Radiohead: Auburn, Washington

Image Courtesy of Stephane

Radiohead are one of those artists that have achieved such a pinnacle of critical and commercial success, it is difficult to not attend their concerts without the highest of expectations. The atmosphere of the White River Ampitheater was thick with this expectation, as well, as this was their only appearance in the Northwest, and many attendees including myself had made quite a trek to see the diminuitive Thom Yorke and his merry band perform.

The opening act Liars, creators of my favorite album of 2006 Drum's Not Dead and the critically-acclaimed self-titled follow-up album, took the stage early with about a tenth of the venue's capacity filled. Despite the lack of audience present, they delivered a swift and energetic set, performing tracks mostly off of Drum and earlier albums. They closed out their set with a raucous version of "Plaster Casts of Everything", which amped up the slowly filling-in crowd for the headliners for the evening.

Radiohead took the stage around 9 p.m., just as the sun was fading over the horizon, backed by a hi-tech luminescent display of light-ropes and video monitors. As predicted by my friend, they launched with the opening track, 15 step, from In Rainbows, which immediately got the entire crowd to their feet. As the concert continued, they covered the entire Rainbows album, oddly with the exception of their latest single "House of Cards", and much of the rest of their pantheon. As the evening went on and people layered and zipped-up for intermittent rain, Yorke made subdued small-talk with the audience and, at one point, requested to shine a light on all of those huddled far out in lawn seating.

Even though it was a quintessential Northwest night, by no means were the performance or presentation chilly and gray. For those of us barely able to make out the bobble-headed Yorke, the light-and-video show were the real performers, certainly setting a very high standard for the future of concert visuals. Each song had a distinct tone and color-scheme, transitioning from warm oranges to icy blues to rich pinks. The large video displays flanking the stage and behind the band added a very exciting texture to the performance, as well; featuring a professional-appearing and intensly remixed visual medley of the livc show, it will be little surprise if what we saw on screen makes it into a live DVD or music video.

After coming out for a second encore, Radiohead left the stage with a droning analog signal and the word "Everything" rapidly scanning across the light-ropes. For most fans, this is an apt conclusion to a show by one of the biggest and best bands of the new century: a sense of foreboding and a call of responsibility to our generation.