Review // Radiohead at Comcast Center, Mansfield MA 5.29.12

Words // Todd Harrington

Taking the stage shortly after 8pm Radiohead would unload a 23 song marathon of music, the main set and two encores would find the band pushing the 11pm curfew of the sold out Comcast Center in Mansfield Tuesday night.

Basking in the glow of one of the more impressive light shows the six piece band would change gears on a dime, going form heavy lead piano lead tracks, to heavy pounding numbers. Front man Thom Yorke would roate from guitar to piano and back. When not playing he'd do that “freak out” dance he is so well known for. Flanked by Ed O'Brien and his barrage of guitar effects and the multi instrumentalist Johnny Greenwood they'd lead the charge all night. Bassist Colin Greenwood was tucked in the middle of the stage, but set way back, his roaring bass lines were outstanding all evening long.

Yorke was chatty for much of the show, not just the canned “thank you” and “this song is...” common banter. Topics from the looming rain, to the Russian elections he was far more chatty than this reviewer had expected.

Known in recent years for their light shows this did not fail to impress. The top portion of the light rig was fixed camera shots on the band members. The the images would blend from face, to tapping feet to hands on strings. Being a bit far back I am unsure if it was a series of lights or panels, but there were large screens that also dropped and angled and flashed above the bands heads. It was very impressive.

Audience was respectful, at least in my area and were elated with the song selection evidence by a thunderous roar of approval.

The band is currently on this final leg of the King Of Limbs tour, so get at it, while the getting is good.

The full set list:

Bloom
15 Step
Airbag
Staircase
The Daily Mail
Myxomatosis
The Gloaming
Separator
Pyramid Song
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Morning Mr. Magpie
Identikit
Lotus Flower
There There
Feral
Idioteque

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Supercollider

The National Anthem

Lucky

Everything In Its Right Place (With "After the Gold Rush" intro)

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Give Up the Ghost
Bodysnatchers
Reckoner

Video courtesy of Boston Through My Eyes:

Comments

[Ryan]

Wish I had been there. Would have been really nice to see some of the individual songs / performances get broken down - instead of the tech-heavy references which can readily be picked up by a naked eye in the embedded video clip.