Radiohead bring “Lurgee” to a sold-out night outside Houston

Radiohead played the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, outside Houston, on Wednesday 1 October, and brought out “Lurgee” from Pablo Honey for the third time on the tour. Supergrass opened, and more than 16,000 people, a sell-out, stayed on their feet for nearly two hours.

The show began to the sound of a skipping record before “2+2=5”, and Thom Yorke's first held falsetto drew a cheer of its own. During “Sit Down. Stand Up.” poles of coloured light behind the band pulsed in time like a giant graphic equaliser as Phil Selway's snare quickened under Yorke's piano.

Michael D. Clark, reviewing for the Chronicle, rates Radiohead above Coldplay and Supergrass as the British band still changing the music of the new century. He likens Jonny Greenwood's effects over the flamenco rhythm of “Where I End and You Begin” to ground The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees covered 15 years before, and takes “Lurgee” as an early sketch for lullabies such as “No Surprises”.

The night ended, to his surprise, on favourites: an acoustic “Fake Plastic Trees”, then “Karma Police” and “Everything in Its Right Place”, with the crowd singing along.