CorgiRegisteredFriend
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We were a little further back from where you were and got a good view of the three (four) band members- the addition of the screens above would have helped anyone struggling to see. It was great to hear the album tracks live, I was a bit worried that people would be chatting over the quieter moments but there was none of that and a noticeable lack of phones. The new tracks sounded good, the second one ventured more into Radiohead territory than anything else on the setlist. Didn't have a clue what the first encore song was but Tom introduced it as an old number so guessing from one of his solo albums? I agree with what you say about the Brighton Centre- when the sound is spot on it works and you could really be anywhere. Get it wrong- and its a bad night out.I saw The Smile on Monday at the (unfairly) maligned Brighton Centre. We were stood about 8 metres away from Thom Yorke. It's the second time I've seen them (previous one was at the Roundhouse in Camden) and we also saw their 6Music set on the iPlayer on Saturday. What struck me about Monday's performance was I had a clear (and new) answer to the question: why The Smile instead of Radiohead?
A prior answer was: they're bored of banging out Paranoid Android, followed by Karma Police and Creep every gig, and want to play different material without being tied down to the expectations of sets that audiences hold. I don't think they'll ever play a Radiohead song at a Smile gig. This is still valid, but on Monday, there was ...
... a new answer: Johnny and Thom want to experiment within songs more when they play live. This is another way of saying improvisation and also provides another explanation for Tom S's presence -- in contrast to the 6Music and Roundhouse gigs, they were much more experimental in how they performed their new Smile songs, some of which was planned, but there was the odd obviously impromptu moment (on Thin Thing?) from their reactions. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves too (which you don't always get from Radiohead gigs).