Live Concert Post #4: Radiohead 12-19-97

As I eagerly (read: "desperately") await an official confirmation of the rumor that Radiohead will be playing the Tower Theater, a very small venue for a band of Radiohead's clout, in June, I thought I'd upload one of my favorite Radiohead live gigs.

This show is the famous "Live At The Ten Spot" performance that aired, incomplete, on MTV. At the time, the band was in the middle of touring in support of the critically and popularly acclaimed album, OK Computer. I believe the version of the show that I have is from a digital cable feed - no commercials and all of the songs, including the ones that never originally aired.

The set serves as a snapshot of Radiohead in the midst of their catapult to the top of the rock world of the late 90's. They cemented themselves as one of the most impressive live acts around on this tour, a complement to their considerable songwriting and studio prowess. Though this tour would almost drive singer Thom Yorke off the deep end, as documented in the film Meeting People Is Easy, it represents my favorite Radiohead era thus far.

That night at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, they tore through almost all of The Bends and OK Computer, along with the b-side "Talk Show Host", which appears on the soundtrack to the 1996 film version of Romeo and Juliet as well as on one of the "Street Spirit" singles.

Enjoy this phenomenal show. All files are MP3s.

Fitter Happier
Airbag
Karma Police
The Bends
Exit Music (For A Film)
Talk Show Host
Subterranean Homesick Alien
My Iron Lung
Climbing Up The Walls
Lucky
Planet Telex
Bulletproof...I Wish I Was
No Surprises
Bones
Just
Paranoid Android
Fake Plastic Trees
Let Down
Street Spirit (Fade Out)
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Electioneering
(Nice Dream)
The Tourist

I finally did get to see Radiohead for the first time later on this tour, in April of 1998 at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Still can feel the chills I got from hearing "Exit Music" that night.

If this show makes you jones for some more live Radiohead, I heartily recommend picking up their only official live album, I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings, and the recently released in the US DVD, Live At The Astoria.