Radiohead’s own Thom Yorke is on a US mini-tour with his project “Atoms for Peace” building up to his final gig at the Coachella Music Festival. They played two sold out shows at the Aragon, as a surprisingly young audience flocked the place to greet Radiohead’s quirky frontman and his new band.
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Atoms for Peace
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Aragon Ballroom
Chicago, Ill.
April 10-11, 2010
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On a tour performing his 2006 solo album “The Eraser”, Yorke seems to have carefully selected his band crew. Accompanied by Chilli Pepper’s Flea, Brazilian percussionist Mauro Refosco (from David Byrne’s band), drummer Joey Waronker (from REM, Beck’s band) and his own Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich on guitar and keyboards, Yorke successfully whipped the Aragon crowd into a frenzy. This super band, just put together a couple of months ago, was able to transform the bleak, low tempo electronica album that screamed frustration and despair into a surprisingly uplifting and incredibly animated dance party.
We all knew that Yorke could dance. Electronic beats have been an inherent part of Radiohead songs for the last decade, and the frontman is well known for his sudden, disparate, epileptic dance moves. However, with Atoms for Peace the mood felt much smoother maybe due to the collaboration of equally animated Flea.
At first it was just plain weird to see famously gloomy Yorke with sparkly Flea playing together in the same band. However, the synergy was obviously there, as they seemed to feed off each other’s energy on stage, and it was contagious. No one at the Aragon was standing still. Yorke had endless energy to spare on frantic, sexy, endearing dance moves, while Flea undulated his elastic, spasmodic body like an amazing tribal like ritual that received constant cheers from the crowd.
With very similar sets both nights, the band played the entire material from “The Eraser” back to back. They opened up with the somewhat low key ballads “The Eraser”, “Analyse” and “Black Swan” and you could clearly feel what was coming as Yorke’s body twitched in crescendo mode even when playing the piano. “Skip Divided” had a sexy tone written all over it and at times Yorke seemed to be dancing around an imaginary strip poll, while Flea played the melodica and moved as if possessed by a dancing demon. “It Rainied all Night” was introduced by Yorke as “This is a sleezy motherfucker” as he dragged his words as if singing “you are not paying attention” in Radiohead’s “2+2=5”. No doubt the dark “Harrowdown Hill” was among the highlights of the show with its funky base line played by a constantly grooving Flea. An intense “Cymbal Rush” made me think “Wait, is this Moby?” as the tune seemed to have signaled that a rave party was on.
But Atoms was not only about dancing moves. While playing solo either at the piano or with an acoustic guitar, Yorke still managed to drench the air with his majestic songs and a heartwarming voice that gave you shivers. During Saturday’s show Yorke played Radiohead’s gem “Everything in the Right Place” with its chorus “yesterday I woke up sucking on a lemon” echoing beyond the venue’s walls. On Sunday, equally poignant “Like Spinning Plates” made it to the setlist, as well as a phenomenal acoustic performance of “Airbag”, a gift to the die-hard Radiohead fans.
Yorke then commented “OK, let’s get back to the present”, as he switched back to electric guitar to a number of new Atoms for Peace songs he played solo. For “Let Me Take Control”, he was accompanied by an engaged audience clapping along. He then went to “I Froze Up” “written at the Kid A time” as he explained, and the poetic “Lotus Flower” which described that evening so well “Slowly we unfurl/As lotus flowers/And all I want is the moon upon a stick/Dancing around the pit/Just to see what it is/I can’t kick the habit/Just to feed your balloning head/Listen to your heart”.
The whole band was back for “Paperbag Writer”, another tune from the Radiohead b-sides album Com Lag 2+2, layered with so much reverb plus an intense base groove that seem to have driven both Yorke and Flea into a hypnotic trance, as if they were conjuring spirits on stage.
The night ended on a high note with the new songs “Judge, Jury and Executioner”, and the percussion filled, world sounding “Hollow Earth”. The last piece was the ecstatic “Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses”, if not a poster child for funk meet electronica, it undoubtly got the crowd moving as the whole venue was enraptured by Yorke’s haunting voice and endearing jerky movements.
Inspite of its gloomy lyrics, it seems that “The Eraser” experience fed and nourished Thom Yorke’s dark, tormented soul with light again. In a past interview by Pitchfork.com (Scott Plagenhoef, August 2006), in describing his motivation for releasing the album, Yorke said, "I've been in the band since we left school and never dared do anything on my own, and it was like, 'This is getting stupid.' It was like, 'Man, I've got to find out what it feels like,' you know? And it was good. It was a really good time." If it works for Thom, it works for us. The fans certainly loved the friendlier and more engaging Thom Yorke.
It didn’t go unnoticed that Yorke looks like a madman nowadays. With shaggy hair and unkept beard, he performed both shows with a plain, faded black t-shirt and baggy jeans. I suppose when you become one with your art and you are able to freely and truthfully live your music; it seems inevitable to become a little crazy towards society’s “rules”. This past weekend, Thom Yorke showed Chicago what he does best (and it is not dancing). He can tap into the universal music and is able to express it like a few can. It does not matter whether you have a trendy haircut, if you shave or not, if your shoes match, or if you have new jeans on. Yorke seems to have finally found a new Peace that joyous fans witnessed at the Aragon this past weekend.
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Those shows
Written by Guest on 2010-04-21 17:32:48
Those shows were Fu@Kung amazing. |
**@**
Written by Guest on 2010-04-28 15:57:46
sing-A-long!YEAH!sing-A-long Thom
if MUSIC is Freedom AND PEACE is for all |
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