The Italian live music scene to be nowhere near as prominent as back home in Australia. Sure, Italy gets a great deal of huge bands passing through, but smaller and pub gigs are an endangered species. Maybe this was the reason why rock royalty Radiohead decided to be generous and give ‘The Boot’ a double shot of their quality set. Though the crowd came from beyond Italy, with even Brad Pitt and Edward Norton making the trek to witness the event.
The gorgeous Bat For Lashes opened the show with assistance from her band The Blue Dreams all branded with glitter make-up. The electric saw and the peculiar phono-fiddle made unusual, yet welcome appearances in a set that covered tracks from her Fur and Gold album as well as a few new numbers. Her Bjork meets Feist sound went down a treat with the almost half full Arena Civica, a giant stone constructed stadium a bit like a smaller version of the Colosseum though nowhere near as grand.
The arena was packed and the sun was still up when the band emerged and broke into Reckoner from their latest, In Rainbows. The sun went down as the lads ruffled through hits such as Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, Wolf At The Door and Airbag. Thom, Ed and Jonny changed from guitar to synth and even to drums whereas Colin kept Phil company at the back of the stage. Thom didn’t have much to say besides simple Italian one liners like ‘Prego’, ‘Andiamo’ and ‘Grazie Bella’ which scored even more points in the hearts of the locals.
After a quick break the guys were back for the first of two encores. The sky had by now turned an eerie maroon while Milan rocked out to such tracks as House Of Cards, Just and 2+2=5 until Thom and co ended the night with the epic crowd favourite Paranoid Android from their highly acclaimed OK Computer. Strangely, missing from tonight’s set was their best known track Creep as well as classics Exit Music For A Film and Karma Police.
Put simply it was an amazing show, both audibly and visually – the lighting was truly spectacular with fluorescent tube icicles hanging over the stage area creating a glowing forest and a backdrop of screens showing a live feed of each member. Hopefully the full In Rainbows tour makes it down to Australia very soon.
Setlist:
Reckoner
15 Step
The National Anthem
All I Need
Nude
Airbag
The Gloaming
Dollars and Cents
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Faust Arg
How To Disappear Completely
Jigsaw
Wolf At The Door
Videotape
Everything in its Right Place
Idioteque
Bodysnatchers
Encore 1:
House Of Cards
There There
Bangers
Just
The Tourist
Encore 2:
Go Slowly
2+2=5
Paranoid Android
Kaileah
said on the 28th Jun, 2008