Radiohead dodge heavy rain, preview new songs.
June 17, 2000
ARLES, FRANCE - It was hard to believe pulling into this quiet southern French town that one of the premiere music events of the Summer was about to take place.
There were practically no posters announcing the event and when I informed an elder English couple that it was Radiohead from Oxford who were performing and not a Beethoven concert, their only comment was "Oxford, England?".
From early in the evening the crowd could barely contain its excitement, erupting each time there was movement of any kind on stage.
Supporting band Laika were given a warm welcome and the crowd got into their groove-heavy noise pop early on but seemed to grow more restless with each song. As good as Laika were, everyone was clearly here to see Radiohead (some fans came from as far as Japan).
Shortly after Laika left the stage heavy rains dampenned the energy and for a while it appeared that the show might be cancelled. After a long delay the clouds finally parted and the band walked on stage to thunderous applause and a collective sigh of relief. In its first 2000 years it is unlikely that the "Theatre Antique d'Arles" has hosted an opening night performance more widely anticipated and lead singer Thom Yorke seemed to echo this thought with the simple phrase "Bonsoir tout le monde".
From the opening chords of "Talk show host" it was obvious that Radiohead were as happy to be back as their fans were to be seeing them after a nearly two year exile.
The performance featured mostly songs from "The Bends" and "OK Computer" but the highlight for most fans were the new songs, eight in all. "Dollars and Cents" features a heavy, distored bass rythm similar to "Climbing up the walls", spacy keyboards by Johnny Greenwood and Thom`s signature moaning vocals.
Most of the new songs are dominated by Johnny's more complex guitar work and several of them have a noticable trip-hop feel. "Everything in its right place", which Thom introduced with the warning "I hope this works", has Johnny sampling Thom`s vocals and then playing him throughout the rest of the song.
Several times during the performance, Thom joked about the growing legion of fans who obsessively document the band's every move on websites like www.followmearound.com and www.greenplastic.com. "This is called ... It'll be on the internet tomorrow" he said before "Morning Bell", another of the new songs.
Other hightlights in the set included "Exit music for a film", rendered especially potent with the moon shining through the clouds and the stage bathe in a soft red light, mist rising from the wet crowd. During a slightly reworked "Karma Police", featuring additional harmonizing vocals by rythm guitarist Ed O'Brien, the band was accompanied by the entire crowd for the line "this is what you get when you mess with us" to the delight of everyone on stage.
The show was not without its technical glitches. During "Karma Police" the stage lights died and the Arena was left in the dark until the house lights were turned on, giving the strange sensation of seeing a bar band (in a roman theatre). This, along with the expected first night sloppiness did no seem to prevent the band from having fun. There was so much hype following Radiohead's last tour of their disgust for touring and the rock star lifestyle. It's refreshing to see after the Arles performance that this was all hype.
The Wednesday night performance in Vaison La Romaine was cancelled due to heavy rain.
Radiohead are expected to tour North America in early 2001.
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