Radiohead opened their set at last night’s Reading Festival with their 1992 breakthrough hit “Creep,” which the band rarely trots out these days; Thom Yorke’s vocal delivery was fairly strangled, perhaps because he was acutely aware that he was leading a sing-along more than he was engaging in a performance. One wonders if Radiohead deliberately put that track at the beginning for the benefit of casual fans who wanted to hit the road early, since, according to The Independent:

The next hour, in which, on songs such as ‘All I Need,’ Radiohead casually become a modern jazz quintet, xylophones, brushed cymbals and a crooning Yorke to the fore, leads to such a thinning of the crowd around me, I could almost walk up to the singer.

Oh no, not jazz! Anyway, look for every rock band out there to start opening their sets with their biggest hits very, very soon.


Radiohead – Creep / National Anthem [YouTube via The Awl]