Radiohead are one of the most beloved bands in the world. Rising out of the 90’s post-Grunge, Alternative scene to essentially create their own genre of music, the elusive Oxford-based band plays sparingly, exclusively touring in support of their increasingly-experimental albums and not really adding many shows for the fun of it. They hit the road because they have to express their art, not necessarily because they want to, so the number of shows they play is limited. The formula is familiar: the band releases a new album, then goes on tour, reliably hitting major markets and top-level festivals along the way.
However, in a strange confluence of events, Radiohead haven’t performed a true, large-scale headlining show within the five boroughs of New York City in years. Forget about the fact that their last show in the city-the finale of a two night run at the now defunct Roseland Ballroom-was already five years ago…the last time Radiohead played a show in New York City at a venue befitting their huge demand was a whopping 13 years ago, when they headlined two nights at Madison Square Garden in support of their album Hail to the Thief. Of course, there were a couple of underplays: a two-night run at the Theater at Madison Square Garden-the venue underneath MSG proper that seats one third of the main room’s audience-featured openers The Black Keys and served as a stop on the band’s 2006 pre-In Rainbows tour, and the aforementioned two-night stop at Roseland while the band was in town to play Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report in support of their 2011 album The King of Limbs.
They have been painfully close, as Radiohead did stop at nearby Jersey City, NJ for two nights at All Points West festival in 2008 while touring In Rainbows, and added two tri-state area shows at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ during their proper The King of Limbs tour. The band have been sorely missed by their rabid New York City fan-base, so, as Radiohead prepare to return to the city for what’s sure to be two amazing nights at Madison Square Garden, we look back at their two-night-stand from 2003, when the band were at the top of their game, still riding the wave as the “biggest band in the world”.
Back in 2003, Radiohead were top of the musical food chain. From 1997 – 2001, they released three albums-Ok Computer, Kid A, and Amnesiac-that blew the world’s collective mind. Combining their interest and fears of technology into a paranoid, insightful look at humanity’s role in the world, Radiohead can only be compared to Pink Floyd in their ability to push their audience to expand their minds. With their 2003 album Hail to the Thief, Radiohead returned with a more guitar-based record, eschewing much of the digital production of their previous records for a more “live” sound. The album often gets overlooked in the discussion of “greatest Radiohead records”, but the truth is, this album is one of their absolute best, containing classics like the percussive “There There”, acoustic rocker “Go To Sleep”, paranoid punk rock freak out “2+2=5”, and possibly their most glitchy electronic song, “The Gloaming”. The songs work especially well in a concert setting, and made Radiohead’s subsequent world tour to support the album all the more amazing.
With a May release of Hail to the Thief, the summer of 2003 was packed with a mix of summer tour dates and festival appearances across Europe and Japan, including a headlining stop at Glastonbury. Starting in August, the band started a huge two-month tour of the United States, crisscrossing the country to perform at venues like Red Rocks, the Hollywood Bowl, and Alpine Valley, while stopping at amphitheaters in almost every major market in the country. The band closed out their time in the U.S., however, with an epic pair of shows at Madison Square Garden on October 9th and October 10th 2003, a run which found the band firing on all cylinders to conclude their lengthy time on the road.
Radiohead are certainly not at the jam band level when it comes to song-rotation in their setlists, but they do tend to switch it up on a nightly basis. This formula has worked out pretty well for them, as they’re able to feature their new material and their classic material while satisfying their most hardcore fans with a selection of rotating deep cuts and b-sides at each show. This tour found the band playing Hail To The Thief tracks “2+2=5”, “Sit Down Stand Up”, “Where I End And You Begin”, “Sail to the Moon”, “Go To Sleep”, “The Gloaming” and “There There” at each tour stop, alongside Radiohead’s must-play live-staples “Everything in its Right Place”, “Idioteque” and “The National Anthem”, and “You and Whose Army?”.
Radiohead’s stop at MSG was not defined by it’s tour regulars as much as it was by the deep cuts they selected for each night’s performance. The first night saw the band heavily feature material from their album Kid A, with a “Kid A”, “Morning Bell”, and “How to Disappear Completely” all appearing on the setlist. The October 9th show contained a number of surprises, as Radiohead performed “Lurgee” from their early record, Pablo Honey, as well as a rare appearance by “True Love Waits”, a track that wouldn’t be officially included into the Radiohead catalog until this year’s A Moon Shaped Pool release. Night one also saw a number of tracks from The Bends, with a raging “My Iron Lung” and the emotional masterpiece “Fake Plastic Trees” both making it into the set. Radiohead play their biggest hits only sporadically, so the first night’s audience was blessed with their classic “Karma Police” to open the second encore.
Night two would find the band featuring a larger number of songs from their critically-acclaimed Ok Computer record. The band included “Airbag”, “No Surprises”, “Lucky”, and “Exit Music (for a Film)” in their set alongside set regular “Paranoid Android”, and they mixed in a few different Hail to the Thief songs like the sinister “Myxomatosis” and the beautiful ballad “Scatterbrain”. A highlight of the set was the dreamy Kid A track “In Limbo”, and of course the crowd lost it for Radiohead’s first hit single, the beloved Pablo Honey song “Creep”. They also busted out a couple more songs from The Bends, with the epic rager “Just” and the blissful “Street Spirit (fade out)”.
All in all, these two shows were amazing. Capturing a band at the peak of their powers, Radiohead made the complicated parts of their songs seem effortless, and they fully showcased their ability to incorporate elements of technology into their playing–something that set them apart in in 2003–and still sets them apart today in 2016. Thankfully, YouTube exists, and there is a video copy of the full second concert available for streaming. The images are pre-HD, but the clarity is brilliant at times, giving the viewer a close-up view of the band exploding with energy on the Madison Square Garden stage. Thom Yorke is young and full of life, showcasing his passion and his unique dance moves throughout, while Johnny Greenwood is an evil genius on the guitar and with all of his homemade electronic toys. The rhythm section of Collin Greenwood and Philip Selway holds it down while creating endless energy, and rhythym guitarist Ed O’Brien is rock solid and provides great backup vocals.  Check out the video below to see for yourselves, and check out the full setlist for both nights of this infamous run.
We can’t wait to get to Madison Square Garden for Radiohead’s first shows there in 13 years!
Watch full video from 10/10/2003 at Madison Square Garden, the second night of Radiohead’s U.S.-tour-closing two-night run, courtesy of YouTube user Austin Brock