Radiohead – 3 Arena, Dublin – Live Review by Killian Laher

Perhaps the hottest ticket of the year was Radiohead playing for one night only in the 3 Arena.  How would the critics’ darlings translate to such a large venue?  Well if the ‘sold-out-in-10-seconds’ audience were anything to go by, expectations were high.

Not a band given to grand entrances, roars of “HELLO DUBLIN!” etc, they started slowly with the gorgeous but glacially-paced Daydreaming and Desert Island Disk.  They reached into their back catalogue to play menacing versions of My Iron Lung, You And Whose Army and All I Need which saw singer Thom Yorke dancing around without a care in the world between playing a few bars on piano.  Certainly, this was a more relaxed Radiohead than in recent years.  There were many vaguely uptempo workouts like Let Down and Airbag, while a Middle Eastern-tinged Idioteque felt almost joyful.  Newer songs like The Gloaming and The Numbers saw the whole band coming together musically to sound great in the large venue.

Although the band didn’t particularly engage with the audience, by the encore it mattered little as No Surprises and a maraca-enhanced Paranoid Android were rapturously received.  Arguably the highlight of the night was Everything In Its Right Place, which started with Yorke messing around on keyboards and developed into an almost rave-up with a fine electronic coda.  Returning briefly for a second encore they finished that night with How To Disappear Completely, audience roaring out the line “I float down the Liffey”.

Though there were no fireworks and no, dare I say it, real surprises, they certainly didn’t disappoint their fans, and even those less convinced could find plenty to enjoy.

Set List:

Daydreaming
Desert Island Disk
Ful Stop
Airbag
15 Step
The National Anthem
My Iron Lung
All I Need
You And Whose Army?
Let Down
Bllom
Identikit
Idioteque
The Gloaming
The Numbers
Bodysnatchers
2 + 2 = 5

No Surprises
I Promise
Paranoid Android
Present Tense
Everything In Its Right Place

Lotus Flower
Fake Plastic Trees
How To Disappear Completely