In the tradition of me seeing iconic acts at Roseland (and getting incredibly stoned in the process), what say we have at some motherfuckin' bullet points. Holy Christ am I tired/sorry if this post isn't as filled with AIDS jokes and diarrhea moustaches as usual:
- Had an absolutely brutal day at work. Don't want to get into it too much but let's just say that constantly having to clean up other people's messes fucking SUCKS. Brutal. Was so fucking drained during the trainride on the way in that I almost passed out in my seat. A full-scale aerobic workout/danceathon seemed out of the question at this point (but fortunately that's exactly what I got).
- At first I was kind of pissed that I was going to miss Fang Island at Knitting Factory Brooklyn tonight, but fuck that, this here Atoms for Peace show was, in fact, the best concert I've seen thus far in oh-ten (out of at least 24 shows seen so far this year n' shit).
- LIRR from Syosset at 6:40; made it to Penn in about an hour. C/E uptown to 50th St., quick walk and SHA-ZAM I'm outside Roseland by 8. Had an extra to get rid of (nobody I actually know wanted to pony up the $65[!?] ticket price for said extra), and I found a dude who gladly (and quite graciously) took the extra off my hands. Interestingly, this was a ticketless entry/will call only show, and it looked as though that totally cut down the amount of scalpers and assorted lowlifes that are usually congregatin' outside Roseland prior to the show.
- Ate the last of Twelty's Treatz/Deez Brownies -- a/k/a super potent borderline psychedelic pot brownies -- right before entering the venue. (I have to say other than opium my favorite substance to abuse at concerts these days is weed-laced Treatz. Awesome.)
- No interest whatsofuckingever in the opening act, some trip-hop guy. Only thing notable about the dude's set was that he mixed in "Idioteque" as his finale. /sarcastic clapping/
- Band took the stage just before 9:15, starting off with the title track from The Eraser. As would become the theme of the evening, the full band really fleshed out the Eraser tracks, expanding on the more skeletal studio versions of the songs with ballz-to-the-wall THICK instrumentation via rocking the fuck out (and, at times, what seemed like honest-to-goodness dare I say "jamming").
- While we're on the subject of instrumentation, Mr. Yorke went back and forth between guitar, keys, percussion, and plenty of dancing his ass off. Great to see him so into it, as it was fucking HOT inside Roseland and his enthusiasm spurred the crowd on to some epic boogieing (well, it did me at least). Other instruments being played onstage: bass (by Flea no less), keys, guitars, massive loud double-bass drum kit, assorted weird percussion objects, sampler type dealies (um, I think) and at one point a trumpet.
- Can't really help ya out with the setlist; sorry 'bout that. I listened to The Eraser quite a bit way back when it came out (it actually made #20 on my now quaintly outdated Best Albums of '06 list) but - not gonna lie - haven't busted that badboy out any time recently. I think "Analyse" may have been the second song they played, and "Black Swan" was in there somewhere too, I think during the first "set." In fact, I'm pretty sure they went through much (all, possibly?) of The Eraser's material during the evening. The more recent "The Hollow Earth" was played as the first song of the two song encore (um, I think?). I'm pretty sure "Everything..." was the only proper Radiohead song played, but who knows, they could have played "These Are My Twisted Words" or some shit and I would have had no fucking clue. [Apologies to anybody reading this who did a blogsearch for 'Atoms for Peace setlist' and found your way here. Probably better to ask someone that wasn't toeing the line between "fucked up" and "tripping balls" during the majority of this show. Apparently they have the setlist over at Brooklyn Vegan so check that shit out.]
- Stuff went down as follows: full band for about 45 minutes, brief break, Mr. Yorke solo on a few songs, then the bang rejoining for about another 20 minutes or so of trippy, hard, psychedelic grooves. During Thom's solo segment, the first two songs he played were declared as "new" (plenty of joking about them being composed so recently that lyrics hadn't even been written yet/etc.). One was called "Daily Mail" and introduced by Thom saying "this is a song about the New York Post, which we have in England... except over there we call it 'The Daily Mail' [or something close to that]." The third and final (um, I think?) song of the solo set was a stunning piano rendition of "Everything In Its Right Place."
- Normal me usually dances eighth notes. Pot brownie me dances sixteenth notes.
- Was gonna write a bunch about the two biggest assholes I encountered (one of whom spilled a beer all over me after I forearmed him cuz he was trying to fucking trample me; the other of whom barreled into me then inexplicably tried to rip my backpack off) but really it was just the typical brand of spoiled NYU pricks/entitled Manhattanite scum/meatheads you see at most Roseland shows. (Anybody who remembers the "SHE LOVES YOU NO LESS!!" idiot from the first MBV show in '08 can commiserate.)
- I was really, really, really impressed with the material. If these guys were to, y'know, hypothetically release an album (or some such) that was as good as this show, I'd have to say it would be in the discussion with the new Gorillaz joint and the Fang Island record for Best Album of Oh-Ten. Probly could do some cursory research to find out if there's an Atoms for Peace album in the pipeline, but I'm too fucking tired at this point. Tuddd out.
