The doors were to open at 5:00 pm and the show to commence at 7:00 pm. I got to JD at 3:45 pm and waited in line. While in line, you could hear them rehearsing some songs (which I later found out they would not play, with the exception of Optimistic, Bangers and Mash and Like Spinning Plates). They were playing Kid A, I might be wrong, Myxomatosis, and Go slowly, in addition to the others mentioned.
My friend came after work and got in line at about 5:00 pm, so I didn't see her until later. They opened the "gates" at 5:30 pm and then everyone started running. So I was like "holy shit, I have to run too!". I'm a terrible sprinter, but I think the love of Radiohead propelled me to run to the stage and I got an awesome view against the barricade slightly leftish. So I had a view of Thom, Colin, the drummer and one of the guitarists. The other guitarist, Johnny, was more on the right, and he's generally always in hiding. Even when he's not, he has long hair that covers his face.
By the way, there were A LOT of people there. My ticket number was 34 000 something...like, I've never seen such a sea of people in person. Or at least for a concert.
I bought 2 dollar store raincoats before arriving because I knew it was gonna rain :(
They served us well, for it did rain quite a bit, but not so much during the show...just before.
Grizzly Bear came on at 7:30 pm (these shows never start on time do they :P). They were pretty good, but their music isn't very upbeat so I was getting a little sleepy. During the set though, there was a rainbow :D So the singer said "A rainbow for Radiohead". Their latest CD is called In Rainbows - so that's particularly awesome!
They ended their set and at about 8:45 pm Radiohead came on. Now, their stage setup is something amazing...there were looooong vertical tube lights hanging from the stage and screens in the background and honeycomb looking lights on the ceiling. There were cameras, I suspect on the long lights and at other places on the stage, because that's what was showing up on the screens. I know why they waited till it was darker to start playing because you really don't get the full benefit of the fantastic lighting until it's dark.
I did not take my camera with me because they said no cameras allowed, except disposable...and I wasn't sure I'd be close enough to get decent pics, so I didn't buy one. Turns out, quite a few people were able to sneak some in and I was indeed close enough :P But, hey! I can always leech other people's pics :P
Anyways, here's the set list (some of them are links to youtube videos, so just hover over the titles with your mouse if you wanna see):
01. 15 Step
02. There There (Thom “Sorry about the rain it follows us around”)
03. Morning Bell
04. All I Need
05. My Iron Lung
06. Nude
07. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
08. The Gloaming (Thom did his awesome dancing - I absolutely love his wackyness You can see a little clip here)
09. The National Anthem (the international fireworks competition is going on - and so it started at about this time)
10. Reckoner (awesome drumming goin on here :D)
11. Like Spinning Plates
12. Jigsaw falling into Place (Thom :If you’re feeling cold you can always grab someone next to you. Then Phil went to hug Colin)
13. Fake Plastic Trees With the fireworks and unison singing, it was just so magical :D
14. Lucky
15. Optimistic
16. Idioteque (more of Thom's wacky dancing)
17. Bodysnatchers
Encore 1
18. Faust Arp (Before Johnny and Thom started singing, I think I saw Thom ask him if he knew about the fireworks and Johnny shook his head. So Thom said "this city is fucked up". Then while singing, he screwed up because he started laughing while looking at the fire works)
19. Videotape (Thom: “”There’s always money for fireworks, the least they could do is put them at the fucking end and on timing! Honestly, daaaaarling”)
20. Paranoid Android (people singing "raaaaaain doooowwwwn, raaaaain down....that's it sir you're leaving, the crackle of pig skin...etc, was awesome - I got chills :D!)
21. Bangers and Mash
22. Karma Police (as Thom left the stage, the was playing this acoustic, the end notes of Karma Police, and everyone was singing "For a minute there I lost myself, I lost myself, I lost myseeeelf", he smiled, like yay, I have over 30 000 people singing in unison. Later he said "That's a lot of people")
Encore 2
23. House of Cards (it's such a lovely song...haha)
24. You And Whose Army? (The camera was inside the piano this time, so you could see his eye quirkin when he was saying...he's like "Come on...come oooooon")
25. Everything In Its Right Place (it was actually an awesome way to end. It reminded me of the first time I saw Mogwai. They ended with the epic song "My Father, My King" and as they left the stage put on white noise. This was the same, but more electronic like in a way. He said thanks for comin out. All the band members saluted us. Johnny was the last to leave).
So yeah, I'm not sure I can say much more about the show. It was one of the best concerts I've ever seen and I have been waiting to see them for over 5 years. So even though my shoes and pants got a little muddy (not from standing there, but from leaving lol), it was well worth it :) I would definitely see them again, no doubt about it.
It took over an hour to get to the metro though...as there was a line up. Try evacuating that many people off the island. woosh mang :P
You can see more youtube videos here: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=radiohead+montreal+2008&search_type=&aq=f
I'm sure more will appear over the next few days!
Yay :D
1 comments:
wow, that looks like an awesome show. hehe, it's funny to see dancing thom. it's pretty cool that fireworks happened during their set. and that stage setup looks so nice.
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