Hiding in plain sight
Radiohead’s guitar glory shines through all the lasers, neon lights
Radiohead wants to fool you into thinking they are defined by inventive electro-leaning albums, arty videos or progressive politics. But in concert, they show their hand:
This band is about guitars.
Not that the other stuff doesn’t matter. It matters a lot, providing a needed artistic balance. But, well, those guitars.
Radiohead opened the first of a twonight stand at the TD Garden on Saturday with the lazy darkness of “Daydreaming.” At the center of a squall of white laser lights, the English band tiptoed into the aching piano ballad off its 2016 album, “A Moon Shaped Pool.” A downtempo start to match the album’s mood and the perfect place to build from.
For a while the quintet — frontman Thom Yorke, guitarists
Jonny Greenwood and
Ed O’Brien, bassist Colin Greenwood and drummer
Phil Selway (plus bonus drummer Clive Deamer for the tour) went easy on the guitar rock. They do so many other things well, they can be forgiven if they don’t crash into the obvious.
They stomped ferociously into their “Blade Runner” aesthetic. Times Square-in-2050 neon and strobes flashed along to pulsing bass, drums and synths, lighting up songs both new and old (“Ful Stop,” “Myxomatosis,” “The National Anthem”). Between the assault came cinematic slow burns
(“Videotape,” “How to Disappear Completely”) bands have cribbed their entire careers from (see Coldplay, Snow Patrol, et al.).
Politics loomed large, and plenty of Radiohead’s anti-Blair and Bush protests work just as well as takedowns of Trump (especially the sneering, defiant “You and Whose Army?”). The scream of “You have not been paying attention” in “2 + 2 = 5” toppled over into the sympathetic crowd. They screamed back cheering the lyrics “Bring down the government/They don’t, they don’t speak for us” on “No Surprises.”
Radiohead should be applauded for pushing sonic boundaries, crafting great ballads, and sounding alarms (man, it’s been nearly 20 years since “Idioteque” shouted about climate change and we’re still behind the eight ball). But, well, those guitars.
Greenwood and O’Brien hinted at their inevitable collision over and over again during the 90-minute main set. Immediately the encore began with the boiling “Optimistic” full of Orwellian imagery and three grinding guitars (Yorke adding the third) ratcheting energy up and up to the crescendo. Then came “Nude” powered by pretty arpeggios and dissonance. Then finally the black hole tug of the big rock chords of “Karma Police.”
Radiohead knows the Greenwood/ O’Brien connection makes them glow, makes them sublime. Maybe that’s why they’ve become so good at so many other things. Overusing that double guitar magic would cheapen it. Thankfully, they have the songs, live charisma and lasers to fill in the gaps.