Radiohead return to Melbourne for the first time since 2004

Radiohead played Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Friday 16 November, their first show in the city since 26 April 2004 at the same arena, and the first of the two nights that close the tour, after one in Brisbane and two in Sydney. The next night of that 2004 visit was cancelled on the day, after a throat specialist found Thom Yorke's vocal cords badly inflamed, and some of this crowd had had refunds for it.

Bryget Chrisfield, reviewing the night for The Music, watched Yorke open with “Lotus Flower”, the city's first taste of The King of Limbs, shaking three maracas at once. At times three drummers played together: Phil Selway and Clive Deamer of Portishead in unison on risers at the back, and Jonny Greenwood on a kit at stage level, playing the fills. “Videotape” was Yorke alone at the piano, and “There There” ran straight into “Karma Police”, which the arena sang. The set went back no further than OK Computer, with the unreleased “Identikit” in it and no “Creep”.

For the closing “Everything In Its Right Place”, which came in on a passage of Björk's “Unravel”, a Tibetan flag hung on Yorke's electric piano. Inside the turnstiles, volunteers with clipboards were collecting signatures for the Australia: Stand Up For Tibet petition.

Setlist, Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, 16 November 2012