The last time I stayed in a hotel after a gig was after Pearl Jam’s Point Depot show in Dublin six years ago. I’m only doing a short note in my Deansgate hotel room as I am somewhat knackered despite freshening up. Hopefully the tea perks me up a bit to write, but I’m afraid the cheeseburger+fries combo is doing their best to counteract.
What can I say, Thom Yorke et al. played a fantastic set. I remembered theneon’s rant about TKOL being TKOS (S for you-know-what). I kinda agreed with him as it felt like Kid A all over again, when I was going, “Am I the only person who doesn’t geddit?”. Before driving west to Manchestah, I watched the TKOL From The Basement blu-ray once again. I kinda figured that when you see them play those songs organically, you’d be happy to see live versions of these songs onstage without having 80% of the band leaving it.
Three encores. I can’t say it enough, really. They ended the 2nd encore (which I thought was their last) with Everything In The Right Place at which time I thought to myself how nice it is to see a show ending with the first song they played at my first (would’ve been my 2nd but let’s not go there shall we). Surprise, surprise – Thom comes back out with the rest of the band with the joget ayam song, Idioteque!
OK, that’s it. I’ll leave you with this view from my vantage point taken with my iPhone. Hah.
By the way, Thom Yorke’s birthday is today!
