Radiohead in Osaka. Got a nice ring to it I think. I hurtled away from school and two thirty, was in Osaka by five. Was watching the band by eight and home in bed just after midnight. What kind of world is this that I can zoom through such an important experience? I kept saying to myself: take it in! take it in dammit! but there was so much. it was too hard.
If I have asked Toby really nicely and he has said yes, there will be a photo of the concert at the top of the blog? Is there one? I hope so.
The venue was like being in an almond shaped crystal with a thin layer of icing over it. got it? ok good. It probably could hold 10 000 people but was only holding I'd say, maybe 5 000. I was waaaay at the back of the standing section and we all know what that means for a shtoempic, a shorty. No view of nothing never. Ah no! And it is a fallacy that Japanese people are short. Maybe you get less 6ft monsters per capita but everyone is sill taller than me (that is to say they are all over 5ft). So its not like I could see any better here, than a concert somewhere else in the world. Not being able to see doesnt help when you are trying madly to take it all in, drink it all up. But fears of missing the biggest thing to happen to the littlest Jemma were assuaged; I did find a pretty descent angle of visibilty, at the expense of physical comfort, of course. and then the lights went out and the opening band (called i-dont-know-who-they-are-and-
piss-off-now) came and went and then then radiohead came on.
There were four different kinds of lights on stage and all of them had so totally transcended the toggle ability of lights, I kinda feel I am insulting them by just calling them lights, such a small word. - first off at the lintel of the stage was a plantation of millions of little lights that could become any colour under the sun - it was the sun! only better coz it could change colours and do things clouds can do as well. Then, hanging down from the roof, running from stage front to back were long dangly tube lights of different lengths that made it look like the band was deep inside a church organ. perched high above, all over the stage were grapefruit bunches of lights. running the length of the back wall was a low bank of fiber optics, i think thats what they were. they were used for general scratchiness, the Kubrick effect. bzzt bzzt, fear, nervousness. that kind of thing. All the lights were synchronised and each song had had a light show delicately crafted to peak and troug
h with the music, utterly transforming the stage. At times it looked like green toxic ooze was bubbling up from thr floor and bleeding over the crowd. At times it looked like they were in a hyperspeed blossom storm. Other times it looked as if the band was in a bleached and blown out victorian photograph - but moving, sometimes it even looked like a rock concert. Above the Kubrick lights on the back wall were three utterly enourmous screens that were used mostly to give video feed of bits of the artists. Thom's head, drummer's foot, Greenwood's fingers etc. The clarity of the images was breathtaking, they could also be twiddled to become monochromatic, blown-out, polarised or whatever. Insta sexy MTV. They crescendo-ed during paranoid android when suddenly everything went psychedelic green pink orange - explosions and seizures of light and screaming jerking close-ups.
From the description above you might imagine the concert was pretty wild, but the funny thing is, it wasnt at all. The reasons for this are multiple. Firstly, it was Radiohead in Japan and Japanese people dont go mental; they might wiggle their bums a bit but thats it. Not that they are bored, just quiet appreciaters I think. Secondly, due to my position in the arena (my carefully chosen spot for maximum visibility), I spent the night leaning perilously over a railing to my right. Imagine being in an aeroplane isle seat, straining sideways to see if the loo is available. Yeah, that was my posture for three hours (but standing). If i rested my head on my hand it was actually quite comfortable but it did mean my bum wiggling, even my clapping and hollering were extremely limited. So a calm crowd and a calm me. Then Radiohead themselves who are chilled out, but happy. Happy you say? Surely no! But Indeed yes! I think I was expecting to see Thom Yorke wheeled out in a chair, twitching a
nd crying but he seems pretty happy, pretty normal. He likes to dance, well twiddle about and laugh and stuff. Just like a real person. Their set wasn't so much sad as dreamy (the other worldly lights and sleeping head angle of mine being contributors). Whenever I did lift my head upright it felt like I was waking up - that sense of where am I? Who are these people? Whats going on? But in a good way. I had it really strongly once when Thom Yorke finsished or started some song with a friendly 'hello. heehee.' it sounded so familiar - like an old boyfriend saying 'hello' just as you wake up coz he was watching you sleep.
The music was awesome - in Japanese SUGOI, MONOSUGOI - すごい，ものすごい．
Just amazing. Imagine what you would want Radiohead to sound like. They sound like that. But with unexpected details that make you say wow. wowee.
Because I only know their old stuff, two thirds of the set was just pretty new noise to me (I had to abstain from post concert conversations - 'what was your favourite', 'what was yours' - because I would have said 'ooh! the pink song and the one where the lights went white in the middle' and disgraced myself in front of the die hards). The stuff I did know was orgasmic - seriously: paranoid android, exit music for a film, the bends, idioteque, everything in its right place, airbag and my personal ultimate bestest - climbing up the walls. For exit music for a film there was just a smoky white spot on Thom Yorke. You could have heard a pin drop. And in terms of stamina? Prowess? Tightness? Talent? Aw man, anything I have seen hithertofor (eh?) is just wiped off the map. That man can sing, but fuckoff!! sing. and the instruments are so so tight and everyone plays like seven of them. You can hear they have been together for ages but they still love doing it.
And then it was over and we streamed outdoors and 3 000 of the 5 000 crowd veered right to the demarcated smoking section (there had been no smoking or drinking permitted inside). And before I knew it I was being shooed into a taxi and then dragged through a train station by boys at breakneck speed to make the last Shinkansen home. And then we were on the train staring at eachother in exhausted, elated disbelief. And then I was home.
1 comment:
Sounds like it might have been OK!
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