Thom Yorke @ Echoplex October 2nd 2009

Thom Yorke @ Echoplex
October 2nd, 2009

by Alexander Laurence

I was sitting around the house one day, avoiding any real work. I came
across a posting on Facebook by Bill Silva productions that Thom Yorke had
announced a show at the Orpheum. I reposted this item, and many people I knew
seemed interested. I saw a posting on the Radiohead website that Thom Yorke had
put together a little band with Flea, Joey Waronker, Mauro Refosco, and
Nigel Godrich. They were going to play some of Yorke’s solo work. This sounded
interesting.

The next day, tickets went on sale, and all my friends seemed to be buying
tickets. I wasn’t a big Radiohead fan, but I liked the Eraser album. I
haven’t even heard the latest Radiohead album. I couldn’t name one song of it. I
thought “Maybe I should put in a media request to review the show?” I had
dropped the ball at Michael Jackson funeral, and here was a big event. The
publicist said that I could possibly attend, so there was a chance.

A few days passed, and then there was a rumor that he was doing a “secret”
gig at Echoplex on Friday. I ran into some people who worked at Spaceland,
on Wednesday, and they were laughing about it, but couldn’t comment on it.
By Friday, I just figured that I would have to buy a ticket, if I wanted to
go to any show. I was sitting around the house again, late on Friday, not
planning on going out. Then I get an email: “You are on the list tonight. Doors
at 8pm, show at 9pm. No plus ones.” Great.

I got ready, and drove over. I hit a bunch of traffic on the 101. I saw the
line, which was very long. I cut in line, when I saw Kevin Haskins, from
Bauhaus. We spoke about gigs coming up. The people who were there were some
hardcore Radiohead fans who somehow bought tickets that went on sale that day
at noon. The website crashed after five minutes, and probably only 500
tickets were sold. There were a lot of celebrities, bands, bloggers, media, music
industry people, and mover and shakers. It took almost an hour to get
inside, and the show probably started around 930pm.

All the hardcore fans that probably lined up early that day, were crowded
up front. If you walked around the venue, it was slightly not a full house.
Everywhere you turned around, there was some celebrity or band member. I saw
Kim Gordon, Har Mar Superstar, Danger Mouse, Ellen Page, Rick Rubin, and
members of Muse.

It was very intimate. Even though I was standing off to the side, I was
twenty feet from Yorke. Being in the back of the Echoplex was like being in the
front row of the Hollywood Bowl, or some other recent Radiohead venue.
Yorke came out and was very in the moment. He said “This is a rehearsal.” The
band played The Eraser album in order. Yorke was pretty much center-stage, on
piano, and the rest were in the shadows. Flea gradually moved up to the
front of the stage by the second song. Yorke moved to guitar on “The Clock”
and the band really took off.

The songs from The Eraser are very complicated rhythmically. On “Skip
Divided” Flea played Melodica. “Harrowdown Hill” was one of the highlights of
the night. It was a heavy funk song, that was reminiscent of Gang of Four.
Yorke was dancing frantically on this song, and it was cool to see him and Flea
up there together. Flea has started to become “Mr. LA” recently, after a
lot of guest spots, including one with Patti Smith.

Yorke was very down to earth. He flipped the bird to someone when they
requested some Skynyrd. He said: “Maybe I should be playing some Stone Temple
Pilots. You could be more current.” When he played some quiet songs, by
himself, the audience started talking. He said “If you want to have a chat, go
fuck off outside.”

If you stood back and looked over the crowd, you could see about 100+
iPhones taking pictures and recording video. You can now see all the youtube
videos. It got to be obnoxious after a while. I remember when I went to a CMJ
gig in 2002, and thought all the twenty cameras in the front row was
excessive. Now it’s like the whole audience is recording the whole thing instead of
watching the show. Yorke played Eraser, some solo stuff, then some new songs,
including another highlight “Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses.”

It lasted almost 90-minutes and was amazing. There have been a lot of
supergroups recently, but this one had a bigger purpose and was more focused, and
pairing Flea with Thom Yorke was genius. People should expect a good night
here. There are some amazing musicians and some great songs here. I can
imagine Yorke touring this show for six months to a year.