Date: Monday, May 5, 2008 @ 7:30
City: West Palm Beach, FL
Venue: Cruzan Amphitheatre

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Gilbert C Gator, gFly, myself, and another friend were able to attend this event together. I always love going to shows with friends. Even though I have been known to attend shows solo (I don’t mind, gives me a chance to be silent and just focus on the music), sharing musical endeavors with those close to you is where it’s at! Especially when it’s a band as big as Radiohead, and the others you are with are “virgins” (not that I’m all THAT much more experienced, what with only ONE other Radiohead show under my belt…).

We tried to leave early, to get enough time to relax, tailgate, and drink some fine brews. Traffic getting to the Amphitheatre was awful. This is one of my favorite venues (it’s no Gorge, but come on, not much else is). It has great sound (it’s actually MADE for concerts, unlike the hockey/basketball arenas in Tampa/Orlando respectively), and you can usually position yourself between the heads in front of you that slowly decline with the slope of the entire floor. We arrived around 6:30, giving us enough time to sip our beverages, pretend we were college folk by playing hacky-sack with a McDonald’s toy, and laugh at the acoustic bellowers across from us. I had heard good things about the opening band, Liars, but had not listened to any of their music; so I wasn’t dead set on seeing them, but I did want to catch a little of their set. We moseyed our way to the Amphitheatre around 8:00 and caught the tail end of their set. I wasn’t all that impressed. They weren’t bad, but they didn’t blow me away either. I’ll need to listen to their studio albums to get a better feel for them.

8:55 rolled around and the band finally hit the stage. They had weird vertical blinds hanging behind the stage that were staggered at two different heights. As the dreary tones to “All I Need” filled the air, the blinds actually became illuminated creating a beautiful LED effect, quite similar to the U2 “ball curtains” from their last Vertigo tour. They lit up to look like raindrops during “The Gloaming” which was very cool. Thom was wearing a white suit jacket, which I knew wouldn’t last long in the Florida heat. They also had 2 Tibetan flags hanging on stage. “Bodysnatchers” and “Reckoner” were two songs from In Rainbows that I was looking forward to hearing, and I was not disappointed. “How to Disappear Completely” threw me for a loop, thinking that it was at least 2 other songs before I was finally corrected (my OK Computer/Kid A song knowledge tends to get mixed sometimes). A setlist I found online lists “Idiotech” after “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” but I seem to remember Thom speaking to each band member after “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” adding a song off the new album to the setlist, that Thom ended up botching the lyrics to, stopping the song mid-way through. Laughing it off he said something to the effect of “Sorry, we haven’t practiced that one enough,” and they launched into the much more familiar “Idiotech.” I’ll need to wait for a recording to surface in order to confirm that. Thom’s signature crazy dancing ensued throughout “Idiotech,” (always a pleasure to witness), and the band FINALLY played something pre-2000 with “Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was.” Thom chatted with the crowd a little, saying how they had just spent 3 days on Miami Beach, and how “white, pale, and English” he felt. Before an unusually early appearance of “Everything In Its Right Place,” Thom mentioned the Tibet flags, and spoke of how with the Olympics coming up in China, people should look into the human rights violations (not surprising as Radiohead had played the Tibetan Freedom Concert’s in 97 and 98). The main set ended as it had began, with a melancholy “Videotape.” Coming back for the first encore, I was very surprised and pleased to hear “Optimistic,” as it was a song I didn’t get to hear the last time I saw them back in 03. “Just” got the crowd moving quite a bit, and “Exit Music (For a Film)” was a definite pleaser as well. “Faust Arp” was wonderful and featured just Ed and Thom to start on acoustic guitars. Thom told of how the music had been around, but the lyrics took longer to come about. “Bangers + Mash” was a real treat, and featured Thom on a tiny drum kit brought out to the middle of the stage. Man was he going to town on those things. The band came back for a second encore, and finished the night off with “House of Cards” and “Street Spirit (Fade Out),” which Thom messed up, making him laugh and acknowledge his mistake again. Overall it was a fantastic, though a little rusty performance. But I love to see mistakes happen at shows. Who wants to go and see a show that is just the album versions of songs played perfectly? Boring. Give me mistakes, give me tags on the ends of songs, give me improvs… “wow” me. Radiohead does not disappoint.

SETLIST
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01 All I Need
02 Bobysnatchers
03 There There
04 Reckoner
05 The Gloaming
06 Morning Bell
07 Nude
08 How to Disappear Completely
09 15 Step
10 Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
11 Idioteque
12 Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was
13 Where I End and You Begin
14 Airbag
15 Everything In Its Right Place
16 The National Anthem
17 Videotape
***encore 1***
18 Optimistic
19 Just
20 Faust Arp
21 Exit Music (For a Film)
22 Bangers & Mash
*** encore 2***
23 House of Cards
24 Street Spirit (Fade Out)