Radiohead close the Main Square Festival in Arras

Radiohead headlined the last night of the Main Square Festival on the Grand-Place in Arras on Sunday 6 July, and Thom Yorke dedicated “Paranoid Android” to the people living in the houses around the square. He apologised for the noise the band were making and asked them, Can we come for a drink at the end of the show?¹

It was the band's first show in Arras and the last French date of the tour, after two nights at Bercy in Paris and two at the Arènes de Nîmes in June; Rock Werchter in Belgium was the night before. Sigur Rós, The Dø, Vampire Weekend and The Wombats played the square earlier in the day.

Pascale, writing for Concert and Co, found the band tired and tense, with a few fluffed notes, thought the crowd's welcome cool and gave the day to Sigur Rós, while singling out “Paranoid Android”, “Exit Music” and “Weird Fishes”. Rachel, for Sound of Violence, also heard Yorke's voice tiring, but called it a dream setlist that never lost its intensity.

The band came on at 10pm and played for two hours. La Voix du Nord counted nearly 30,000 people on the square and in the streets around it, 27,000 by the official figure, with residents watching from their windows; the webzine COREandCO put the crowd at 25,000. They played 25 songs, and Yorke gave a small, jerky dance to the opener, “15 Step”. “A Wolf at the Door” and “Climbing Up the Walls” were back after missing all four June shows in France, and it was only the fourth “A Wolf at the Door” of the year, after Dallas, Milan and Amsterdam. Yorke opened the first encore alone at the piano with “Cymbal Rush”, from his solo album The Eraser, and the second encore ended with “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”.

He and Jonny Greenwood, playing “Faust Arp” as a duo, laughed their way through two false starts. Yorke then played “Exit Music (for a Film)” alone with his guitar, and when part of the crowd kept talking through it he told them, Please shut up now!²

Setlist, Main Square Festival, Arras, 6 July 2008