Funny Ha Ha, Funny How?

Radiohead @ Madison Square Garden 10/9/2003

2 + 2 = 5 / Sit Down. Stand Up. / Where I End And You Begin / Kid A / Backdrifts / Morning Bell / My Iron Lung / I Might Be Wrong / Lurgee / Sail To The Moon / Paranoid Android / A Punchup At A Wedding / Go To Sleep / The Gloaming / Idioteque / Fake Plastic Trees / There There // You And Whose Army? / The National Anthem (w/ Hunting Bears outro) / A Wolf At The Door / How To Disappear Completely /// Karma Police / True Love Waits / Everything In Its Right Place

Wow. I’m really lucky that I got to see this show, because it only confirms what I knew all along – that if I was to only see tonight’s show, I would never have seen “Kid A” and possibly “Backdrifts” too. So yeah, thank God. And thanks also to the nice guy who I ended up swapping tickets with, allowing him to sit next to his friend and me to have a much better floor seat.

It was a great Radiohead show. I’ve seen enough Radiohead shows now to know that they are pretty much the same every time – really great, very intense, but missing the necessary joycore ingredients to push things over the top. There was nothing in this show (except for the chorus of “Kid A”) that really felt transcendental to me, as “Life And How To Live It” was at the R.E.M. show from last week. But this is fine. Radiohead do what they do extremely well, and I loved the whole show just as much as any other Radiohead show that I’ve seen.

“Kid A” and “Backdrifts” were early highlights, and were pretty much as wonderful as I had hoped. “Where I End And You Begin” blew away every recording that I’ve ever heard of it away. Maybe it’s just the kind of song you just need to be there for, so you can actually feel the drums. Though it was interesting to see them play “Lurgee” from Pablo Honey, it didn’t fit in very well with the rest of the songs, and was a little boring for me. “The Gloaming” was really impressive live, particularly when Phil Selway’s drums kick in at the end. I’m not sure whether or not they were having technical problems or were improvising at the end of it – it just sort of fell apart, which doesn’t happen in any of the live recordings of the song that I have heard. Thom’s usual playful camera antics on “You And Whose Army?” were very funny, but riled the crowd a little too much – the audience was applauding and shouting so much through the first half that there were points when it became hard to hear the song.

The audience was annoying me a lot last night, mostly a small group of people immediately to my left. The guy standing right next to me was prone to hollering “WHOOOO!” loudly at mostly inappropriate times, such as every third measure of “Sail To The Moon.” Worse than that was the ridiculous rhythmic clapping that almost ruined some of the songs for me. Early on, some jackasses were doing it with “Kid A,” but that had nothing on the outbreak of Inappropriate Rhythmic Clapping Disease (IRCD) that struck the majority of the audience during “True Love Waits.” I just wanted to fucking kill, really. It just made no sense – the clapping didn’t suit the song at all, it’s a song that gains much of its beauty from the fact that it has no fucking percussion. I wish people would take a cue from the band – see, Phil isn’t drumming! This means NO PERCUSSION. Stop! They don’t want you do this, you’re wrecking the song and might make Thom fuck up because you’re all a bunch of shitty drummers. This happened in the beginning of “Everything In Its Right Place,” which, judging by the I Might Be Wrong live album and several live recordings which I’ve heard over the years, is a chronic sufferer of IRCD. IRCD just makes me so mad. I can understand singing along, that’s different. IRCD signals a total disrespect for the arrangements that the musicians have chosen, as well as a fundamental lack of consideration for the audience members who want to hear the performers and not a bunch of arhythmic clap-happy morons.

Anyway, I’m hoping that tonight’s crowd doesn’t have such a severe case of IRCD, and that they get around to playing “Myxomatosis,” “Airbag,” “Just,” “We Suck Young Blood,” and “Like Spinning Plates.”

PS – I forgot to mention that “A Wolf At The Door” is fucking amazing live. One of the best of the night, for sure.