Radiohead, on the opening night of their first tour in four years, and to celebrate the release of their ninth album, A Moon Shaped Pool. Recorded May 20th before a capacity, sold-out audience at Amsterdam’s Heineken Music Hall.
The anticipation over A Moon Shaped Pool, considered the most adventurous and compelling album by Radiohead thus far in their career, had been enormous. BBC 6 Music had a Premier Playback Party the day the album was released, hosted live on-air by Tom Robinson with tweets from fans flooding BBC 6 Music’s webs. Reaction has been uniformly astonished – Radiohead fans (and there are a lot) embraced the album and hailed it as a new direction for the band – a departure from simplicity to exploring more intricate musical ideas, provided primarily by Jonny Greenwood, who had established himself as a composer of considerable merit and ideas.
Opinions on this side of the Atlantic were more reserved, with some largely uninformed and misinterpreted. Some had gone so far as to make comparisons to popular Mainstream acts – which was not only inappropriate, it had nothing to do with mainstream.
Regardless of opinions over that latest giant step in the legacy of Radiohead, the music is engaging and haunting – challenging and cathartic. Thom Yorke is enveloped by the music; his words ring emotion and truth – at times he seemed possessed, caught up in the moment, consumed by it. Yorke doesn’t pay lip service to his music – he honors it. And when you honor something, you can’t phone it in – can’t pass it off.
Since this concert was the first of the tour – the opening night, as it were, some things were rusty in places. But it took very little time for the band to settle into a groove.
At a little over 2 hours, it’s a feast of new and old. But even at 2 hours, it goes by quickly.
Welcome to Friday – you made it – big gold star.
