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Radiohead Performs Songs Just and Optimistic After Long Hiatus.
The air in the arena crackled with a palpable, almost sacred anticipation, a collective holding of breath that broke into a roaring, cathartic release as the first, unmistakable chords of 'Just' sliced through the darkness. This was more than a setlist surprise; it was a resurrection.Radiohead, the revered architects of art-rock anxiety, were not merely playing a song; they were exhuming a classic from the deep strata of their seminal 1995 album, 'The Bends,' a track that functions as a frantic, guitar-driven panic attack set to music. For the faithful gathered, this was the main event, the headline act within the headline act.But the band, in their characteristically unpredictable fashion, had another, deeper cut waiting in the wings, a move that felt less like a concert and more like a curated journey through their own storied psyche. Following the explosive energy of 'Just,' they pivoted, delving into the more textured, experimental landscape of their 2000 masterpiece, 'Kid A,' to resurrect 'Optimistic.' This wasn't just another song played live; this was a event marked on fan-setlist trackers in bold. The tune, a sprawling, dystopian anthem with Thom Yorke's famously sardonic lyric 'If you try the best you can, the best you can is good enough,' had been absent from the stage since 2018, a five-year silence that made its return feel like the return of a long-lost friend.The performance itself was a study in contrasts and evolution. Where the '90s rendition of 'Just' was all searing, youthful angst and razor-wire guitar lines from Jonny Greenwood, the 2023 version carried the weight of the intervening decades, a bit more weathered, a bit more deliberate, but no less potent.'Optimistic,' meanwhile, has aged like a fine wine, its complex rhythms and atmospheric layers feeling more prescient than ever, a haunting commentary on a world that has, in many ways, caught up to Radiohead's early-2000s foreboding. This one-two punch of 'Just' and 'Optimistic' is a deliberate statement from a band that has no need to pander to nostalgia.It's a bridge meticulously built between two distinct eras of their sound—the guitar-band zenith of the mid-90s and the electronic, boundary-pushing turn of the millennium—demonstrating that these phases are not separate entities but interconnected movements in a single, continuous symphony. For the fans, it’s a gift that acknowledges the full breadth of their journey.It answers the prayers of those who yearn for the visceral punch of 'The Bends' while simultaneously validating the disciples of their more abstract work. In the grand, often-predictable theater of legacy acts touring on greatest hits, Radiohead continues to be the compelling outlier, the band that treats its own history not as a museum piece to be dutifully displayed, but as a living, breathing organism to be reinterpreted, challenged, and celebrated on their own exacting terms. Last night, they weren't just playing songs; they were weaving a tapestry of their own legacy, thread by brilliant, unexpected thread.
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#Radiohead
#The Bends
#Just
#Kid A
#Optimistic
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