LIVE REVIEWS
Hammersmith is abuzz tonight as if this sold-out Apollo show were an underplay for Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood’s main breadwinner Radiohead. However, now with two stonking albums to their name and a reputation for jazzy and freewheeling live shows, The Smile – completed by Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner – are enough of a main event draw to render the term ‘side-project’ obsolete.
Having played a pretty opulent set in Manchester the night before with accompaniment from the London Contemporary Orchestra for BBC 6 Music Festival, expectations are high. By the time the lights go down, it’s clear we’re not getting the same treatment. Not that we’re not left feeling hard done by. In fact, there’s a benefit to the more intimate feel of Yorke’s acoustic plucking and tender yearning on the opening song of ‘Wall Of Eyes’’ title track.
Flowing into first album ‘A Light For Attracting Attention‘ highlight ‘The Opposite’ – a track with some of the far-reaching spirit of Radiohead’s ‘Amnesiac’ albeit with a much more sleazy groove – The Smile manage a rare feat. As they swap instruments and lose themselves, the show feels like a GarageBand jam but without the wankery (and that’s accounting for the dissonant clarinet solos and Greenwood somehow managing to make shredding on a harp look cool). You can’t call this self-indulgent when a capacity crowd are stuck in their quicksand funk.
‘Friend Of A Friend’ brings a surprise sing-along, ‘You Will Never Work In Television Again’ bristles with its awkward and jagged hooks and the closer of the main set ‘Bending Hectic’ would give anything at tonight’s Oscars a run for its money as a slow-burning cinematic epic. “This is an old one,” offers Yorke, introducing the encore. “Hope you know it”. One naive fool in the sidelines screams out for ‘Karma Police’. Alas, it’s a punked-up version of deep Yorke solo cut ‘FeelingPulledApartByHorses’. You were never gonna get a whiff of ‘Creep’, and who needs it? Be glad to have this thrilling new beast: loose, instinctive, fitter, happier, more productive.
‘Wall of Eyes’
‘The Opposite’
‘A Hairdryer’
‘Speech Bubbles’
‘Colours Fly’
‘Skrting on the Surface’
‘Instant Psalm’
‘Waving a White Flag’
‘Thin Thing’
‘Zero Sum’
‘Friend of a Friend’
‘Read the Room’
‘The Smoke’
‘You Will Never Work in Television Again’
‘Under Our Pillows’
‘Bending Hectic’
Encore:
‘FeelingPulledApartByHorses’ (Thom Yorke song)
‘Teleharmonic’
‘Pana-Vision’
‘You Know Me!’
LIVE REVIEWS
“Express yourself,” a whispered voice hushes through the main stage as the lights flicker. Doja Cat is about to take to the main stage to headline the final night of Coachella 2024, and when she emerges at the end of the runway in a hazmat suit, you know she’s going to do as those two words say.
For the rapper, expressing herself often means doing things others might not – either because her form of expression is too off-the-wall for the rest of the world or too controversial. Tonight, she proves the former spirit is well and truly alive, bringing a touch of brilliant weirdness to the desert.
After the opening two songs, she takes off the white suit that leaves only her face visible to reveal a body suit covered in long locks of blonde hair. Ominous tones roll out over the field as she crawls up to the main stage before ‘Demons’ cuts in, and she’s joined by dancers dressed in yeti costumes. If these are the demons she’s rapping about, they don’t look too bad – cuddly, almost – and she embraces them fully, climbing on one’s shoulders to deliver the final parts of the track.
This is just the beginning of the Doja Cat spectacle tonight, which includes multiple outfit changes and stage antics that get increasingly madcap. After a commanding ‘Tia Tamera’, she disappears behind a curtain, only her silhouette visible, as the buzzing sound of an electric razor whirrs, and she pretends to shave off the thigh-length blonde hair she’s been whipping around until now. When she emerges, she sports a shaved head and a look that can only be described as high fashion cyborg.
As the performance enters its final throes, she’s joined by a very special, unusual guest – the gigantic skeleton of a dinosaur. It rolls down the runway after her as she airs ‘WYM Freestyle’, looking like she’s about to be its next victim. Before the track is up, though, it appears to decide Doja is too formidable an opponent and retreats back to where it came from.
Formidable is exactly what the star is tonight, crafting a fiery set that bounces through her rap-focused songs and never lets the energy drop. ‘OKLOSER’, which gets its live debut tonight, is an infectious highlight, while ‘Balut’ drops the tempo to something a little more soulful but still powerful. When she brings out living human guests to join her on stage, she doesn’t come close to being overshadowed.
21 Savage appears for ’n.h.i.e.’, while Teezo Touchdown ups the weird, vocalising into a flower that seems to require his whole head to be submerged in its petals. A$AP Rocky makes his second appearance of the weekend for a ferocious ‘URRRGE!!!!!!!!!!’, trading bars with his host from the top of a scaffolding tower. Earlier in the evening, South African a cappella group The Joy bring light to ‘Shutcho’.
It’s unfortunate that the crowd tonight isn’t much bigger than it is – or that, other than the fans down the front, its energy isn’t far higher. Sure, it’s the final night of the weekend and the chilly desert winds are roaring, but the reception for Doja is disappointingly flat. Perhaps that’s because she doesn’t give the casual viewers what they want – her pop hits. There is no ‘Say So’ in this set, nor a rendition of ‘Kiss Me More’ – with or without a cameo from SZA. ‘Paint The Town Red’, her latest smash, is saved until the penultimate track in the setlist, but even when its opening notes drop, the response is muted.
Regardless, Doja sticks to her guns throughout and closes the performance in the kind of way that leaves the audience confused. After a brief break from the stage, the rapper reappears back at the end of the runway, which has now turned into a ring full of slimy, grey mud. She and her dancers get stuck into the mess as she closes the set with ‘Wet Vagina’, somehow not slipping and sliding through it but nailing the choreography.
As Doja strides back to the main stage and blows a kiss goodbye, the crowd hesitates, wondering, “Is that it?” They get their answer when the lights finally go out – a subdued ending, perhaps, but one that comes after 90 minutes of pure pageantry.
‘Acknowledge Me’
‘Shutcho’
‘Demons’
‘Tia Tamera’
‘Fuck The Girls (FTG)’
‘Gun’
‘OKLOSER’
‘Ouchies
‘n.h.i.e.’
‘Attention’
’97’
‘Balut’
‘Need To Know’
‘MASC’
‘Streets’
‘Agora Hills’
‘Ain’t Shit’
‘WYM Freestyle’
‘URRRGE!!!!!!!!!!’
‘Paint The Town Red’
‘Wet Vagina’
