The Smile, Manchester Academy. 2nd June 2022

There’s a buzz of anticipation in Manchester Academy. Sadly we were supposed to be in Albert Hall, a room that not only sounds better, but who’s design would’ve lent an extra weight of grandeur to The Smile. Production issues though have landed us in the slightly more soulless Academy where the views are quite frankly pretty rubbish. Despite a fancy light rig, you could argue there’s not an awful lot to see with The Smile though and that the music is enough. That said I’m pleased to muscle myself close enough to the front to watch Jonny fling his fringe around to ‘You Will Never Work in Television Again’ as Thom lets the vitriolic lyrics loose. There’s a guy who I can’t identify going all in on a saxophone too, raucous stuff. This is of course essentially Radiohead. To see them anywhere smaller than an arena or stadium is a treat. That’s not to do the other non-present members of Radiohead any disservice, but with Yorke’s vocals and Greenwood’s musical prowess, there’s an awful lot of the Radiohead DNA present. Not to mention that some of these songs originated with the full band. On the other side, don’t downplay Tom Skinner’s fluid jazz like drumming that brings a lot to this sound. It’s this that makes songs like ‘The Smoke’ sound so cool. He’s so tight, you could lay anything over it. Jonny’s infectious groove and Thom’s falsetto being just perfect. The formula seems to be switching between the slower and faster tunes, ‘Speech Bubbles’ making way for the explosive ‘Thin Thing’. A new one called ‘Bodies Laughing’ follows. They’re all pretty new of course, but this one features Thom pulling some funky 70s sounding licks from his guitar, before some flashy soloing. There’s a fair bit of shifting kit around between songs. Something I guess Albert Hall’s smaller stage may have struggled with, the crew wheeling pianos around deftly. ‘Free in the Knowledge’ brings a brief singalong, before the crowd realise they can’t go as high as Thom. This isn’t my favourite, but does build into an extended sort of jam at the end with Jonny taking a bow to his guitar, Tom picking up a motorik beat and then crashing into ‘A Hairdryer’, it’s stuff to lose your mind too. Everyone locked in, the energy surging through the crowd. Even those who’ve had a bit too much and can’t stand up. There’s always a few isn’t there. ‘We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings’ might be my favourite. That moody bassline and squalling guitars. ‘Skrting on the Surface’ brings things to a haunting close, before they return for a few more. Including another new one ‘Just Eyes and Mouth’, that has Thom bouncing behind his keyboard as Jonny’s sharp scratchy guitar cuts into the rhythm. Again it’s got some real swagger to it, suggesting that the direction might be shifting with the next release. I’m not too sure what they finished with, but I think it might’ve been ‘Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses’, it doesn’t matter. By this point we’ve all be swept up into a writhing pit of positivity… and sweat. They are brilliant live, who knows if they’d been better in Albert Hall, but it certainly feels like one of the most special gigs I’ve witness in the Academy for quite some time.