The Smile dedicate a new song to New York on a three-night run

The Smile played three nights in New York, two at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn on 18 and 19 November and one at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan on 20 November. On the first night in Brooklyn, Thom Yorke dedicated a new song, “People on Balconies”, to the city. I hate to be corny but we're really fucking happy to be back in this city¹, he told the room.

That first Kings night ran to 19 songs: all of A Light for Attracting Attention, five that are on no record, and Yorke's solo song “Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses” on its own as the second encore. Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner stood in a row in front of a backdrop of flashing dashes of light and changed instruments often. “You Will Never Work in Television Again”, which they had just played on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for their first US television appearance, got one of the loudest cheers of the night and one of its biggest light shows. Robert Stillman, the saxophonist who plays on the album, opened the shows and came out to play with the band on several songs.

The Hammerstein opened differently, with “The Same” and then “Thin Thing”. Variety has its review. Yorke and Greenwood took turns on bass while the other played guitar or keyboards. In “Pana-vision”, with Yorke singing at the piano, Greenwood put a bow to his electric bass as the song came apart into noise. A harp came out later in the night. “Bending Hectic” grew into a long improvisation, and Stillman added his saxophone to “You Will Never Work in Television Again” at the end of the main set. The encore was two unreleased songs and “Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses”.

More than a third of that set had never been released, and plenty of the crowd had come in Radiohead T-shirts. Yorke told them We're a new band².

Setlist: Kings Theatre, Brooklyn, 18 November