whatever turns you on, whatever gets you up

we were talking about music gigs - more specifically, about radiohead's gig in barcelona, back in june. and my friend said he heard it has been really a bad show. mostly due to the band's "obsession" about global warning and shit alike, which made'em play not too high, not to create too much sound disturbance (this is silly, i agree, but global warming seems to drive people insane, what can we do about it?). but also, said my friend, because some songs were not played - especially creep, a long-time favourite of myself and probably their most well-known song. he did have a point, i believe, but to be honest, i like it when a band has the guts to leave the old successes behind and try something new. i mean, it would be easy for radiohead to make a gig that everyone would enjoy - they just had to go by the book and follow their most known and awarded hits, like creep, karma police, and so on. but they like to innovate, and so, very good songs like creep and paranoid android are replaced by other great songs that happen to be less known, like bangers and mash (my new favourite, this song makes my blood run high in my veins), bodysnatchers or jigsaw falling into pieces. it's a fair trade, if you ask me.

it's pretty much like a band with great new songs going backwards to play the relics of the past. remember the live album hullabaloo, by muse? they haven't played plug in baby or newborn back then, but the gig included the less known megalomania, screenager, and two songs never played before to open and to finish the show: the b-sides dead star and agitated, respectively. and it was fucking brilliant. or, for a closest example, the last i saw them live here in portugal: it was a short gig (one hour, only, what a shame), and they left out butterflies and hurricanes and muscle museum. okay. they played feeling good (which is a cover, by the way). in the wembley gig recorded in the album haarp, they introduced micro cuts (i'd do anything to hear this live again) and unintended. fucking brilliant, again. 

a band doesn't need to live forever on its glories. a good band, that is. i've never seen radiohead, but i'm sure that their show won't lose anything if they don't play the song creep. as i'm also sure muse could do an epic gig only by playing songs that were never singles and b-sides. it's just a matter of attitude and audacity, really.