Matt Coneybeare


Weekend of Radiohead

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“Lucky” - [etv]

Friday night, Renata and I walked about 3 blocks from my house to the Greek Theater in Berkeley to see RADIOHEAD! There line was daunting… people had been in line since the day before, waiting to be the first to rush in the GA theater and get as close as possible. I laugh because we got there 30 minutes before they opened the door, were in line about a mile back, and we still got right up close in the pit.

The opening band, Deerhoof, were really bad. They were a trio and the lead singer would just sing non-intelligible baby-noises complimented by a periodic shout of a random word (bunny? bye-bye?), while the music lacked any direction or clarity. It was really, really weird. I have to question Radiohead’s judgement if they were the ones to choose the band. Even during the show, when Thom Yorke mentioned the act, he looped his finger around in the air in the universal “crazy” motion. But they only played for about half an hour so it wasn’t that horrible. Radiohead played many of thier newer songs, as well as a good mix of old ones including Lucky, National Anthem, There There, Everything in its Right Place, Street Spirit, Bones, Spinning Plates… I can’t really remember all of them. The new stuff is pretty good but it will take another good listen to to really “get” it. It seemed a bit more mellow than usual.

Saturday night, Radiohead did thier second show at the Theater and I didn’t have tickets. Luckily, there is a parking-lot above the theater where people can go to listen to the show for free and maybe catch a glimpse of stage. The sound quality was actually really good up there! Radiohead played a completely different set, except for the new songs, and it was like a whole new concert for me. Plus, beer was free… ok, not free, but compared to the prices inside the venue, it was as inexpensive as the cup it comes in… Oh yeah, Jonny Greenwood is a god! The guitarist is really good and plays many instruments with perfection, some of them at the same time. In the pic above, he is playing guitar and at the same time he is using the headstock on it to play the keyboard!




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Matt Coneybeare