Radiohead return to San Diego with “Hunting Bears”

Radiohead played Coors Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, California, on Sunday 28 September, their first show in the San Diego area since 1996, and brought out the Amnesiac instrumental “Hunting Bears” in the first encore. Almost 20,000 people filled the place. After a set from Supergrass the band played 24 songs in nearly two hours, opening with “2+2=5” and “Sit Down. Stand Up.”.

The night was uplifting rather than bleak for George Varga, pop critic of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Song after song started gently, built in pace and weight and swung back again, the band moving from understatement to fist-pumping rage. He rates Hail to the Thief a proudly uncommercial record that improves every time he plays it, and picks out “The Gloaming” and “Talk Show Host”, the 1996 B-side.

Thom Yorke bounded about the stage all night, pulled faces and raised his eyebrows at the piano through “You and Whose Army?”, and dedicated “Karma Police” to the full Hollywood experience¹ of the band's two nights at the Hollywood Bowl the week before.