1994-02-21, Royal Berks Social Club, Reading, UK

## Tracklist

1. Maquiladora
2. Bones
3. Fake Plastic Trees
4. The Trickster
5. (Nice Dream)
6. Killer Cars
7. Sulk
8. Just
9. The Bends
10. My Iron Lung
11. Anyone Can Play Guitar
12. Prove Yourself
13. Creep

## Comments

* Woah, where to even start with this one? Well, it's probably best to get the sound quality niggles out of the way first - it's not as good as you would hope given this show's importance, but it's perfectly listenable. There's enough clarity to make out every instrument well, but it does suffer from some distortion in parts. Not a deal-breaker, though.
* It's a new year, the Pablo Honey era is officially over, and the band (under the assumed name of Faithless and the Wonder Boys, don't you know) play a one-off surprise show at a small venue in Reading. It was around two months since the last show, and it would be another three until the next. So why are they playing this show at all?
* It becomes clear after the first song, when Thom lets the audience know that 'these are all new songs, nobody's ever heard them before.' Yep - this show is very renowned in the Radiohead live canon for featuring the live debuts of a staggering ***seven*** songs, all of which are from The Bends (or its b-sides.) They're clearly testing out material for the upcoming My Iron Lung EP, and it makes for a truly excellent show.
* After a short 'hello', the band open the show with the well-regarded b-side Maquiladora - obviously being played for the first time. It's far more electric guitar-heavy than the final arrangement, and it also features some early lyrics. They follow this up with Bones, which feels particularly embryonic - it's slower, shorter and altogether less powerful than future renditions.
* This is where the show *really* gets going; they play the evergreen Fake Plastic Trees, which has a really interesting early arrangement, with the band entry being much earlier and a much lusher instrumental palette, almost reminiscent of a Pink Floyd song at times. It's followed by The Trickster, one of the best performances of the show, a version with early lyrics and lacking a lot of the guitar work in the recorded version. It wouldn't be played again til 1997!
* After this comes a slew of other fascinating early versions: (Nice Dream) (similar to the previous year's performances, it's *very* heavy and really powerful), Killer Cars (one of two full band performances of the song in history, complete with Ed harmonies and a solo!), Sulk (an EXTREMELY rare performance of a song that was almost never played, and it might be its best-ever rendition), Just (which is already as brilliant as it would be later), The Bends (with the acoustic guitar slowly getting written out of the mix) and My Iron Lung to cap it off, with different lyrics and no speed up during the breakdown. Insane!
* After all that, the encores are put up to fan requests: versions of Anyone Can Play Guitar, Prove Yourself with a unique guitar solo and a Creep that Thom clearly doesn't want to play - he hands the mic over to the fans for the outro! The ACPG does have some great guitar work from Jonny, though - it gets more insane with each passing show.
* To add to all that, the Thom banter here is awesome. 'If you get bored, shout' - the crowd shouts - 'piss off home, then!'
* A final miscellaneous comment: Colin actually gives a short 'thank you' before the first song, which is an extremely rare occurrence!