Before the gig there were a nice relaxating atmosphere outside the club;
my friend and me were just sitting on the kerb listening
to the sound check inside (Sparklehorse, what a pity). We saw people
coming in and going out, most of them those guys with
"access all areas" stickers. The usual staff. Suddenly my friend said:
Isn´t that guy Colin, the bass player?, and yes, he was there
at the door. We just watched and he dissapeared inside. Nobody had
noticed him, except maybe a couple of autograph
collectors. After a while we saw Phil coming from the tour buses, which
were parked behind our backs; this time a small group
of fans approached him and he stopped and talked to them in a relaxed
and nice way. Then he walked towards me and my
friend, who were still sitting in the same kerb, just watching. Phil
saw me smiling at him and he smiled me back, I greeted him
just hi! and he answered. Just that, but I found him really nice and
polite. We saw him still a couple of times more around the
entrance door. Some minutes later, at the very same place, in front
of the main door, I saw a little figure who came direct
towards me walking very quicky with a plastic glass in his left hand;
at first I didn´t move or talk cause I wouldn´t expect such
a
thing, but when I saw his red hair I realized that Thom was looking
at me. I didn´t even say anything to him or to my friend
beside me until Thom was already walking toward the bus (he wasn´t
angry with me anyway for not telling him that Thom DID
see us sitting there, just 30 cms away and passed us by).Thom was then
chased by a girl who wanted his autograph, but he
refused to stop with a move of his hand. A guy took him a photo when
he passed him by. That was all, but really exciting.
OK, then the gig. We were all packed there, me and my friend standing
very near the stage and we thanked Sparklehorse for
being just correct and brief, only a 20 minutes set cause we were waiting
for Radiohead, of course. The set was the expected
one, I must say and the worse thing was the bad quality of the sound,
according to the place, more suitable for heavy metal
gigs. I couldn´t even hear Thom´s voice very well but what
the hell, we had waited so long for this. The setlist... well my
memory is really bad but I think they played the standard set: all
the songs of OK computer except electionnering, climbing up
the walls and let down and:
the bends
just
fake plastic trees
talk host show
my iron lung
planet telex
The encores (three!!!) were high and dry, creep (huh!),street spirit,
bones, the tourist. Sorry if I forgot any (sure I did), but
everything happened so quickly, no time to sober up. I was happy and
proud of the third encore; we made the band come out
again, even after the lights were already on and the ambient music
could be heard again. The crowd were all shouting and
clapping hands, singing and making all the noise we could for 10 minutes
and finally... The band was a little bit amazed by our
reaction, I think, they found that really funny and Thom smiled and
said HOLA (Hi in Spanish). He didn´t speak much during
the gig, as usual. Maybe he feared that we couldn´t understand
what he said...
I must end with my personal sensation that, although a very good concert
I missed some touch of fantasy or innovation, a
concesion for us as fans. The set which I defined earlier as "standard"
was the expected one; no b-sides, no Pablo Honey
songs, and I missed that. Anyway, I really want to see them 100 times
more, next time without so many yelling-little girl-fans
who were topping the first rows, singing all the songs at the top of
their voices and dying for a glance from Thom...
Love
R.