Show review: Thom Yorke Band, Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles, Oct. 4

Standing ovations typically come at the end of a performance, but Thom Yorke was greeted with one before he even launched into his first song Monday at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. Needless to say, this was no ordinary concert. Yorke drew a mega-sold-out crowd of eager Radiohead fans, some with Hollywood faces, to the debut show (after a warm-up gig Friday at the Echoplex) of his new, non-Radiohead backing band formed to realize his solo material live and possibly/probably/undoubtedly collaborate with otherwise. ??????, as the marquee out front deemed the group without a name, pairs Yorke with bassist Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beck/dozens of bands' drummer Joey Waronker, Brazilian percussionist Mauro Refosco, and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich "on everything else," as Yorke put it. With such a stellar batch of musicians up on stage, it wasn't surprising that the show's execution proved to be as exciting as its concept. The band ran through Yorke's 2006 album The Eraser in its entirety, each song getting a face-lift of sorts: the soft electronic glitchiness of the record was replaced by more rhythmic, carnal sounds in this live incarnation. Tracks took an altogether different shape under Yorke's beefed up rhythm section. “The Clock” lost its urgent ticktock and morphed into a menacing amalgam of bass and percussion; “Black Swan,” still retaining all of its despondent glory, fell under a spell of Refosco's tribal beat; and “Skip Divided" made the biggest transformation of all, with Yorke's ominous hum on the album replaced by Flea's melodica for a mysterious Middle Eastern feel, the song stripped to its barest of parts. Just before the latter song, Yorke prompted the crowd to stand. After all, The Eraser was intended to be a dance record and what, did the audience want to continue to act as if it were at the cinema? It seemed as if Yorke couldn't stop dancing. As he alternated between jumping on the piano, jumping on the guitar, and just plain jumping, he flitted around the stage like a madman infected with some sort of can’t-keep-still bug, even slithering his hips like Elvis during the more grooved up parts. And Flea was Flea, which is to say that he was rocking and bobbing onstage the entire time and a total badass on bass, breathing life into songs like "Harrowdown Hill" and the new Yorke track "Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses." As if the show wasn't special enough, what with the surprise backing band, the performance of The Eraser album, new songs and a rendition of Radiohead B-side "Paperbag Writer," which Yorke dedicated to Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood sitting in the audience, Yorke also played three new tracks on his own during the encore, two of which, "Open the Floodgates" and "Super Collider," Yorke played back-to-back on piano. The peak of the show came at the beginning of the encore with "Lotus Flower" a.k.a. "Moon Upon a Stick" (Yorke hasn't decided yet), a chill-inducing piece Yorke has been working on with Radiohead. Just Yorke's beautiful melody and an acoustic guitar, the song harkened back to Radiohead B-side “Follow Me Around.” Here's a pretty high-quality video of "Lotus Flower" shot by YouTuber Methanosktrr at the following night's show: Monday was a special night - for Yorke, Flea, Waronker, Refosco, Godrich, and most of all, the audience. Setlist The Eraser Analyse The Clock Black Swan Skip Divided Atoms For Peace And It Rained All Night Harrowdown Hill Cymbal Rush Yorke solo encore: Lotus Flower (Moon Upon A Stick) Open The Floodgates Super Collider Encore with band: Paperbag Writer Judge, Jury & Executioner The Hollow Earth Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses