Radiohead, which performed at the 2004 edition of Coachella and returns here Saturday to perform during the second weekend, also played 'Karma Police.' But the majority of its set list focused on more recent material that embraced experimentalism and shunned convention, to an evening greater degree than on such landmark, way left-of-center Radiohead albums as 'Kid A.'

They mixed it with a steely funk-jazz groove, which suggested Miles Davis by way of Bo Diddley, and swirling vocals, that evoked The Beatles' mid-60s psychedelic period with impressive verve. Magpie,' Radiohead achieved an almost industrial sound. When Yorke sang about 'the bottom of the sea' during 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,' guitarist Jonny Greenwood and the rest of the band created swells of sound that surged and crested with grace and power. Syncopated rhythms are the group's stock in trade, skittering beats and clattering accents that drive the songs with a hypnotic, push-pull force.įrom its opening number, the hypnotic and ethereal 'Bloom,' to its final one-two salavo of 'Give Up the Ghost' and 'Paranoid Android,' Radiohead singer Thom Yorke and his band mates exulted in carefully shaping and reshaping their intensely textured songs. Radiohead, now a six-man band with the addition of second drummer Clive Deamer, has become more percussive than ever. When Bon Iver, another standout artist Saturday, sang about 'building pictures,' he neatly summarized what some of the festival's most inspired artist were doing with their music. What resulted was an often transcendent night of aural pleasures, with England's Radiohead and Canada's Feist lovingly creating music that was both epic and intimate, grand (but not grandiose) and inviting.

Happily, 'no fear' was also the unspoken musical aesthetic that Radiohead, Feist and some lesser-known performers used to propel their music into the clear night sky late Saturday at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

INDIO - 'No fear' used to be a popular manifesto for punk-rockers and surfers, albeit one that Madison Avenue was happy to co-opt as a marketing tool to lure suburban teens to buy various products that had little to do with fearlessness and everything to do with bland conformity. We're not sure how long this video will stay up on YouTube, but - at least for now - here is Radiohead's entire Coachella performance Saturday night.

Radiohead rarity list