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Radiohead play 46 songs over four nights at Madison Square Garden
Radiohead played 46 different songs over four sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden in New York, which ended on Saturday 14 July. Only five were played every night: “Daydreaming”, which opened all four shows, “Ful Stop”, “Kid A”, “Bloom” and “Idioteque”.
Rob Sheffield, reviewing the run for Rolling Stone, rates the Friday the best of the four. It was the day Donald Trump met the Queen at Windsor, and Thom Yorke had something to say to the Garden about him.
Your glorious leader met our glorious leader…Made a fool of himself. Made a fool of the Queen. Made a fool of our country. Fuck him!
Thom Yorke1
On the opening night, Tuesday, a grinning Yorke stopped between “Morning Bell” and “Optimistic” to check with the crowd that both songs came from the same record. This is off a record called Kid A; went to number one in America
2, he said. That morning Jonny Greenwood had published his piano piece 88 (No.1) as sheet music. Jonny played every night in the opening act, Junun, as well, and was on stage for about three hours in all. Relix has a gallery from the Garden.
On the Wednesday the band played “Spectre”, the song turned down for the 2015 Bond film, in what BrooklynVegan counted as its second full-band performance, after Chicago on 7 July. Yorke introduced “Optimistic” as a song he wrote in 1998 while he and Jonny were travelling through a desert, and said it seemed more relevant now than it did then. He also told the crowd the band were their mad uncles.
The Saturday was an extra night, added after the tour announcement in February gave the city three. During “2 + 2 = 5” Yorke waved for the crowd to shout louder, and after “Bloom” the show stopped for a few minutes while someone in the crowd who had collapsed was helped. Before the closing “Karma Police”, he thanked everyone who had come to all the shows that week, called the run a celebration of the band's years together, and told the crowd the band would see them again.
Four nights at the Garden
| Date | Venue | Last song | New to the run that night |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 10 July 2018 | Madison Square Garden | The Bends | Opening night (“Morning Bell”, “Decks Dark” and “Pyramid Song” played only this night) |
| Wed 11 July 2018 | Madison Square Garden | Karma Police | “Spectre”, “Fake Plastic Trees”, “Exit Music (For a Film)”, “Identikit” |
| Fri 13 July 2018 | Madison Square Garden | The Bends | “Lucky”, “Videotape”, “Like Spinning Plates”, “Climbing Up the Walls”, “Separator”, “Airbag” |
| Sat 14 July 2018 | Madison Square Garden | Karma Police | “2 + 2 = 5”, “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”, “House of Cards”, “Give Up the Ghost” |
the night
Madison Square Garden, New York, 14 July 2018· lordazuretwentyfivewatch on youtube →