Atoms for Peace play the Hollywood Bowl on Flea's birthday

Atoms for Peace played the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Wednesday 16 October, the birthday of both Flea and the band's percussionist, Mauro Refosco, and Thom Yorke reminded the crowd where it had all started. This band is born in L.A. We're hoping to do this city justice.¹

Their last Los Angeles show was the secret Club Amok night in June, for about 300 people with almost no staging. This time they brought a full light show, projections and a large backdrop. Daniel Kohn, reviewing the night for the OC Weekly, reported the Bowl close to full but felt the music carried less well in the big outdoor space than it had in the club.

The leg opened at Temple University's Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, where Yorke told the crowd I'm Jay Z² and pointed at Flea as Beyonce. At Austin City Limits on 6 October Yorke began “Ingenue” and “Rabbit in Your Headlights” alone at the piano and Flea played melodica on “Skip Divided”. When the festival's last day was rained off a week later, the band played the Moody Theater instead.

The shows run to about 100 minutes, opening with “Before Your Very Eyes...” and ending on “Black Swan” after two encores. Most of the set is Amok (seven of its nine songs) and The Eraser, with UNKLE's “Rabbit in Your Headlights”, which Yorke sang on in 1998, and nothing by Red Hot Chili Peppers. The one Radiohead song is “Paperbag Writer”, a B-side from the Hail to the Thief period, and in Philadelphia Yorke challenged Flea to a dance-off during it.

At the Bowl, after the last song, the screens asked people to stay. What came back was not the band but its new video, for “Before Your Very Eyes...”, which Kohn thought would have been better shown before the set.

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