You’re Living In A Fantasy World

Radiohead @ Madison Square Garden 10/10/2003

The Gloaming / There There / 2 + 2 = 5 / Where I End And You Begin / Exit Music (For A Film) / Talk Show Host / Myxomatosis / Paranoid Android / In Limbo / Sail To The Moon / Creep / Scatterbrain / Go To Sleep / Just / Idioteque / You And Whose Army? / Sit Down. Stand Up. // Lucky / The National Anthem / A Punchup At A Wedding / Street Spirit (Fade Out) // Airbag / No Surprises / Everything In Its Right Place

Suffice to say, I was really, really happy that they played “In Limbo.” I didn’t expect that at all. So now I’ve seen all of the Kid A album live except for “Treefingers,” which doesn’t quite count. That’s kinda awesome.

This show wasn’t as good as the previous night (particularly in the setlist department), and if I didn’t see the previous night’s set too, I probably would have much more negative feelings about the show overall.

I had pretty lousy seats last night. I was up on the 4th mezzanine parallel with the stage. The one good thing about this was that I could see what the band was doing with their instruments, which I couldn’t when I was looking straight on. There were some technical problems during “There There” which made that song almost impossible for me to enjoy. The bass was mixed way louder than the other instruments and was in the red on the higher notes of the bass line. This may have had something to do with my proximity to the speakers, but maybe not – this was not an issue during the rest of the set.

The audience was annoying again – I can’t understand why so many people insist on being loud during the quiet parts. The crowd pretty much wrecked “Exit Music” for me, which is lame because I really love that song. The need to scream during the quiet parts must be a narcissistic thing, right? It’s all about wanting to hear yourself, I think. There wasn’t as much IRCD last night, but the first thirty seconds or so of “Sit Down Stand Up” was met with a particularly heinous outbreak, with a majority of the audience clapping a rhythm at least three times the speed of the song. I think they were all clapping in time with a Minor Threat song or something.

I just couldn’t get into things too much last night. I didn’t start to feel the music until “Talk Show Host.” The only songs I really had any visceral experience with were “Myxomatosis,” “In Limbo,” “Creep,” “Just,” “Idioteque,” and “Sit Down Stand Up.” The rest I just sort of watched. I’m not sure if this was because I felt too far removed from the experience due to physical distance, or because I had been there last night, or if they just weren’t that hot that night. Probably all of it.

Still, not a bad show. I’m probably making it sound like I didn’t enjoy myself at all, which isn’t the case.