Thom Yorke performing at Radiohead’s tour kickoff in Madrid, their first show in seven years
Alex Lake
Radiohead‘s four-night stand at Madrid’s Movistar Arena wrapped up Saturday night. These were their first concerts in seven years, and they dug deep into their catalog every night. The third show featured the first performance of “Just” since 2009, and they dug out “Optimistic” on the closing night for the first time since 2018.
“Just” appears on The Bends, and was a live favorite throughout the Nineties and the early 2000s. But it vanished from the rotation following the band’s set at the Reading Festival on Aug. 30, 2009.
“Optimistic” was the first song the public heard from Kid A since it was released as a promotional single just a few days before the album dropped. It gave fans a slightly skewered perception of the LP since it’s the most guitar-based song on the collection. Over the years, it’s become somewhat of a concert rarity with 97 performances, most of which took place in the early 2000s. (By comparison, they’ve done “The National Anthem,” “Idioteque,” and “Everything in it’s Right Place” more than 300 times each.)
This tour marks the first time that Radiohead have gone out without either a new album to promote or new songs to road test. As a result, they’re digging deep into their catalog and dragging out rarities like “Sit Down. Stand Up,” and “(Nice Dream)” that they haven’t played in years.
Amazingly, they’ve done 41 different songs after just four shows. Prior to the tour, bassist Colin Greenwood said they’d rehearsed about 70. “So we’ll play anything in any order, at any time,” he said. “We sort of take a busking attitude to the Radiohead set list.
They’ve also taken a busking approach to the order of songs in the set. “Planet Telex,” for example, was in the encore of the second show, and it was the opener of the third one. It makes it impossible to predict what they’re going to play next. Every night, however, they’ve performed “2 + 2 = 5,” “Everything in Its Right Place,” “Ful Stop,” “Idioteque,” “Let Down,” “Paranoid Android,” “There There,” “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” and “You and Whose Army?” at some point.
The tour resumes Nov. 14 in Bologna, Italy. It then heads to London before wrapping up in Copenhagen. They’re playing four shows in every market. As of now, there are no indications about possible North American shows in 2026.
From Rolling Stone US.
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