We’ve been preoccupied with a music festival and travel, and glossed over the fact that Radiohead’s Austin City Limits show was broadcast last Saturday. While it will always be tough to match their From the Basement performance for sound and video quality, for those that didn’t catch a show on their recent tour (we were blessed to eek our way into the Santa Barbara Bowl for the show of the year) watch the entire stellar ACL episode of the best band in the world doing what they do best.  Especially enjoyable is the rare sound mix in which Thom Yorke’s vocals are featured high in the mix.  The band plays old/new song The Amazing Sounds of Orgy, the backstory of which is explained in an intro to the song.  Thereafter, the sequence of Staircase, Identikit and There There is particularly stunning.  The group vocal on the latter provides THE highlight of the show.  The episode ends strongly with older crowd-favorites Idioteque and seminal Paranoid Android.  It doesn’t get any better.  Hang in for the short interview of Yorke and Ed Greenwood at the end, in which Yorke compares the band’s internal politics to the United Nations while he is “the United States.”

Recent controversies regarding PBS notwithstanding, it is the network’s presentation of great art such as this that will always be “worth it.”  Long live PBS!

The episode setlist is below the video.  Compare the episode’s songs to all the songs shown in the picture at bottom–by Tim Griffin, via the BV Austin Instagram–of the band’s full setlist played at the ACL show. Hopefully ACL will one day release the remaining song footage.

And for you musicians and gear-heads you can go HERE for ACL’s  inside view of the band’s gear and set-up.

Watch Radiohead on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Setlist:

Bloom
The Daily Mail
Myxomatosis
Morning Mr. Magpie
The Amazing Sounds of Orgy
Staircase
Identikit
There There
Feral
Idioteque
Paranoid Android