Radio and Juliet

Just got back from Radio and Juliet at the Esplanade, a ballet on the much recycled Shakespearan tragedy. Wait a minute, a ballet? Yeah well there were two reasons i went. Firstly, there was a 20% discount for NSFs (finally a good thing from being one, like hock said) but more significantly the show was underscored by Radiohead's music.

It was kind of a dark, artsy performance, and from the comments afterward during the dialogue session with the choreographer, it was apparently a very complex and intelligent ballet (not that i know what that means). i know nuts about ballet and dance so I wouldn't say I appreciated it that much, but besides being nice to look at, I still got a few things from the show that I thought were quite cool.. like how the story didn't unfold chronologically (in fact there wasn't much of a continuous narrative), and how there were 5 male dancers playing Romeo or the different sides of him. I liked the film bits at either end of the show as well.

But of course what made me enjoy the show was the music. For the first time, I was listening to Radiohead coming out of big speakers, in a large, dark room, and it was really nice. Some of the songs sounded and (at the risk of sounding pretentious) felt different in such an atmosphere, rather than on headphones. The music also fit the theme and tones of the performance well i guess, sounding very much tailored for the tragic love story, but that isn't very surprising. There were some really cool moments, like the 'fight' scene during the 'raindrops' section of Sit Down, Stand up, the climax of We Suck Young Blood during the 'balcony' scene, juliet doing the robot to Pulk hahah. Also some legitimate audiogasm(yes) moments, like How to Disappear and Idioteque. Yes they were just playing the studio versions but theres something about hearing these songs live.. still praying for that one chance :)

Heres the "setlist" if you care:
Motion Picture Soundtrack
Fitter Happier
Life In A Glass House
Pulk/pull Revolving Doors
How To Disappear Completely
Sit Down Stand up
We Suck Young Blood
Idioteque
Like Spinning Plates (live version)
Fitter Happier (again)
The Gloaming
Bulletproof