Ed O'Brien asks Milan to come and sit with him on the stage

Before “Deep Days” at the Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber in Milan on Tuesday 6 October, Ed O'Brien told the audience they were too far away, then sat on the edge of the stage, legs over the side, and asked people to come and sit beside him. It was the only Italian date of his An Evening With... Blue Morpho tour. Gianni Sibilla, reviewing in Italian for Rockol, saw a few fans come forward for selfies before ushers sent everyone back to their seats, citing security; Rolling Stone Italia tells of a security man moving people off too. O'Brien sang the song from where he sat, close to the front rows.

The theatre was far from full. Rolling Stone Italia calls it nowhere near sold out, and Rockol points out that Milan had two concerts a night that week. Adnkronos, also writing in Italian, has his first words to the crowd as good to be back in Milan, with a little Italian thrown in. Several times he came to the front and urged people to stand, while allowing that a Tuesday night makes that hard.

Milan was the second night of the tour, two days after Amsterdam. There were no Radiohead songs in the set. O'Brien came on without a guitar and, after “Thin Places”, played a pared-back “Incantations” with Dave Okumu, to whom he handed much of the lead guitar. The song came back later with the whole band, longer and more psychedelic. “Single File”, which did not make Blue Morpho, began as a dance piece and became a long rock jam; Adnkronos counts it among the best moments. “Brasil” grew from a quiet start into a long groove, the crowd repeating “Milano, andiamo”. ESKA, who had opened the night with Okumu, took the lead in the long closing “Obrigado”.

In an interview with Sibilla months earlier, O'Brien had named the Grateful Dead as a model for this tour. Mi interessano quei luoghi in cui loro portavano le canzoni, allungandole. Mi interessa davvero quel tipo di spazio. Chissà se riusciremo ad arrivarci¹ (“I'm interested in those places where they took songs, stretching them out. I'm really interested in that kind of space. Who knows if we'll get there”, in our translation). In Milan, Sibilla judges, they got there.

Setlist, Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber, Milan, 6 October 2026

Setlist as given by Panorama, Rockol and Rockon.it.

The band (as listed by Panorama)