Radiohead's first Swedish show since 2003 ends in a “Karma Police” singalong

Radiohead played the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm on Friday 9 June, their first show in Sweden since Hultsfred in 2003, and closed it with Thom Yorke on acoustic guitar letting the crowd sing “Karma Police”. During the set, Yorke told the audience that the British election result had given people at home hope, and that this morning was the first in a long while the band had woken up hopeful.

They began on a nearly dark stage with three songs from A Moon Shaped Pool, “Daydreaming”, “Desert Island Disk” and “Ful Stop”. Dan Backman, reviewing for Svenska Dagbladet, found “Ful Stop” krautrock-like and monotonous, with Yorke on a small handheld synthesiser and Jonny Greenwood attacking his guitar. There were 24 songs, from every album except Pablo Honey, five each from A Moon Shaped Pool and OK Computer. The staging was simple, projections on an egg-shaped screen and a mirror ball high in the roof.

The two Swedish critics split on the rest. Filip Hiltmann of Festivalrykten thought much of the crowd only properly woke up for “Everything In Its Right Place”. He wrote that no other rock band can match Radiohead, tonight or ever. Backman granted “Everything In Its Right Place” its magic and “Bodysnatchers” its noise, but found long stretches of short, riff-built songs that stop dead simply dull. To him the band sounded as if they had taken rock and electronica as far as they can go.

By the last part of “Karma Police”, Hiltmann wrote, the crowd was singing louder than Yorke was playing.

Setlist