Thom Yorke hangs a Tibetan flag on his Rhodes in Saitama

Radiohead played the second of two nights at the Saitama Super Arena on 5 October, and for “Everything In Its Right Place” Thom Yorke displayed a Tibetan flag on the front of his Rhodes piano. Japan is the last leg of the year for the In Rainbows tour, which began in May.

Mikiko Morita, reviewing for rockin'on, had the lights going down at 6.07pm in front of a full arena. Yorke came on in red trousers and a black Fred Perry polo shirt, and his first word to the crowd was “konbanwa”, good evening. “15 Step” opened the set, and “Airbag”, “Just” and “There There” followed at speed, with Colin and Jonny Greenwood on timpani for the last. Then the stage turned red for “All I Need”, which Yorke sang at the piano.

Long, thin light poles hung from the ceiling, like a bamboo grove or a cluster of Manhattan towers to Morita. Behind the band a wide screen was split into five, each panel fed by a camera fixed near one member and tinted a single colour, green or red.

The In Rainbows songs were spread through the set, with three or four each from The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief. Morita found the sound far better than at the band's Kanto shows four years earlier, and the Hail to the Thief songs came through for it. Her view was that the In Rainbows songs show their full reach in a live room. Two encores added eight songs, and the night ended on “How to Disappear Completely”.

The next show, at the Tokyo International Forum on 7 October, falls on Yorke's 40th birthday.

Setlist, Saitama Super Arena, 5 October 2008