what they played, but probably the set list was pretty similar to what they played at the defunct Studio B. And I don't even care. It felt like just one song... like a very exciting and addicting long song, one that shouldn't have ended, like never. [photos of the show]

♫♫♫♫♫

Were you at the show? How did you like it?

Hercules & Love Affair Links: Stream Hercules & Love Affair, Official Website, MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia