The track listing, plus the source of each track, courtesy of Air-Radiohead:

1. National Anthem : Vaison 5/28/2001
2. I Might Be Wrong : Oxford 7/7/2001
3. Morning Bell : Oxford 7/7/2001
4. Like Spinning Plates : Cuyahoga Falls 8/8/2001
5. Idioteque : Oxford 7/7/2001
6. Everything in its Right Place : Vaison 5/28/2001
7. Dollars & Cents : Oxford 7/7/2001
8. True Love Waits : Los Angeles 8/20/2001

Radiohead, I Might Be Wrong

Capitol Records

Chris Dahlen

I almost skipped Radiohead's US tour this summer. I enjoyed but didn't love their albums, and I found Kid A and Amnesiac interesting but sketchy: would the concert rock, or noodle? But some instinct warned me that Radiohead's concerts could one day be as legendary as Pink Floyd's, so fearing that my future grandkids would scorn me, I went to the show.

It was spectacular. To avoid working with the monopolistic concert promoter SFX Entertainment (now part of Clear Channel), Radiohead toured unconventional outdoor venues. In Boston, the concert was held next to Suffolk Downs, a racetrack in Revere. We were standing in a field on the most beautiful day of the summer, with country fair-style vendors standing by the side selling hot dog and lemonade. Beer cost less than bottled water at a regular arena rock show.

Everyone was just here for the music, including Radiohead: playing free of bullshit like light shows or props, they took the stage and played unbelievable music. "He's channeling," my friend said of Thom Yorke, who we watched on the video screens broadcasting the "up the nose" cam mounted to Thom's keyboard. He may sound distant or elusive on record, but on stage, he is a powerful and spontaneous singer. Their performance, their presence, and the simple entertainment of standing in a field with thousands of people made the music clearer and more persuasive than the records. "The National Anthem" rocked, and "Packt Like Sardines" finally sounded angry. Critics who made fun of lyrics like "Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon" are challenged to find a better way to explain the international situation—at least, it made sense when Yorke sang it. The most stripped-down songs were a conduit for the band's message, which is beautifully abstract—a Rorscharch test of hope and anxiety that would never work if it revealed itself or specified an agenda, becoming more political than the simple wailings of a Rage Against the Machine, and more powerful than, well, any other major rock band touring today.

After this tour, Radiohead finally released its first official live album, a sampler of songs from the last two albums plus the previously unreleased "True Love Waits." None of the tracks on I Might Be Wrong is disposable: "The National Anthem" works better with the found sounds and noodling electronics than with the horn section found on the album. "Dollars & Cents" retains the bone marrow bass line, and "Morning Bell" is as pretty as the original but gets more kick. "Like Spinning Plates" stretches out, and "Everything In Its Right Place" is longer and creepier here, with found sounds and electronics spraying out over the end of the piece.

However, it's still strange that Radiohead put together such a short album. Although the concerts clocked almost two hours, this album only includes eight songs—it feels more like an EP. It's even more frustrating since high quality full-length concert bootlegs are all over the Internet. Just as they seemed to want to confuse their audience—or at least rock critics—with their last two albums, they deny everyone simple pleasures like the chance to get a crystal-clear live recording of "Paranoid Android."

Maybe just as disappointing is that, well, you had to be there. I Might Be Wrong is a great artifact, but just like the studio albums, it doesn't make Radiohead's case as clearly as their live show. Maybe releasing a full concert would help, so we could sink into our headphones and absorb them doing whatever it is they do so well. Or maybe a record just can't match standing out on a beatiful summer night with twenty thousand people, a month before the start of World War III, listening to Yorke sing, "Everyone is so near/Everyone has got the fear/It's holding on" as if it's a good thing.

Related resources

There are about a million Radiohead sites on the web. Many of them carry or can direct you to sites that carry bootleg mp3's of Radiohead concerts. Air-Radiohead is a good source, and the main Radiohead site also links to many of these fan sites.

Air-Radiohead helpfully posted the setlist and some photos from the concert I saw in Boston. Check out the stage.