Live Report: The Smile deliver scintillating post-rock at 3Arena

Thom Yorke opens proceedings with ‘Read the Room’, singing - “And when the time is right, and when the end has come, maybe you can’t be arsed”, and so kicks of his band’s European & UK Tour, which stretches across the month of March. The song is met with roars of approval, fans are excited, they have a right to be, for this is the inaugural airing of Wall of Eyes, the sophomore record from The Smile.

Some songs from it – ‘Teleharmonic’ and ‘Under Our Pillows’ have been played regularly, while album standouts ‘Friend of a Friend’ and ‘Bending Hectic’ have been thoroughly road-tested, the latter been released as a debut single, as far back as June of last year. Test-running material is a long-standing Radiohead method, but this is the first joyride proper of Wall of Eyes since its official release in mid-January. A large question looms in advance of tonight’s show – how are these three guys going to replicate Wall of Eyes – an incredibly layered and intricate record – live and without the bolster of the London Contemporary Orchestra who reinforced them in the studio?

The Smile at 3Arena. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

The same question was asked when they were about to go on the road with their 2022 debut album – could they replicate it on stage? And the answer? - Bloody right they could! Just have a listen to their live album – The Smile (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022). That set includes the marvellous ‘Bending Hectic’, a track that has raised, in some learned quarters, comparisons to The Beatles – the album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and includes a tuning-sweep about halfway through – which holds some water but then again, for me it also brings to mind Kojaque’s (fighting it out tonight in Vicar St. for the Choice Music Prize) ‘Heaven Shouldn’t Have You’, so there you go.

The Smile at 3Arena. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

‘Friend of A Friend’ is also a tad Beatles-esque with its tape-looping feel and disassociated fair-ground-but-somehow-ominously-authoritarian sensibility. In any case when asked recently during a live interview what they were listening to during recording, Yorke and Greenwood chose composer Steve Reich, which may well be a better signpost, I’m not entirely sure. One thing I am sure about, is it sounds damn good, although many of the wonderfully cute children in Paul Thomas Anderson’s accompanying video to ‘Friend of a Friend’, obviously disagree.

Anyway, to tonight – the two Radioheads – Yorke and Greenwood and one Sons of Kemet – Tom Skinner - march out, accompanied by honorary Smile alumnus Robert Stillman who blows sax, tinkers with synths and generally looks ice-cool in carrying out his duties. Which is no small matter, as there is a shed load of stuff to effectuate when creating the intricate sound of The Smile. For their part, Yorke and Greenwood heft up and put down a smorgasbord of instruments, whilst Tom Skinner mills through a truck-load of percussion styles with disgusting ease.

The Smile at 3Arena. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

‘Read the Room’ is followed by ‘Wall of Eyes’, the title track marks, by my count, the first of four live debuts, two of which are yet to feature on a record, and so are fodder for an anticipated third album. That’s quite the scamper, considering the trio got together less than three years ago.

‘The Opposite’ kicks off a quartet of bangers from debut album A Light for Attracting Attention – Yorke’s marvellous scatting, Greenwood’s ridiculously tight guitar and Skinner’s wide-screen drums – all creating a sound reminiscent of the psychedelic funk of Can - their vivid urbanity, their motoring rhythm. ‘The Hairdryer’ does what it says on the tin – our seats in the bleachers, right at the back of the cavernous hall, humming bass, while Greenwood’s sawing of his guitar with a bow, juxtaposes majestically against the rub of Skinner’s jazzy high hats. ‘Look at all the pretty lights, look at all the pretty lights, Yorke intones – while the glare from a million bulbs blinds us.

‘Thin Thing’ is greeted with howls of recognition, it is a wondrous VU/Kraftwerkian drone of a yolk – ‘down the rabbit hole, we go, as the flames grow higher’, Yorke warns, Greenwood on another plain now, Stillman at side of stage grooving, this is the Cosmic Music you reckon - it’s like been chased across a horror movie set - ‘Making mushrooms out of men,” Yorke croons, oh yeah.

The Smile at 3Arena. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Newbie, ‘Zero Sum’ is a roof-top chase, with Stillman’s belching sax puffing away contentedly. While ‘Friend of a Friend’ sounds more like, well Radiohead – it’s line – ‘Buried from the waist down, stop looking over the shoulder’ – a harbinger of what is to come, because stuff is going to get to feeling a lot like A Clockwork Orange.

The frenzy of ‘You Will Never Work in Television Again’ is followed by the haemorrhaging neon blue lights of ‘Under Our Pillows’ that lock us in our seats, a tortuous bombardment that has us begging for shades, it’s a damn relief when it is over.  Thank God when we hear Thom whisper introducing ‘Bending Hectic’, the Astral Week comparable wash of it - a sonic balm - the houselights seek out a sea of nodding heads and fist pumping arms.

The Smile at 3Arena. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Thom opens the encore by apologising to us as a nation for Brexit, before hacking into ‘We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings’ and its claustrophobic, ever closing walls, made somewhat easier to swallow by its optimistic, eponymous refrain. You take it for granted but the power in Yorke’s voice, that generational defining voice, is mammoth here, indeed it is mammoth throughout.

The Smile at 3Arena. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

An organ is dragged center stage for Thom, and we are treated to ‘Telaharmonic’ and its wails of ‘wanting payback, payback’, Stillman’s sax valiantly fending off waves of sonic boom. The Peaky Blinders doused ‘Pana-vision’ is followed by curtain closer ‘You Know Me!’, the closing track from Wall of Eyes, Greenwood grabbling a cello while Yorke warbles wonderfully about China teas and old galaxies. Filing out, the audience look well chuffed with The Smile’s breakneck, punk jazz, kosmische, Gouldian, Reichian, psychedelic funk nebula. Chapeau!