While Creep might not be a favourite for many die-hard fans, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t savour that rare moment when Radiohead rip into their breakthrough 1992 single.
Performing their third concert at Paris venue Le Zenith on Monday, the band delighted fans with the first rendition of Creep in seven years. Among the stellar set list were other throwbacks to their earlier records, including OK Computer single No Surprises, which similarly hadn’t seen the light of day since 2009.
Indicative of the group’s reticence to revisit much older material in a single performance, Radiohead fans have also noted that it’s the first time they’ve ever dropped songs from all studio albums in a single set.
The group have been vocal about their distaste for Creep over the years, and have berated fans who have requested the song live on a numer of occasions. In 1996, frontman Thom Yorke reflected on his personal distaste promoting the song after release. “We sucked Satan’s cock. It took a year-and-a-half to get back to the people we were… to cope with it emotionally,” he revealed to The Guardian.
Setlist:
Burn the Witch
Daydreaming
Decks Dark
Desert Island Disk
Ful Stop
Lotus Flower
The National Anthem
My Iron Lung
No Surprises (First performance since 2009)
Bloom (Happy Birthday sung to Phil)
Identikit
The Numbers
Separator
The Gloaming
Everything in Its Right Place
Idioteque
Bodysnatchers
Encore:
True Love Waits (First full performance since 2006)
Present Tense
Paranoid Android
Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Encore 2:
Creep (First performance since 2009)
Pyramid Song
Image: Pitchfork