Fireworks from La Ronde cut into Radiohead's night at Parc Jean-Drapeau

Radiohead played to about 35,000 people at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal on 6 August, and for the last half hour they were up against the fireworks at the La Ronde amusement park nearby. A volley landed early in “Fake Plastic Trees”, and the display's finale came down on “Karma Police”, but the worst of it was the start of the encore. Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood were playing “Faust Arp” on two acoustic guitars, and Yorke broke into laughter halfway through.

Alexandre Vigneault of La Presse still called it a superb concert. The band played something from every album except Pablo Honey and every song on In Rainbows. “All I Need” and “Nude” were heard in near silence, and there was a rare “Like Spinning Plates” on piano and bass. Steve Witt, reviewing for Exclaim!, heard the night open with “15 Step”; “Everything In Its Right Place” closed the second encore.

The storm Montreal had feared never came. Vigneault reported light rain and some thunder, though Witt described a downpour through the queues and the opening set by Grizzly Bear. Between sets, he noticed, the crowd cheered whenever someone lowered an umbrella and threw water bottles at anyone who did not.

If there had to be fireworks, Yorke remarked drily, they might have been saved for the end of the show.