The Smile - Manhattan Center 11/20/22

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   Last night I was able to catch The Smile at the Hammerstein Ballroom at Manhattan Center. I was excited to catch this new project from Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood, and the prolific drummer Tom Skinner, who is just late of the mighty Sons of Kemet (RIP and may they rise like Lazarus). The show was opened by the saxophonist Robert Stillman, who contributed to the headliner's excellent debut LP A Light for Attracting Attention. Stillman played completely solo, backing himself with tapes and electronics as he blew on his various saxes. His set slowly, carefully, and repeatedly ground from soft-quiet explorations to rather fiery '60s-esque extended climaxes and freakouts, bathed in shades of red.
The Smile emerged to great cheers before tearing into a similar set to the one they played at their second Kings Theatre show, hardly skipping a beat between cuts as their multitudes of techs helped them repeatedly switch instruments and positions. This project is clearly a product of both great multi-instrumental skill and of true passion and love for music, an exciting new frontier that the band and particularly Yorke find to be rip-roaringly fun. I can tell you that most of the crowd and I myself agree with the latter sentiment, as we excitedly bounced and danced to most of the night's unfailingly wonderful songs. Unfortunately their were analog modulation issues that foreclosed on us hearing more than a few bars of "Waving A White Flag", but even this hardly deterred The Smile. In all they played most all of ALFAA, and several newer cuts were in the mix, including the now NYC dedicated "People On Balconies" featuring Stillman and the much lauded "Bending Hectic". The main set was capped by another couple of Stillman accented cuts including "You Will Never Work In Television Again".

The encore was ever so slightly truncated from their earlier shows, but was nothing short of masterful all the same. Their encores are based around newer cuts, featuring "Just Eyes and Mouth" (complete with Yorke's legendary dance moves) and "Colours Fly" last night, before the band's version of Yorke's solo/Atoms For Peace classic "Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses" as the capstone. The experience of the whole show was truly electric.

Edited by LearsFool - November 21 2022 at 02:28

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LearsFool Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Prog Reviewer Joined: November 09 2014 Location: New York Status: Offline Points: 8642	Post Options Post Reply Quote LearsFool Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: The Smile - Manhattan Center 11/20/22 Posted: November 21 2022 at 01:53
	Last night I was able to catch The Smile at the Hammerstein Ballroom at Manhattan Center. I was excited to catch this new project from Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood, and the prolific drummer Tom Skinner, who is just late of the mighty Sons of Kemet (RIP and may they rise like Lazarus). The show was opened by the saxophonist Robert Stillman, who contributed to the headliner's excellent debut LP A Light for Attracting Attention. Stillman played completely solo, backing himself with tapes and electronics as he blew on his various saxes. His set slowly, carefully, and repeatedly ground from soft-quiet explorations to rather fiery '60s-esque extended climaxes and freakouts, bathed in shades of red. The Smile emerged to great cheers before tearing into a similar set to the one they played at their second Kings Theatre show, hardly skipping a beat between cuts as their multitudes of techs helped them repeatedly switch instruments and positions. This project is clearly a product of both great multi-instrumental skill and of true passion and love for music, an exciting new frontier that the band and particularly Yorke find to be rip-roaringly fun. I can tell you that most of the crowd and I myself agree with the latter sentiment, as we excitedly bounced and danced to most of the night's unfailingly wonderful songs. Unfortunately their were analog modulation issues that foreclosed on us hearing more than a few bars of "Waving A White Flag", but even this hardly deterred The Smile. In all they played most all of ALFAA, and several newer cuts were in the mix, including the now NYC dedicated "People On Balconies" featuring Stillman and the much lauded "Bending Hectic". The main set was capped by another couple of Stillman accented cuts including "You Will Never Work In Television Again". The encore was ever so slightly truncated from their earlier shows, but was nothing short of masterful all the same. Their encores are based around newer cuts, featuring "Just Eyes and Mouth" (complete with Yorke's legendary dance moves) and "Colours Fly" last night, before the band's version of Yorke's solo/Atoms For Peace classic "Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses" as the capstone. The experience of the whole show was truly electric. Edited by LearsFool - November 21 2022 at 02:28


LearsFool Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Prog Reviewer Joined: November 09 2014 Location: New York Status: Offline Points: 8642	Post Options Post Reply Quote LearsFool Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: July 08 2023 at 01:03
	On the 7th of July I saw The Smile for a second time at Forest Hills Stadium. I'm mentioning it here since on the whole the sets weren't that different - Stillman opened again, performing somewhat more towards his calmer side, while The Smile were still focused on their first record. Still, aside from being another electrifying show Greenwood, Skinner, and Yorke brought some extra goodies for their second NYC jaunt, replacing two of their earlier performances' non-album cuts with the brand new "Teleharmonic" and "Under Our Pillows", the latter an extended and haunting prog dream. From ALFAA they brought up "Open The Floodgates" and were able to perform "Waving A White Flag" both without a hitch and with roaring approval from the crowd.