Radiohead – Copenhagen KB Hallen – 06.05.06

In some kind of teenage fanatical show of devotion, I’m off to see Radiohead three times this year. Tonight was the first time – later in the year it’ll be V Festival in Chelmsford, and Dublin’s Marley Park. A combination of not being in London when they’ll be playing here, and (probably) not being able to get tickets anyhow, combined with the temptation of visting a European city I’ve never been to before and the fact that the venue is likely to be just that little bit more intimate, led to the choice of Copenhagen’s KB Hallen.

It’s the very first night of the tour, and the very first time that anyone outside of the band’s circle is going to hear what lies in store from the dreaded ‘new material’. It’s a nervous time. Splinters of new stuff have already been distributed (Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood played Koko the previous weekend, which was inevitabley bootlegged and posted online) but tonight is their first outing with the full band.

It doesn’t seem accidental that ‘Everything In It’s Right Place’ starts the set. It was the closer of the Hail To The Theif tour, and so is the last song that I’d heard them play live. It’s like they’re picking up the baton and running agin – albeit with a two and a half year break. I am instantly reminded of the intensity of this band on a live stage, and it’s truely awesome – I’m overwhelmed, and it’s only the first song. So when it’s followed by ‘Planet Telex’ thobbing gowl, I’m lost. It seems to have taken on a new life – a far more powerful beast than the recorded version. And so beings two and a half hours of bliss. The new songs are nothing short of magnificent – highlights for me being ‘Bangers + Mash’, ‘Bodysnatchers’ and the ‘lost classic’, ‘Nude’. I was hoping for ‘Arpeggi’ – as I’d heard it as far back as a recording from the Ether festival. But it was not to be. Instead, we were treated to a rare performance of ‘Black Star’ amongst a set that almost seemed drenched in classics, ending with seminal OK Computer track ‘Lucky’. I can’t wait for V.

Full set list went:
‘Everything In Its Right Place’
‘Planet Telex’
‘Bangers ‘N’ Mash’
‘Open Pick’
‘Karma Police’
‘Black Star’
‘Nude’
‘15 Step’
‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’
‘A Wolf At The Door’
‘The Bends’
‘4 Minute Warning’
‘Pyramid Song’
‘House Of Cards’
‘Idioteque’
‘Spooks’
‘There There’

Encore:
‘Bodysnatchers’
‘You And Whose Army’
‘Let Down’
‘Paranoid Android’

Second Encore:
‘Lucky’

I also took a fair few photos, which you can see here.