Staff Editor on October 31st, 2019

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By WILLIAM GOODMAN

A definitive moment during the second to last show on Thom Yorke’s North American tour came three songs into his set Tuesday night at the Greek Theatre. During “Black Swan,” the grooving jam from 2006’s “The Eraser,” the music paused and Yorke repeated the chorus from the lyrics, this time looking directly at the crowd:

“Well now this is truly, truly fucked up… righhhhtttttt?” He then stood with his arms perched at his sides, palms up, in that “You know it’s true” look. The crowd hooted and hollered in agreement. Yorke, ever the political agitator, didn’t specify his target, but he didn’t have to.

The group — just Yorke and longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich on an assortment of electronic gizmos, gadgets and instruments, plus live video projectionist Tarik Barri — then dove back into the track with aplomb. There was something very punk rock about Yorke shredding on the bass, snarling, “Cause this is fucked, fuckkkkeeeed up.”

It may have been the show’s only quasi socio-political statement, but it certainly wasn’t the only highlight. The musical duo was lean, but that didn’t discount from the show. True, Godrich and Barri never budged; they looked like Kraftwerk up there at their electronic stations. But Yorke was free to roam. He played keys, bass and guitar, and danced across the stage as Godrich played pre-recorded tracks and picked at his tangle of cords and electronics, focusing intensely.

It’s easy to forget, considering the sweeping centrality of Radiohead’s masterful catalog, that Yorke has quite a body of solo work now. Over the years, he’s released three solo albums, also including 2014’s “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes” and 2018’s “ANIMA,” plus music with his supergroup Atoms for Peace and for a variety of films (like 2018’s horror flick “Suspiria”). He covered all that territory and more over the course of a 21-song, two-hour set. Most of it is, however, deeply cerebral, dark and at times challenging. But Tuesday, it was a revelation, even for a Yorke super-fan familiar with his work.

Opener “Interference” was eerie and tender, with Yorke singing, “The ground may open up and swallow us / In an instant / But I don’t have the right / To interfere.” If only a tremblor could’ve struck at that poignant moment, with dark synths and howls rising into the cold night.

On “Nose Grows Some,” another from “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes,” he egged on the crowd to cheer as he sang, “I am waiting on the tide / Through the bad times.” Another wink and nod at the current political situation. The song was subtle and beautiful, swelling on keys and skittering beats. And the suite of “The Eraser” tracks, including “Harrowdown Hill” and “The Clock,” were banging live.

Speaking of which: The speakers/soundsystem was magnificent. These tracks go hard live. The music is loud, and often eerie, and the bass kicks. The sound dissipated into the night over Griffith Park — one of the more distinctive settings for a show like Yorke’s. But, still, just a short walk from his new Los Angeles home in Los Feliz.

Barri, the visuals dude, never once even looked up from his station, but — wow — did his contribution really impact the show. His visuals jumped all over the place. There were extraterrestrial-like lights fluttering, like colored water drifting across your car’s windshield as you speed down the 405. There were fizzled kaleidoscopes of a de-tuned old TV; a computer’s screen-saver from the future with abstract shapes in soft neon colors; morphing blue-colored schematics, like an AutoCad design on the fritz; colorful lines fluttered like in a prism, before meeting a mosquito zapper; a wormhole of black and white lines, a million pencil drawings changing every second on screen.

Without the visuals, this would’ve been a very different show.

The night was, indeed, a little chilly by SoCal standards: “If you get cold grab the person next to you, you know, in a communal manner,” Yorke instructed. It wouldn’t have helped. The music is designed for seeing your own cold breath — frosty and futuristic, devoid of the anthemic qualities of Radiohead. And that’s the point.

He closed the main set with a suite of “ANIMA” tracks — “Not the News,” “Traffic” and “Twist,” and the sound was stunning. Heads banged in the rafters. The fluxing sounds and deep beats of “Traffic” were particularly sharp and clear.

The highlight came, perhaps, during the first encore on “Dawn Chorus,” a highlight from ANIMA. Yorke returned to the stage, first alone, to play the electric keys. Godrich later joined him. “If you could do it all again/ A little fairy dust / A thousand tiny birds singing… When you’ve had enough / It’s the last chance / O.K. Corral / If you could do it all again / This time with style.” Heartbreaking.

The show closed with Yorke, returning to the stage again solo. “This song is for the new Ed Norton film,” he said. “If I fuck it up it’s because it’s the first time [I’ve played it live].” The track, from the new movie titled “Motherless Brooklyn,” was classic Yorke — a moving piano ditty with his falsetto rising and rising. “The lines are drawn / For daily battles / And I can mend / I cannot stop / Lock your dreams away / You’re waking up / Enough about your broken heart.”

For at least one night, at least at the Greek Theatre, nothing was fucked up at all.

Setlist: Interference, Impossible Knots, Black Swan, Harrowdown Hill, Pink Section, Nose Grows Some, The Clocks, Runwayaway, (Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank You for Coming), Has Ended, Last I Hear (…He Was Circling the Drain), Amok, Not the News, Truth Ray, Traffic, Twist. Encore 1: Dawn Chorus, Atoms for Peace, A Brain in a Bottle, Default. Encore 2: Daily Battles.

Photos by Annie Lesser

William Goodman is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer.