Radiohead open their theatre run in Dublin with two live debuts

Radiohead opened their run of small theatres in Ireland and Britain at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin on 17 May, and played “Backdrifts” and “The Gloaming” live for the first time. When a phone rang during “You and Whose Army?”, Thom Yorke worked the word “telephone” into the song.

It was their first concert since last summer's warm-up shows in Portugal and Spain, which ended in Salamanca on 7 August, with Hail to the Thief due on 9 June. Tickets were sold only through the band's website, and NME found fans who had queued for up to 12 hours, some of them from Japan and the United States. Four Tet supported.

David Cheal, reviewing for the Daily Telegraph, saw Yorke grinning broadly as the band came on and ranks the night with the most intense rock he has heard. In “Myxomatosis” Yorke took the microphone off its stand and scuttled along the front of the stage, which Cheal likens to Gollum.

At Ease, whose report the desk carried, thought the sound poor and the theatre beautiful but far too full, and the set and the playing excellent. Yorke's guitar failed before “Go to Sleep”, which was played on a replacement, and the rest of the band admired Jonny Greenwood's playing on it; in “Just” Yorke broke a string.

During “Everything in Its Right Place”, which closed the main set, he sat down on the stage for a while and watched the crowd, and before “A Punch-Up at a Wedding” he asked whether the Irish drink much beer at weddings, to a loud yes. The last song was “How to Disappear Completely”, and its line about floating down the Liffey, sung in Dublin, got a cheer of its own.

Setlist, Olympia Theatre, Dublin, 17 May 2003