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Radiohead open their festival summer at Sziget, Avenches and Pukkelpop
Radiohead flew to Budapest by private jet to headline Sziget on Saturday 12 August, their first show in Hungary, after the security alert of 10 August over an alleged plot against transatlantic flights left UK airports in chaos. Two acts due on the Friday, Coldcut and Gomez, never got there.
At Sziget “2 + 2 = 5” fell apart a few words in. V-dur, writing for the Slovak site Metalopolis, says Thom Yorke tried to stop it, but the sample kept running and Jonny Greenwood carried on with the guitar part over his protests until the second section crashed in and the song came right.
About 50,000 people, by his count, stood in front of the main stage on Óbudai Island in the Danube, where Heaven Street Seven and dEUS played before them. A curtain at the back of the stage, he writes, opened on fragments of screen carrying the live camera pictures, and when Yorke's face came up on them at the piano for “Pyramid Song”, he pulled faces back at the crowd. Only “15 Step” and “Nude” were new, and the encore brought “Bones”, which the band have played only a handful of times this year.
Rock Oz'Arenes, in its 15th year, added an extra night on Tuesday 15 August for Radiohead's only Swiss show, in the Roman arena at Avenches, and it sold out within an hour of going on sale. The new songs there were “Bangers + Mash” and “Down Is the New Up”. “My Iron Lung” was abandoned halfway through for a technical fault and started again, and “Everything in Its Right Place”, closing the encore, began with a piece of “True Love Waits”. Cameras above, below and beside the band threw their pictures in monochrome onto screen fragments behind them.
Luc Debraine, reviewing the night for Le Temps, notes fans online complaining of a greatest-hits set, a tired band and technical trouble, but calls it two hours of energetic rock, with feedback spoiling a song or two. The rain held off until just after the encore, near midnight.
On Thursday Radiohead played Pukkelpop at Domein Kiewit in Hasselt, the site they had played in August 1995, with a set that leaned on older songs. “Where I End and You Begin” came back, and “Nude” and “All I Need” were the only new ones.
Setlists, August 2006
| # | Budapest, Sziget, 12 August | Avenches, Rock Oz'Arenes, 15 August | Hasselt, Pukkelpop, 17 August |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Airbag | There There | Airbag |
| 2 | The National Anthem | The National Anthem | The National Anthem |
| 3 | There There | Lucky | There There |
| 4 | 15 Step | Kid A | Where I End and You Begin |
| 5 | Exit Music (for a Film) | Bangers + Mash | Exit Music (for a Film) |
| 6 | Karma Police | My Iron Lung | Karma Police |
| 7 | I Might Be Wrong | Karma Police | Nude |
| 8 | Nude | Morning Bell | I Might Be Wrong |
| 9 | Paranoid Android | I Might Be Wrong | Myxomatosis |
| 10 | No Surprises | Street Spirit (Fade Out) | Paranoid Android |
| 11 | The Gloaming | Climbing Up the Walls | No Surprises |
| 12 | How to Disappear Completely | Myxomatosis | The Gloaming |
| 13 | Pyramid Song | Pyramid Song | All I Need |
| 14 | Lucky | Down Is the New Up | Pyramid Song |
| 15 | Just | Just | Just |
| 16 | Idioteque | Idioteque | Idioteque |
| 17 | Street Spirit (Fade Out) | Paranoid Android | How to Disappear Completely |
| 18 | Encore 1: You and Whose Army? | Encore 1: Like Spinning Plates | Encore 1: Like Spinning Plates |
| 19 | 2 + 2 = 5 | Airbag | You and Whose Army? |
| 20 | Bones | The Bends | Lucky |
| 21 | Fake Plastic Trees | Everything in Its Right Place | Fake Plastic Trees |
| 22 | Everything in Its Right Place | – | Everything in Its Right Place |