Beautiful perfomance by all the boys.

Jonny, I must say, is fucking brilliant, playing guitar *while* hitting keys on
the keyboard with the neck of the guitar. Blew the socks off of both us and
female jonny impersonator to our right. Probably everyone else too. Was this
during Planet Telex, other atttendees?

Thom was in top form, smiling and dancing *impressively*. He is an incredible
dancer. God, can he gyrate and slink like a snake. What's that they say about
good dancers again?

Ed was having a grand time, smiling at the "sound guys" and having some sort of
nonverbal communication with them, raising eyebrows and things.

You've seen the set list, and I don't plan on running thru a song by song
account. You probably don't want that anyway. Of note, thom did not jump into
the audience, but a girl jumped up on to the stage between songs. Good for her,
I say. She was so quick, the bouncers barely twitched their muscles and she was
already down. She very innocently put her arms around thom (his head was turned
the other way), he turned, startled, and she asked him for his guitar pick.
Seemingly stunned that this was all she demanded, he shrugged, and nodded. She
got it and bounced off the stage. Couldn't have taken more than 5 seconds.
That's the way to do it.

Okay, I suppose I have to comment on a few of the more notable points. PA was
just powerful. You get to find out how some of those "funny noises" are made.
And Colin is part of it!

Ok, I have to bring up, for me, the hilite/orgasm of the evening, well, at
least one of the most vivid parts. Thanks to some brainstorming, Jora and I
were able to recall the exact moment perfectly. At the end of TSH, they
extended the riff (or whatever you want to call it). It became like a loop and
metamorphased (is that a word) into a catatonic, rhythmic, trance type thing.
Thom began a sort of ryhthmic back and forth thing with his body. Standing in
one place, playing guitar, hips swing forward, upper body back, then hips back
and upper body thrown forward. Over and over, more and more exaggerated. It was
absolutely mesmorizing. And if there was any point at which I was going to
implode, it was then.

Right, then, let's see. Thom was doing less hand/finger twiches, but becos he
is playing guitar on *every* song except Bones!! Correct me if I'm wrong. He's
playing on every song (on that set list), and was very often brought out a
different guitar for each one. Fucking impressive.

And please, Phil Is Great! Jora and I agreed, TSH is defintely when you see
some serious Phil talent.

Jonny was his usual hidden behind mop stance. Okay, I'm thinking, I'm thinking,
before The Bends, Thom said somth about "this is for the people who got in here
legitimately". (exact words anyone?) Anyway, this includes me and J, who did do
it all legitimately (no scalpers) - right down to a top parking space in front.
A couple people next to us said they "advertised" the tickets for 500.00 just
to see if they could get it and guess what, FOUR calls! Impressive, revolting,
take your pick.

Some kind fellow in the back with a thunderous voice requested "How Can You Be
Fucking Sure!!!" which received the one finger salute from thom (deservedly
so). The sickly amusing top-off to the evening was the young gentleman that
approached Jora after the show to see her setlist and questioned, "were they
planning on playing Creep anywhere??!"   Pshya!!!

The other amusing thing was the girl behind us who kept yelling "Thom, can I
trade you picks!" Strange, this obsession with picks. I initially thought she
was saying "Thom, can I drink your spit" which of course seemed much more
reasonble.

There was one serious negative to the show, and it does stand out in my mind as
much as I'd like to forget it.

The audience was just completely dead. Yes, there was clapping and hooting, but
No pushing, No sweat, No energy from the crowd, Little dancing... I really
don't know what was going on with that?! There were a few bouncers at the front
(apparently unusual for the Troubadour) and they were *very* adament aBout us
keeping an aisle between the audience and the stage. We got ready to push back,
but never had to. Moshing and shoving would never have been tolerated. Being
that the floor only had a couple hundred people on it, it apparently was very
easy to control. And it was definitely controlled, to the point of lack of
movement. Now don't get me wrong, I don't like my neck broken by a bunch of
rugby wankers, but this crowd could have been sitting on couches as far as I'm
concerned. They seemed to enjoy the show, but there was just a serious lack of
energy/tension/desperation from the audience. It was so tame, that when thom
came close to the edge of the stage, we politely just looked up (and he wore
pants, btw). I wanted to reach out and touch him, but the feel of the place was
like there was this glass wall around them and the minute we made any move to
"let ourselves go", the bouncers would be saying "HEY, BACK OFF..." (thoughts
of Altamont)

The bouncer in front of us even said that the band requested them be there
becos  "the lead singer of Radiohead doesn't like people right on top of him"

What??!! That's what the bouncer said! I say, Thom didn't want any major crowd
insanity. Well, whatever the case may be, the crowd was T.A.M.E.   I feel bad
about this. I can't believe Rh wanted it *that* low-key. It's too bad it's so
hard to find that grey area between quiet and murderous.

Possible reasons for this lack of ...

1) Such a small venue, any extreme action would be well noticed. Ie. people
felt inhibited. (But, apparently other Troub shows have gotten quite wild)

2) MOst didn't know new songs (and there were a lot of them).

3) Bouncers were a serious drag, started killing the mood from the get-go.

4) LA just isn't a "Radiohead Town". Was that what you said, Jora?

5) The small group that was there were "diehard" fans and just aren't into all
that shoving.

I dunno. I give up. I wish it didn't bother me, but it did. I think the band
feeds off of energy from a crowd and the crowd doesn't have to be killing each
other to give off that energy. Don't get me wrong, their performance was
incredible, but the experience was not the catharsis I have felt the last 3
times I've seen them. I am worried about this and obsessed over it the entire
400 miles back to San Francisco.

-Martha