a dream concert by a dream band: “the smile” were in the gasometer and delivered on the whole level!
for the concert of “the smile” we left nothing to chance. even before the doors of the gasometer were opened, we were already queuing, because the mission was: we have to be in the front row. right in front of thom yorke. and our plan worked: we got the place we wanted! now we only had to wait two infinitely long hours for the show to start.
and at some point the time had come: the new project “the smile‘ by radiohead frontman thom yorke entered the stage floor and the stage was bathed in red light. i was in awe: thom is one of the greatest and most ingenious musicians on the planet and he just stood there in front of us, and next to me my partner, one of his biggest fans. I mightn’t process the whole thing properly – I was just grateful to have the good fortune to attend this concert.
the performance itself was just as I had imagined: a bit overwhelming and at the same time harmonious. the music of “the smile” might seem a bit unwieldy at first, but it’s more melodic and engaging than you can imagine. I would even go so far as to call the music really danceable, or rather: I felt the urge to move. with the light effects in the back they underline their sound very atmospherically and at the same time calmly.
I particularly liked the arc of suspense: some songs had a lot of tempo and threw distorted guitars or sometimes slightly electronic beats around our ears, others were really nice, slow, anthemic ballads. i was also enthusiastic regarding the instruments that thom yorke showed us: guitar, piano, synthesizer – in combination with bass and drums, this always resulted in a lot of unconventional things. I also thought the dance movements were great, or rather, the movement that generally took place on stage but also in the audience.
the whole evening was a really all-round experience – our seat in the front row, the performance of the band and last but not least we were even able to get hold of a concert poster. and above all it was the first concert for my partner following the acute phase of mourning – i wanted him to have a successful evening and “the smile” made it really easy for us to get exactly that. I was infinitely grateful – especially in difficult times you need beautiful moments and the concert by “the smile” was definitely a very, very, very beautiful moment!
