review

USA, NYC: Hammerstein - August 26, 1997

okay here's a lousy second mezzanine point of view:
I got there at 7:30 but doors had opened way before that. No matter though,
as I have 2nd mezzanine seats and that level is scantily filled. At 8
prompt (maybe even earlier) Teenage Fanclub get on and play. They play like
10 songs and you know what? They do all sound the same. Okay they get off,
and at 9:15 Radiohead come on and play. Since I'm sitting I scribble down
stuff like the song names, what Thom says before each song, and the colors
they use for the lights. I also take pictures of the pretty lights. All at
my friend's expense. First there's Fitter Happier. The band comes in at
the very end of it and they play Lucky. Before Exit Music Thom says "this
song is about love" so how about we turn the volume down or something.
After that is Karma Police "in two days time we have to do this song on
Letterman". Before CUTW, "Thank you good people of NY". I didn't know what
Let Down was at first. I thought, have I actually missed out on a good
b-side? But no it was Let Down arranged all weird. Before Creep "this is
one of our earlier songs. This is a good song. Thank you people of NY."
Before Talk Show Host "This is a cool song." The Bends is dedicated to a
band they've liked who are supporting them now which is very fucking weird.
Before Bulletproof "this is the end of our American tour. This is the last
show but this is a business so we're fucked. in 4 days time we start
another tour." Before Polyethelene "this next one is an obscure b-side.
This is definitely for the people in the back." Indeed. Before Street
Spirit " Thank you very much. Thank you fuck listen to the silence either
they're all listening or they're all fast asleep. let's turn on all the
lights.....thank you very very very much." Before Motion Picture
Soundtrack, there was some person in mezz 2 whirling a glow in the dark
chain and Thom said "I like that. That's very nice." I think it was that.
Who fucking knows.

All in all I hated my seats and the whole venue, and there wa guy trying to
kick us out while we were getting t-shirts. It was nice of Thom to pay
attention to the people in the back because it was fucking bad there. The
best part was Jonny making his coy face and staring into the distance. That
rocked. But yet what is the point of tempting us so? The encores were
different in that they went out, went in, played 4 songs, went out, started
the ending music and then potsmoking kids went all crazy and after a long
time Thom came back to play MPS. I also thought it was funny that Thom
sounded like Dave Letterman with his repetitive "thank you good people of
New York".
Ummm...uhhhh...oh yeah I got two(2) t-shirts. Both sort of raunchy. One
says team radiohead, unzip your pants and the other is a size small that
says Meeting people is easy. So there. Might I mention again that Jonny
made the best face and he was staring into the distance, straight ahead and
slightly up? From where I was sitting it looked like he was staring at us
and I had a friend with me who had white purple hair. We can always dream.
Anyone else see that? Also did anyone see what exactly the band was doing
when Thom said to turn the lights up. I was writing stuff and waiting for
them to turn the lights and then I looked and realized they meant just the
green lights on top and then they went on but Jonny was making that face
again, you know the one that girls usually make with his neck stuck out.
Okay, and I wanted to say that I had my junior semiformal there at the
Manhattan Center Ballroom almost 5 years ago. I had been upset because my
friends all decided to leave the darkness of the ballroom and sit in the
mezzanine. But I did have a lovely dance with one of them who was quite a
soppy useless human being. Anyways. Before the concert I went to HMV and
they actually had the Live at Astoria video! I was so excited. It was the
Japanese version for eighty dollars. They didn't have Raygun but they had
Mojo with Radiohead on the cover and lots of flattering older pictures inside.