Live Reviews

The 40 greatest concerts in Boston history: 11

Radiohead + Teenage Fanclub + Dandy Warhols | Harborlights Pavilion | August 23, 1997

By PHOENIX STAFF | October 25, 2006

concerts_11

Saturday-night special: Radiohead at Harborlights Pavilion. By Matt Ashare

Radiohead in 1994, when we had no clue what their career would ultimately turn into

This was pre–Kid A Radiohead. But it was also post–Pablo Honey Radiohead. Thom Yorke was, at this point, trying desperately to lead his band out of the limelight into the darker spaces where paranoid androids dwell. And the twin guitar attack of Radiohead was coming around, with more keyboards and gorgeous textures that could turn ugly at the snap of Yorke’s finger. Headlining over the cheery, guitar-driven Teenage Fanclub, at one time celebrated by Spin as the next big thing, and the oh-so-affected Dandy Warhols, who want so badly to be noticed, Yorke was in the best mood he’d been in on stage since Radiohead’s first tour of the States. Maybe it had something to do with their viewing Boston as a special place because Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie, the Fort Apache producers who’d flown to England to record Pablo Honey and mixed the next two albums, weren’t just locals, they were at the show. Indeed, Yorke gave a little nod in the duo’s direction before the band played one song that had been largely excised from their setlists: “Creep.” It was a moving version, and yet another one of those special shows where you felt transported by the enormity of it all. Radiohead were going places — different places. You knew that. But for one night, they came down to Earth and invited us along for the ride toward transcendence.

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Topics: Live Reviews , Radiohead , Thom Yorke , Sean Slade , More

Comments

The 40 greatest concerts in Boston history: 11

Wow. This one is a shocker. I had spent the day on Good Harbor Beach up in Gloucester with a couple of friends that day. I had no ticket, but I knew I was going to the show. My friends had no idea who Radiohead or any of these bands were. I had bought Bandwagonesque many years before, but that is definitely not why I wanted to see this show. Not if You Were The Last Junkie on Earth had me wanting to check the Dandys out in a big way and OK Computer was stuck in my CD player already at that time. I left all my beach gear and everything behind as my friends dropped me off at the top of Northern Ave on their way home. I got a great seat and was mesmerized by the great bill. If I remember correctly that is where I bought my copy of Dandy Warhols Come Down. Terrific show and very surprising that it came up in this discussion.

By John Farrell on 10/26/2006 at 10:03:33

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