by Annette Basile
Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Thom Yorke, Mark Pritchard
Intro:
… a haunting concert film.
He’s a man of few spoken words, singing and dancing under the Sydney night sky at the Opera House forecourt. There’s no banter during this concert movie, just a steady stream of tracks from all points of Thom Yorke’s career, with a word of thanks here and there, uttered between songs to an entranced audience.
The Radiohead front man’s music falls into two broad categories – electronica and songs of sombre beauty. A seagull flies low over the packed forecourt as Yorke kicks off with a stripped-back version of Radiohead’s ‘Let Down’ from OK Computer – a landmark album, which – can you believe it? – turns 30 next year.
He’s playing an acoustic guitar, with a bank of keyboards sitting behind him. Sometimes he plays the keys, and sometimes he lets the keys play themselves, while he dances out front during these programmed electronic moments. The dancing is as fluid as his vocals, which bounce around the upper octaves – and he is in truly fine voice on these two November nights in 2024.
Directed by Australian cinematographer Dave May, Thom Yorke Live at Sydney Opera House showcases Yorke’s immense talents. The listener is advised to expect the unexpected. If you were to look for a moment that defines his talent and approach, it’s ‘Black Swan’, a tune from his debut solo offering, The Eraser. Here, he picks up a bass guitar and plays it like it’s a lead instrument – getting sounds from those humble four strings that the strings themselves didn’t know they were capable of.
The crowd shots tell their own story – couples enjoying a moment, people swaying and smiling. Yorke’s dealings with anxiety and depression are well documented, and although the music doesn’t offer many reasons to be cheerful (there’s darkness even in the dance-tinged tunes), this is one happy crowd.
It’s not just the Radiohead songs – like ‘Packt Like Sardines In a Crushd Tin Box’ and ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’ – that earn a big response from the audience. This crowd is clearly familiar with his work outside of Radiohead, like the gorgeous ‘Truth Ray’, from his second solo album Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes (by the way, Radiohead is just on a hiatus, and expected to return soon).
Alone on stage for almost the entire time, Yorke is a quietly commanding presence, but he brings in a collaborator – fellow Englishman Mark Pritchard – for one tune, ‘Back in the Game’. It’s from their album Tall Tales, which formed the soundtrack to the extraordinary film of the same name that could be described as Koyaanisqatsi for the digital age.
This is a haunting concert film. Newcomers and casual admirers will likely find themselves immersed. Memorable and impressive, this is an excellent concert film that will be most effective if seen on a nice big screen … with big sound.
