Radiohead: Victoria Park, London 24/06/08

Largely during outdoor venues this time, the band strayed away from the usual locations and opted for the often overlooked Victoria Park, fittingly the location of many a protest against current issues.

Kicking off with Bat for Lashes as support, the set was dogged by technical difficulties with the volume of front woman Natasha Khan’s microphone fluctuating from loudspeaker to near-silent from track to track. Being a fan of their music myself, it was a shame to see them almost fading in to the background of a concert arena too large for them. Indeed, when their eventual last song cut out mid-way, half the audience did not seem to notice and just applauded thinking the set had ended. All their album highlights were here, including fan favourite Priscilla, however they just weren’t able to take control in such a large open-air environment, serving as a stop-gap between the two DJ sets that looped in the interim hours. Was the concert going to fail in creating any atmosphere?

An hour later, however, the audible drum clicks of 15 Step began to play out. With just those six beats, the arena changed drastically. Thousands of fans seemingly rushed forward and the open air element of the concert was almost forgotten as it became an intimately close affair. The applauding for the arrival of Radiohead was such that it didn’t even end until the second track kicked off with the only break seemingly being for Thom to pick up his guitar and strum out the first three notes of In Rainbows guitar track Bodysnatchers. The band showcased their ability to hold the crowd, however, taking them from leaping around to the first two tracks to swaying steadily in awe of ‘All I Need’ in a matter of seconds.

Indeed, the maniacal atmosphere of the first two tracks never seems to return in the same way, but perhaps that’s just because Radiohead aren’t that sort of band. This is a group you come to see to see them at work playing some of the best tracks you can find, not one to leap around to screaming and whooping. That’s not to say they can’t work up the audience, with live Kid A favourites National Anthem, bathed in its usual radio chatter falloff, and voice sample jam Everything In Its Right Place working up the audience. However this set was one that didn’t need such a response for the most part, filled with the slow epics that only Radiohead can pull of such as Pyramid Song, Arpeggi, Nude, Videotape, How to Disappear Completely and a piano adaptation of solo track Cymbal Rush giving fans more of an inner happiness than an outer frenzy.

But, as anyone who has listened to Radiohead knows, their albums feature catchy rock hits that, due to the quantity of hits any of their album has, aren’t released as singles as most bands would. These got a good showing amongst the slower ones, continuing the up-down atmosphere of the start, with old classics Planet Telex, Airbag, The Gloaming, Dollars and Cents and You and Who’s Army and new gems like ‘Reckoner’, notable as one of the few audience chatter moments of the concert with a chant of ‘Free Tibet’ being led by Yorke, Jigsaw Falling in to Place’ and Bangers ‘n Mash, which sees Yorke take to a mini-drum kit for the first half as well as tripping over during his moment of energetic dancing.

But the highlight had to be the final track, when the audience got the one track every Radiohead fan wants to see at a live show, electro-rock joy Idioteque. It goes to show how far Radiohead have come since the 2001 tour with guitarist Jonny Greenwood mixing and playing all the necessary background sounds and samples live on stage, as opposed to the bulk having been pre-recorded prior to the show and then played back.

It would be a fair summary to say Radiohead are a band of contrasts. Filling their setlist with slow tracks and rocky hits many bands would have stumbled to pull off to a live audience, they certainly showed they are one of, if not the, most talented bands today. But perhaps the biggest contrast is that even with millions of fans worldwide lapping up every moment of musical flourish, even with a stage filled with a fluorescent lightshow of stalagmites and cameras and playing one of the best concerts this year, they remain as quiet and reserved as ever.