Live Review: Thom Yorke @ Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne

In a recent interview with everyone’s favourite Gen Y/Gen X broadcaster Double J, Thom Yorke was approached about his current musical proclivities: “No offence to anyone and err, thanks for caring, but I think we’ve earned the right to do what makes sense to us without having to explain ourselves or be answerable to anyone else’s historical idea of what we should be doing.”

Okay…

When pressed about the conjecture surrounding the future of Radiohead, he added, “I am not aware of it and don’t really give a flying fuck.”

Is that clear enough? Did the people in the back hear that? Thom Yorke will play Karma Police when he’s in the fucking mood to play Karma Police.

To be honest, that was always half the point of The Smile, wasn’t it? Why would you start another band with your main co-writing partner and bandmate of 30 years if not just to (temporarily) escape the diehard fans holding signs at the front of the mosh pit that read ‘PLAY IDIOTEQUE’? The plan did kind of backfire on them, though. The Smile have now made three really good albums in two and a half years, and so now the kids have signs that read ‘PLAY ZERO SUM’.

But it’s obvious. The man craves freedom. He wants to be unencumbered by expectation. He will always subvert our idea of what Thom Yorke is or what his music should sound like. He made that clear on OK Computer. He made it even clearer with Kid A, and even though it bordered on stubborn, there was a method to his madness in refusing to play Creep live for fifteen years.

This precocious obsession with the avant-garde isn’t exactly new behaviour. So when he announced a solo tour of Australia and New Zealand apropos of nothing, we were as surprised as we were delighted. When he called the tour Everything – well, that created expectations. 

And even though many Antipodeans were waiting for someone to book The Smile on the back of their two excellent new albums, Cutouts and Wall Of Eyes, and as good as it would have been to stare at Jonny Greenwood’s long fringe as he draped himself over a synth… beggars can’t be choosers. After waiting 12 long years since Australia’s last Radiohead tour, we will gladly take any of the boys from Oxfordshire on our shores.

Being able to play these venues as a solo artist also speaks to Thom’s rightful place in the pantheon of pop music in 2024. He would hate that supposition, but thankfully, I doubt he’s an avid reader of TheMusic.com.au. But after a near flawless 11-year run from The Bends to A Moon Shaped Pool, Yorke is now considered a master songwriter.

When Neil Young tours, you are going to hear some Buffalo Springfield, some CSNY, some solo stuff and a lot of Crazy Horse – you have to respect the place the man is in. And Thom is now in his fourth decade as a touring musician, and he’s not a man who will be constrained by the weight of his fans’ expectations.

And it’s not like solo Thom Yorke is a drastic departure from his day job anyway. When he released his debut solo album, The Eraser, in 2006, it could have easily been mistaken for a B-Sides collection from the Amnesiac sessions (not a pejorative). But that is to say, it’s not as if Thom is releasing a glam rock album anytime soon.

So, as you stand in front of him at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on a cool Spring evening, please don’t say you can’t wait to hear Karma Police. Why is he in Australia? Who knows, and who the fuck cares. There is no one on the Atoms For Peace Facebook page posting, “When are you touring Australia!?” Thom is here because he wants to be. And he is going to play whatever he damn well pleases. 

And it turns out, that’s a lot of minimalist techno. From opening with the title track of his debut, Thom stood flanked by a vintage synth set-up that would have impressed Roger Waters and awed the crowd into silence with beats that would scare The Chemical Brothers.

His desire to tour solo became obvious pretty quickly. It allows him to go deeper and weirder than any of his bands would typically allow, and if he had his way completely, he might have been playing Strawberry Fields festival at 4 am.

Radiohead songs were doled out like bones thrown to a rabid dog, and his years in the industry have given him a sixth sense of when the crowd is getting hungry. That isn’t to say he didn’t do them justice. My lord. Fake Plastic Trees and Let Down on acoustic guitar. Present Tense on a looped electric guitar.

What he did play from his sometimes-former band was resplendent, it was transcendent, people were seen drifting into a meditative state and approaching an astral plane. Even if it did feel a bit obligatory. Such is the power of this man’s voice. Perhaps one of the finest vocalists in pop music history, capable of a warbled growl that you feel deep in your stomach and an angelic falsetto that could make an atheist believe in god.

His musicianship is also a stark reminder of how often we accept mediocrity from others in pop music. His guitar work was flawed but inventive and, at times, sublime. He is a better piano player than some professional pianists. He layers synths as well as Nils Frahm. We forget the rarity of an artist who can sit at the top of the totem pole in three separate musical genres.

And whilst the tour was called Everything, it could have easily been called Extremes as he took pleasure in juxtaposing the ends of his musical interests. A delicate, haunting rendition of Reckoner was immediately followed by Back In The Game, a song that could easily feature in a DJ Hell set and possibly the most abrasive techno Sidney Myer Music Bowl has witnessed since the last Kiss My Grass festival. But we really did get the Thom Yorke degustation. From his soundtrack to the 2018 remake of art-house-horror film Suspiria to the underrated solo single Black Swan and the ambient Cymbal Rush – it was a journey across the spectrum of Yorke’s palette and influence. 

But after bruising the audience with his dream Berghain set, the encore showed Yorke at his most generous. All I Need --> Everything In Its Right Place --> Lucky. Not many songwriters can pack that kind of jaw-dropping combo, and it was enough to stun the crowd into complete silence. It felt a bit like worship.

In that interview with Double J, a magnanimous Yorke admitted seeing the big picture about The Smile’s position: “I don’t think we feel the need to live up to anything...We are in this privileged position where we are still able to make music because of Radiohead, so no complaints.”

And this tour, whilst missing Jonny’s undeniable genius and the jazz-trained tautness of Tom Skinner’s drumming, is a product of this wonderous privilege. And are we going to see him on stage with Colin, Phil and Ed raucously jamming out the outro of Just anytime soon? Don’t even fucking ask. Just trust the process and enjoy the master at work.