Radiohead, Aug. 15 @ Molson Amphitheatre

I think it’s appropriate that my first blog post sent from my new
iPhone is a review of this month’s Radiohead concert. They're the
sound of right now, just as, for me at least, this – blogging, texting, living an iLife – is the feeling of it. So if seeing Springsteen is a religious experience, tapping into a greater musical force, going to Radiohead fells like plugging in. My friend Ian, a huge Radiohead fan, who was also at the show, claims Thom Yorke is one of the best songwriters of our times, and I’d have to disagree. Even after repeated runs through their back catalogue, I still have trouble differentiating between their songs, especially from their pop-free post-Bends period. No matter: songs like “Reckoner,” off the exquisite In Rainbows, or stunning set closer “Everything In Its Right Place,” don’t need hooks. They’re affecting in the way only Radiohead knows how to express “the malaise of modernity,” a sound that’s at the same time primal yet futuristic; both analog and digital. (This is the band, after all, with a song called “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushed Tin.”) I really think Radiohead should be required listening for anyone in our generation. Perhaps they already are. Great show.