Radiohead have been very impressive in their ability to interact seamlessly with the 21st century zeitgeist. Since OK Computer (1997), they've understood that the current age was going to concern interchange between mind and machine, and their work has rendered this fact in fascinating ways. This includes their live performances. Their recent tours of 2008 and 2009 dealt with this concept in a very interesting manner: Giant video images of the band at work were screened at the back, while what looked like stalactites of crystal lit up in numerous ways. In fact, it was often the case that the only things on stage that were not pulsating with light and colour were the band members themselves. To me, it symbolized the idea that it was not the band, but rather their emanations (as Blake might have put it) that were the objects of attention - the part of themselves that technology can capture, in other words. The song "How to Disappear Completely" from Kid A treats the same concept with the memorable and factual line: "I'm not here/ This isn't happening". Because, when we listen to a recording - he isn't here and it isn't happening.

The new DVD, Live in Praha (i.e. Prague) was recorded by some fifty cellphone-toting fans on August 23, 2009, and the band, impressed, approved the project and let them use the soundboard recording. It is now available as a free download: http://radiohead-prague.nataly.fr/ - or individual songs can be viewed on YouTube. (I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but my favourite number so far is the third - "Weird Fishes" from In Rainbows - which features all three guitarists playing interlocking parts and contributing to an extraordinary texture that, appropriately, brings to mind a sub-marine setting.) The entire project raises many questions of a philosophical nature regarding cooperation between artist and audience and the technology involved with each. If this is the future, count me in.