Radiohead keep the new songs to two at Benicassim

Radiohead headlined the Saturday night of the Festival Internacional de Benicassim on 3 August, the one festival on their Spanish and Portuguese run, and kept the new songs to two. “A Punchup at a Wedding” came in the middle of the set, and “There There”, which had opened every show of the tour since Lisbon, was saved for the encore. Jonny Greenwood had said before the set that as it wasn't the band's own gig they would play only one or two new ones.

The other 13 songs came from the released records. During “Pyramid Song” Colin Greenwood's double bass fed back so badly that the song stopped halfway, and he played the rest of it on electric bass. I'm glad people enjoyed it but the sound wasn't that good. I'm looking forward to the last three dates.¹

Luis Hidalgo, reviewing the festival for El País, made Radiohead and Primal Scream, who followed them on, its two winners by opposite routes. He found Radiohead's set built on slow, mournful melodies, with Thom Yorke's voice holding the crowd spellbound. Mixing the band's melodic side with the experimental one sent their followers home satisfied, he judged. Those who think of Radiohead as tormented men wallowing in pain stayed as unhappy as ever.

Jonny said the band will record the new album in Los Angeles in September, once the tour is over. No, LA's not very 'Radiohead', but we recorded the last album in a cold northern Europe location because we thought it was us. It wasn't. So we'll try this.¹ Asked whether that meant a West Coast record in the manner of the Eagles or Lynyrd Skynyrd, he said Phil Selway was singing, so it might.

Setlist, Benicassim, 3 August 2002