One-off concert by The Smile in Paradiso with only new songs is beautiful and sometimes genius

For a moment there is a twinkle in Thom Yorke’s eye. After almost an hour and a half when he has played on the stage of a bulging Paradiso with his new band The Smile, he looks at the balcony to the right above him and we see him laughing for a while, before he puts an arm around fellow band member Jonny Greenwood towards the dressing room. .

A beautiful image to conclude a beautiful, at times excellent concert. When the one-off performance was announced at the beginning of this year, the tickets flew away and on Friday evening there is also a kind of excitement in and around the Amsterdam pop temple as if Radiohead is coming to play themselves. Everyone knows that of the five Radiohead members only Yorke and Greenwood are part of The Smile and that there is only new work on the program tonight. But then you have the two most creative minds of Radiohead, supplemented by the genius jazz drummer Tom Skinner from Sons Of Kemet.

best album

The omens were good after concerts of The Smile to be streamed earlier, and then the debut album a few weeks ago A Light For Attracting Attention came out, the excitement among ticket holders could only increase: this is the best album Radiohead has never made.

And that album will be played in its entirety on Friday evening, supplemented with three even newer songs (a new album is already ready, promised Yorke) and an old one from Thom Yorke’s solo catalog. The Smile is positioned with Greenwood in the middle, playing bass guitar, guitar, harp and keys, flanked by Yorke who also alternates guitar with bass guitar and keys and Skinner occasionally standing up to operate the modular synthesizer behind his drum kit.

Yorke starts the piano with pana-vision with his back to Greenwood and Skinner. Just looking for the right tone in his voice, which still has that so characteristic high pitched sound that is so characteristic for Radiohead. Greenwood plays bass first, but will play that in the next song Thin Thing exchange it for guitar and play one of those beautiful patterns that give The Smile’s sometimes wild songs something to hold on to. Yorke and Greenwood switch instruments just about every song. Then one plays guitar, the other bass, then they do it the other way around. InSpeech Bubbles Greenwood uses his left hand for piano keys while strumming the right hand on a harp.

Rhythmic helmsman’s skills

This is a tad ridiculous. More for the stage than for added value in sound. That’s full enough. And beautiful, as is the lighting of the framework of horizontal LED bars behind them. Every song has its own atmosphere, sometimes determined by the very clever rhythmic steering skills of Skinner, who is always watched by Greenwood with a look of: what is he going to do next. Yorke can now go his own way, he knows that the construction of every song is in good hands with Skinner and Greenwood and especially seems to have rediscovered his love for the guitar. acoustic, in Free In The Knowledge the only song by The Smile with a melodic chorus, but mainly electrically he plays fiery solos in a way that he usually left to other band members.

Not all songs are equally well finished, Waving A White Flag also sounds too sketchy live. But the new Bodies Laughing towards the end of the show has a rousing funk base that transitions nicely into Greenwood’s laid-out guitar pattern of smoke† And then it’s going wild on the guitars, enhanced by the sax of support act Robert Stillman in the raw You Will Never Work In Television Again† Yorke and Greenwood’s guitars never sounded this loud, even in Radiohead’s early years. Very nice.