Radiohead at TRNSMT Festival, Glasgow Green
Four stars
EVERYTHING about Radiohead flies in the face of what we are led to believe a festival headliner should be.
Claustrophobic almostmelodies staunchly refuse to uplift, between-song chat is limited to a “hi guys” and the big singalong second number is a song that both references, and sounds like, a slowmotion car crash. But seven years after the band’s last show in Glasgow, the excitement was palpable.
As if rewarding the TRNSMT crowd’s patience, fans were treated to an opening double header from perhaps their bestloved album, 1997’s OK Computer. Let Down sounded as fresh as it must have done 20 years ago, the tension and release leading into that first chorus the precursor to a trick that has since become part of the musical playbook.
Lucky – theoretically one of the most depressing songs in the band’s arsenal – became almost triumphant in nature, as thousands of voices joined in on the “I’m your superhero” line.
The thunderous Full Stop, from 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool, turned the middle of Glasgow’s dearest green space into a claustrophobic nightmare: distorted black and white images of mitosis, guitar parts, cymbals, viruses flickered on the screen, while the fade-out lasted about three minutes longer than strictly comfortable.
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15 Step showcased Phil Selway’s drumming while the tiny, wiry figure of Thom Yorke convulsed by the microphone; while Colin Greenwood’s bass rumbled right through the parklands on an atmospheric Myxomatosis.
As set lists went, it was divisive as the band’s politics – to my left, someone swayed, eyes closed, as if in the grip of religious ecstasy, through All I Need; while to my right, a couple muttered about wandering off for 50 minutes and returning in time for the hits. But all the most memorable bands are.
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