Radiohead Light Up All Points West With Two Headlining Performances

The first night featured a dedication to Underworld, the second to Kings of Leon, but aside from a few cosmetic differences Radiohead performed a pair of solid two-plus-hour headlining sets at New Jersey's All Points West festival this weekend. Both shows were heavy on material from In Rainbows, and the Friday night crowd emitted a particularly loud rumble of approval for "Idioteque" from Kid A. Orange and yellow lights bathed the audience during "Lucky," waking fans from the drowsy lullaby of "All I Need." With Manhattan looming behind the audience, Thom Yorke dedicated "Pyramid Song" to "a very hectic city."

The band's LED lights were just as mesmerizing on Saturday night, as Radiohead took the stage again to toy with distance and intimacy in a massive setting. The only shots the band allowed on the Jumbotron were extreme close-ups (Yorke's wriggling scruff, a mallet hitting a glockenspiel), so the crowd went craziest for the most tender and human elements of the night — the vulnerable solo vocals on "Nude," the extra slow version of "Exit Music for a Film" — but maybe they were just breaking the tension.

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Song Stories

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette | 1973

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."

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