[Live MP3s] Radiohead in Boston 2006
Posted on June 6, 2006 at 11:03 am | No Comments
Radiohead are, to me, one of the few bands that have gotten big without getting boring. Sure, they’ve messed around with their early-guitar-heavy formula (losing some hipster fans along the way), maybe leaned a little heavily on the techy knob-twiddling in recent years, but for the most part, the songs are still there. When I’d start to wonder if they’d peaked with ‘The Bends’ or ‘OK Computer’, they’d go write something like ‘Knives Out‘ or ‘Idioteque‘, or even ‘There There‘.
I figured my days of seeing Radiohead live were over… ticket demand and crowd sizes grew faster than I really cared to keep up with. I skipped their last couple Boston stops, one at the too-large Suffolk Downs racetrack, another at the Tweeter Center, a couple venues I really have no interest in seeing live shows at. But when I found out they’d be playing a couple nights at the 5,000 seat Bank of America Pavilion on the Boston waterfront (not exactly intimate, but far smaller than they could have played), I had to give it a shot. Well, it was a nice thought… but tickets were gone in a matter of seconds. Me and my lone browser never had a chance. In the end I tried to feel better knowing that I’d saved some pricy-concert cash.
Color me surprised when a week later I got an email from a kind stranger, responding to a blog comment I’d made about being shut out: He had an extra, and it was mine for face value if I wanted it. Jonah had gotten himself up in the early hours for fan ticket pre-sales, and had scored. 2nd row center. And I was in. Can’t thank him enough for the gesture, and I can only guess how much he could have re-sold that seat for. Fortunately for me, he’s not that kinda guy.
So here’s here was last night’s fantastic show in its entirety. Some very promising new songs, some older stuff, a really varied setlist with a few nice surprises…
(apologies for the fuzzy cell-phone shot… it’s all I got)
Live at the Bank of America Pavilion
Boston, MA
Monday, June 5th, 2006
[ download the entire set in a 136 MB .zip file ]
01. Intro
02. Climbing Up The Walls
03. Bangers ‘n’ Mash (new)
04. 15 Step (new)
05. Morning Bell
06. Kid A
07. Fake Plastic Trees
08. Videotape (new)
09. Bodysnatchers (new)
10. Where I End And You Begin
11. Knives Out
12. There There
13. Nude (new)
14. Just
15. Spooks (new)
16. Idioteque
17. House of Cards (new)
18. Planet Telex
encore 1…
19. Like Spinning Plates
20. Arpeggi (new)
21. No Surprises
22. Everything In Its Right Place
encore 2…
23. The Tourist
A few personal highlights: Guitarist Ed O’Brien’s total enthusiasm during the peak of ‘Fake Plastic Trees‘ (even after all these years), closing the main set with ‘Planet Telex‘, Colin Greenwood’s stellar rolling bass lines on ‘Where You End And I Begin‘, Thom Yorke’s ‘Idioteque’-idiot dance, 5,000 voices behind me singing along to ‘Just‘, and ending the night with ‘The Tourist‘. Favorite of new songs: ‘Videotape‘, by far. Can’t wait to hear the studio version of that one.
I’ll refrain from complaining about any crowd jackassery this time around… it abounded, but I just had too much of a good time to let it get to me. Maybe it was the contact high from the three girls and their very-potent pipe next to me, maybe it was the large-sized harpoon IPAs, or maybe the fact that I was a few feet from the stage, but damn did I ever enjoy myself.
Some links for ya…
some fine print: If anyone has an issue with this live set being made available, just say the word (email link on left). Recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps mp3s. They are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.
Now, most of the live set posting I do is for smaller shows and lesser-known bands… it’s not like Radiohead needs my help. So this set may be up for a shorter amount of time than usual, either by choice (bandwidth goes boom), or when the band’s major label lawyers come a’callin. Either way, get to grabbing.
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