With four nights at Madison Square Garden, Radiohead had the tough task of bringing the show to fans who may be only attending one show, while also mixing it up enough for both the fans who attended multiple nights of the one – not to mention themselves. But with as brilliant of a catalog as any modern day rock band, Radiohead was more than up to the task and proved just that on July 11, night two of the run.
Kicking things off was Junun, Jonny Greenwood’s collaboration with Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur and the Indian ensemble Rajasthan Express of which director Paul Thomas Anderson made the focus of his 2015 Documentary of the same name. Their lovely sound was a lively and refreshing opener that the crowd really quite embraced.
It was then time for Radiohead to take the stage and there was definitely a different feeling in the air from the night before and it was felt the minute that Radiohead took the stage and quietly launched into “Daydreaming.” They continued with fellow A Moon Shaped Pool tracks with “Desert Island Disk” and “Ful Stop.” While these tracks were a solid start and often a beautiful one at that, there was definitely a big pick me up when they followed them with “Myxomatosis” and “15 Step,” with the latter really waking up the crowd and taking the show to that next level. There was simply no going back from there and the band upped the anty with a huge performance of “The National Anthem.”
It’s at their live shows that you’re really reminded at their versatility, going from big rockers like “There There,” to the more tender and ballad-like performances with “You and Whose Army?” and “Spectre.” The highlight of the main set came from the gloriously huge performance of “Everything in Its Right Place,” which had the crowd amped up at a level I had yet to see from either show so far. They found a nice balance of rotating some songs from night 1 with new entries such as “Fake Plastic Trees,” “Exit Music (for a Film)” and the closing touch of “Karma Police.”
Junun:
Radiohead:
Radiohead setlist:
1. Daydreaming
2. Desert Island Disk
3. Ful Stop
4. Myxomatosis
5. 15 Step
6. Kid A
7. All I Need
8. The National Anthem
9. The Gloaming
10. Spectre
11. You and Whose Army?
12. Bloom
13. Identikit
14. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
15. No Surprises
16. There There
17. Everything in Its Right Place
Encore:
18. Optimistic
19. Nude
20. The Numbers
21. Lotus Flower
22. Fake Plastic Trees
Encore 2:
23. Idioteque
24. Exit Music (for a Film)
25. Karma Police
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