- Consequence of sound
- Festival outlook
Bonnaroo has had many great headliners over its past seven years of existence. Wilco, Kings of Leon, Nine Inch Nails, and Phish have all played astounding sets at the festival and helped to create its great reputation as a must-see event. However, there’s one group that’s widely regarded to have had the best Bonnaroo performance overall: Radiohead.
In early 2005, Radiohead had begun working on what would eventually become 2007’s In Rainbows. However, after a year of recording, they hadn’t made much progress, partly due to their stop in momentum after the tour for Hail to the Thief. The record contract with EMI was up, and the band didn’t want to sign with any business in what they saw as a dying industry. So with no album deadline and their first break in years, Radiohead was stuck in the mud. In order to get the machine working again, the band went on tour in mid 2006. While they mostly played smaller club and theaters, they also headlined a few festivals. It was during this tour that Radiohead headlined Bonnaroo 2006.
The Bonnaroo set can basically be seen as the ultimate Radiohead show. Like their more energetic songs? “The Bends” and “Myxomatosis” are there for you. Want to relive the days of their electronic era? “Everything In Its Right Place” and “Idioteque” are on the setlist. Even those casual fans out there would be happy with “Fake Plastic Trees”, “Karma Police”, and “Paranoid Android”. There’s something for almost everyone (sorry, Pablo Honey fans, that’s the only album missing here).
Not only is the show legendary for its large variety even by Radiohead’s standards, it’s also given a high regard for its sheer performance length. While many headlining acts play as long as they would at a normal concert, Radiohead stretched their usual 20-song set to an impressive 28 songs. The eight-song encore almost feels like it could pass for a concert itself.
The band used their mini-tour not only to regain momentum for future studio work, but also as a chance to try out songs on the road. In fact, all six unreleased songs played at Bonnaroo would later make it onto In Rainbows. After opening the set with “There There” and “2+2=5”, Radiohead wasted no time in showing off their new material. The awesomely offbeat rhythm of “15 Step” was played back-to-back with the multi-layered guitar touches of “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” as the strangely angled video screens focused on each band member. These two numbers offer a cool insight into their evolution when compared with the more complete album versions.
However, “Videotape” is an example of an earlier version surpassing the finalized track. On the record, the song is a mainly piano-centered piece with a drum loop that comes in towards the end as Thom Yorke sings about using antique technology to say goodbye to his loved ones. The Bonnaroo version is much more complex, though. Jonny Greenwood supplies a scratch guitar against Yorke’s piano that gradually grows louder until the song explodes for the final verse and subsequent ending. The song that ended up on In Rainbows takes more of a bare bones approach than what was done at the festival.
When all was said and done, the band’s set felt like an instant classic. It was quintessential Radiohead in every way. They gave the audience what they wanted, surprised them with what they weren’t expecting, and helped elevate Bonnaroo’s already strong status as a great festival. The show was filmed for a possible DVD in the future, though nothing’s been heard about that for a while. Hopefully, the band will decide to break their drought of live concert releases in order to share what many feel is one of the greatest performances by one of the world’s greatest bands.
TAGGED AS: Bonnaroo Music Festival, Radiohead, Thom Yorke
comments (15)
I was there that night. Its all they say it was. Although, Beck was strong that year too. My Morning Jacket…..mmmm. RH was indeed on it. Something strang though, during the majority of the show their side screen monitors where out, totally blank. I wonder if that was intentional for better film making? So the sound was great, but there where a few thousand who could not see that well for alot of the show because the big screens where off. Later.
Best show I’ve been. I was in NYC 3 days early to see them at MSG theatre. I always wanted to see them every since OK computer when I graduated high school. I was catching back up with them on Kid A, Amnesiac, and HTTT leading up to those shows. At bonnaroo my fiance and I waited hours in the sun after a great Beck show to make sure we got good spots. Beck used these hilarious hand puppets on the screen during their show and during a set break to “tour” bonnaroo – they even used them to make fun of radiohead singing creep (if i recall). All i can say is that radiohead is amazing (and was that night) and they are the type of band I would want to be a part of if I could play music. They are like the modern day floyd with the composition skills of the beatles. This coming from someone who loves lots of music dead, phish and their evolution just impresses me. BTW – find that torrent. I have it – the 3 camera angles are awesome and well used. It is high quality – kudos to the hard work those guys put in. You see Yorke dance on myxamatosis closeup, lean into the audience. I ripped the audio to put on my ipod. And its awesome to know some of in rainbows firsts were played that night and in a way that Yorke connected with the crowd and that clearly made him pretty happy. What a great band.
remember when mtv used to be cool?
Radiohead played The Beacon Theater in New York for MTV 2 Dollar Bill in 2003 and that set list was even longer. MTV chopped it into an hour with commercial but they filmed the entire thing and you can Torrent it DVD quality. I reccomend it highly.
There’s a version of it on YouTube that is divided into 2 parts for the entire set. It’s quite awesome and I highly recommend it. I happened to be at this Bonnaroo but decided to listen to this one at my camp site due to unforeseen circumstances
. I’m guessing the video is almost as good as being there. You can hear every detail in this version. Anyways, here are the links, hope you enjoy it as much as I didPart 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxNBaYF3dDg
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AREoKy1eSl4&feature=related
I was up close at this show and it was the very best of the several Radiohead shows I have seen over the years. Also, of the 5 Bonnaroo’s I have attended this has been the absolute top headlining set of the festival. For anyone intesested there is a excellent fan made DVD of this show floating around in .torrent land that is very high quality but hard to find. For huge fans Radiohead fans I recommend hunting it down.
I WAS THERE!!
Sorry, didn’t know.
it’s common knowledge that captain loves radiohead. this was a great show and is in my top 10 all time.
Agreed, best live show I’ve ever been to.
Greatest show ever! I waited for 5 hours in the blistering sun in the midst of that enormous crowd just to have a good spot for the show, not including the 2 1/2 hours I was standing there for the actual show. After the show, I could barely even walk, but I would wait a full day standing in that heat just to see that show again. One of the most incredible nights of my life! All hail Radiohead!
it certainly was a goooood one.
have been there for 5 roo’s and by far this was my favorite performance
