2 YGM Members, including myself, were lucky enough to score tickets for Radiohead’s concert at Roseland Ballroom last night. It was crazy to see how lucky we were to be there; people from all over the world came here without tickets just to see the show, hoping they could buy from scalpers outside the venue.
Hit the jump to read on.
Few people were selling, and those who were wanted big money for their tickets. I watched a deal go down where someone sold his +1 for $1400, and if you’ve been checking secondary ticket websites the past few days, you know that tickets were up for $2000+ even. Clearly, the will-call system was a terrible idea. In my opinion it caused more problems for the venue AND the fans. Doors opened at 6:30, (we were probably right in the middle of the line), and we didn’t get into the venue until about 8 o’clock, so opening band went on at 9, and then Radiohead wasn’t on until at least 10. And it didn’t really stop the scalpers, because those who sold tickets were selling them at insane amounts of money. BUT don’t get me wrong, the night was absolutely amazing. The will-call thing was probably the worst aspect of it all, which goes to show how great it really was.
The performance was stunning. Thom Yorke has amazing energy on stage, and that combined with Radiohead’s beautiful music made this one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. The band is very tight musically, and I have to say they ROCK live. Even if you find their albums too mellow and boring, you’ll definitely become a fan if you saw them live. There was so much energy coming off the stage that everyone in the audience was dancing and bobbing their heads. Radiohead opened with 2 songs from King Of Limbs: “Bloom” and “Little By Little”. Thom brought out his piano for a beautiful performance of “Subterranean Homesick Alien”, which hasn’t been played live since 2003. This was followed by “All I Need”, one of my favorite songs by them. Next Yorke did a brief cover of “The One I Love” by R.E.M., which led into “Everything In Its Right Place” from Kid A. In Rainbows is probably my favorite album of all time, it’s been on steady rotation in my iTunes for about 5 years now, so the songs they played from that album were the most memorable for me. Their energetic performance of “15 Step” had the whole crowd dancing. They closed their first set with “Bodysnatchers” and “Reckoner”. After a brief break, they came on stage for a 3 song encore in which they played “Give Up The Ghost”, “The National Anthem”, and “Morning Mr. Magpie”. And then the crew came on stage and house lights went up. But Radiohead wasn’t done yet. They resurfaced for a 2nd encore, where they played “Street Spirit” and another one of my favorites, “Nude”.
The whole night was amazing, and I’m sure that everyone who was lucky or rich enough to get a ticket would agree.
Footage taken by Justin & Matt. Review written by Anthony.
