Up until Tuesday 17th June 2008 I had never seen Radiohead in concert. In many ways I still haven’t despite the fact that I was present at the first of their two Italian dates at the Arena Civica in Milan.
I think it would be more accurate to say that I was in the stadium while Radiohead were performing.
To go as far as to say that I saw them would be like saying I have seen Saudi Arabia just because I saw that country once from the window of an airplane.
There were around 18,000 at the show braving the deluge that had been threatening all day but cruelly coincided almost precisely with the appearance of support act Bat For Lashes.
For those massed near the stage this was probably one of the best gigs of their lives. The desperate attempts to join this privileged number was evident by the way many took advantage of the lapse security to leap over fences to escape their designated zones (many landing unceremoniously in puddles!).
Law abiding citizen that I am, I remained with the thousands huddled in the stands with a grim view of the stage as shown in the photo above. The gulf between band, group at ground level, running track and us made any sense of feeling engaged in the concert remote. A measure of this dislocation can be gauged from questions asked by a friend at the end:
a) Were there 4 or 5 on stage?
b) Who was doing the backing vocals?
c) Why did Thom Yorke stop abruptly during ‘Faust Arp’ and then start over?
d) Who was playing ukelele on ‘Karma Police’?
Ok, I made that last question up but you get the point I’m making.
Large (but not large enough) TV screens were placed stage left and right with a third added as a token gesture for we underprivileged attendees situated where I imagine shots are put and javelins launched during athletics meets.
Some bright spark decided that watching shots of drummer Phil Selway’s head and Jonny (or maybe Colin) Greenwood’s feet would improve the concert experience. Video images were split into four, most of which were fuzzy at best although I could just about make out that Thom Yorke was bearded. A long rectangular screen over the band was not any clearer.
One plus is that the acoustics were clear enough to identify some performance highlights as ‘Everything In Its Right Place’ (an ironic title in the circumstances) and ‘Lucky’ (ditto). The psychedelic light show for the closing rendition of Idioteque was also impressive .
Radiohead are pretty much the only stadium filler band I would go out of my way to see but I am disinclined to repeat the experience in a hurry.
Haha i know how you feel. did they have a tele-screen up?
oh wait is that picture of the concert? probably, it looks like there was so much room up by the stage!
The picture was taken about half an hour before Radiohead hit the stage. There WAS room at ground level but fences and security prevented access – I think the organisers were worried the running track would get damaged.
Definitely a bad choice of venue.