Radiohead’s Second Reunion Show Switches Setlist, Resurrects Songs

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, image via YouTube

Radiohead returned to Madrid’s Movistar Arena last night for the second night of their long–awaited reunion tour. The legendary avant-rock quintet promised a different show for all 20 dates on their first tour in seven years, and Tuesday’s hit-packed kickoff charged high expectations for their follow-up; on Wednesday, the band set a high bar for the run ahead by swapping out more than half of their setlist, including two tracks they hadn’t played in 16 years.

Radiohead set off their second performance in Madrid with “2+2=5,” which fell in the second slot on night one. The Hail to the Thief cut’s first appearance as an opener since 2004, and other prominent placements from the 2003 album, followed the band’s recent surprise archival release, Hail to the Thief Live Recordings 2003-2009. “The Bends” was the evening’s second song and the first of 14 new entries in the 25-track performance.

Wednesday’s other tour debuts included “All I Need,” “Nude” (with a new piano intro), “Reckoner,” “Airbag,” “Separator,” “Pyramid Song,” “Exit Music (for a Film)” and a set-closing treatment of “Street Spirit (Fade Out).” The biggest surprises in the mix were “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” from In Rainbows and “(Nice Dream)” from The Bends, both of which were performed for the first time since 2009. As with Tuesday’s set, all eight of the band’s studio albums after Pablo Honey were represented.

“Let Down” began Radiohead’s encore, tacitly acknowledging that the nearly axed Ok Computer inclusion became their fourth Billboard Hot 100 entry in August due to a viral moment on TikTok. After the band sang “Happy Birthday” to Jonny Greenwood, they continued with “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” their first treatment of “Planet Telex” since 2017, tour debuts of “Present Tense” and “The Daily Mail,” “Paranoid Android” and a finale of “Everything in Its Right Place.”

Radiohead’s setlists are drawing on a bank of 65 songs that Thom Yorke compiled to ensure changes for each show, with the frontman, Ed O’Brien and Philip Selway taking the lead on nightly curation. The band will deliver two more shows in Madrid before moving on to Bologna, Italy’s Unipol Arena, London’s O2 Arena, Copenhagen’s Royal Arena and Berlin’s Uber Arena, each of which will host four performances broken into pairs with single nights off in between.

Read up on Radiohead’s new tour format here. Learn more about the various projects Radiohead’s members have pursued since 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool here.