Radiohead return to Sydney with two different sets

On the second of Radiohead's two nights at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Tuesday 13 November, Thom Yorke dedicated “The Daily Mail” to Rupert Murdoch, even though it's the wrong paper². They were the band's first shows in Sydney since two nights at the same arena in April 2004. The Tuesday was the fourth show of these Australian and New Zealand dates, after Auckland and Brisbane, and two sold-out nights at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena finish the run this weekend. The AU Review has a review of the Tuesday, with photographs.

The Tuesday opened with “Lotus Flower” in place of the Monday's “Bloom”. “There There” had four drummers, and a fragment of “True Love Waits” led into “Everything in Its Right Place”. “Idioteque”, alone as a third encore, went wrong, and Yorke said goodnight with we fucked up… shit happens!² After the show he turned up unannounced at Goodgod, a Chinatown club where the label Modular had billed a secret international guest. He DJed there with Kim Moyes of The Presets for several hundred people, from hip hop to deep electronica by way of the Beastie Boys' “Sabotage”.

On the Monday a piano was wheeled on partway through the main set. Yorke told the crowd I think you'll be familiar with this one³, and the band played “Videotape” in a reworked arrangement built on a beat, to an arena that listened in silence. Music Feeds has a review of the Monday. The Monday also had “Full Stop”, a new song not yet on any of their albums. Jonny Greenwood bowed his guitar on “Pyramid Song”, and the band acknowledged the Free Tibet campaign from the stage before “Everything in Its Right Place”. “Planet Telex” that night and “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” on the Tuesday were the only songs from The Bends across the two shows.

The room went quiet again for the Monday's first encore, when Yorke came back with just one bandmate for a stripped-down “Give Up the Ghost”, looping his own voice into harmonies for five minutes.

Setlists, Sydney Entertainment Centre