Radiohead's volte-face from sensitive tunesmiths to austere electronic production outfit may have left many out in the cold. But if last year's KidA sent shock waves through mainstream music, provoking awe and derision in equal measure, one album later and everything is different.
In the only Irish concert of the year for Oxford's finest, gone were the obstacles between the audience and the music. The tensions of a daring rock band trying to shed its skin and ignore the world's weighty expectations had long since vanished. Absent too were the anti-corporate big top and Thom Yorke's wilfully alienating "dancing freak" performance. What remained instead was an awesome collection of tunes, a colossal spectacle of light and cctv-style images, and a band once again at the height of its powers.
The enormous Odyssey Arena shuddered to life with The National Anthem's jagged punk bass, beginning a concert where the raw energy of rock, the precision of electronica and the emotive flight of song fused together for a stunning night. A generous set drew evenly and confidently from the last three albums, while mementos from The Bends were performed with bracing freshness.
Choosing a highlight from a show of stand-outs is hard to do. Karma Police beguiled with its sleepily threatening refrain, Pyramid Song shimmered with a fractured time signature and soaring vocals and Everything In Its Right Place looped live voice samples and piano, prolonging and folding time with breathtaking mastery. Meanwhile Street Spirit was dedicated to "all Americans trying to get home".
The reconciliation between rock and dance, classical forms and dissonant effects, cutting-edge technologies and antiquated instruments is a mind-bending challenge. Achieving it with intelligence and emotion, Radiohead are a constantly evolving band that, crucially, has never severed the link between head and heart.
