The Smile Awes the Mission Ballroom

Photos: Billy Thieme

When I “met” Thom Yorke in 1993 on the tour that Radiohead opened for Belly, he was a much younger man than the frontman for The Smile we saw last Sunday at Mission Ballroom. But, even then, at that show in the Glenn Miller Ballroom in Boulder, I could sense his artistry, his raw emotion, his raw artistic talent. When he called “Creep” their supposed “… one hit wonder” back then, I knew that was off the mark. Seeing Yorke and his musical life partner Johnny Greenwood on stage with Tom Skinner – renowned jazz and art drummer from UK super group Sons of Kemet, among other things – once again opened up a completely new world for me, and I know I wasn’t alone.

Seeing Yorke and his musical life partner Johnny Greenwood on stage as The Smile opened a new world.

Sunday’s show was the second of two nights featuring The Smile at the Mission, and while it wasn’t sold out officially, it sure felt like it. The place was packed when we got in – right before opener Robert Stillman started – and kept filling up all the way to the rafters right up to the point that Yorke and his mates began playing.

And when they started, it was amazing the change that came over the venue – from buzzing excitement one second, to screaming applause in another second, to an almost immediate calm. It was as if the band walking onstage just sucked all the air out of the room, and replaced it with a kind of awe. As the crowd settled into oblivion, Yorke walked slowly across the stage, like a panther, hands on his hips and peering across the crowds – not exactly smiling, but not scowling, either. More in a little awe himself, it seemed to me.

The Smile played all but one of the song off of their debut, A Light to Attract Attention, starting with “The Same,” which began with Greenwood hunched over the piano at mid-stage, softly banging out the tones that start the tune. Yorke put on a bass, and the whole room fell into a dreamstate, each of us led by the strings of his vocals. After that we never turned back.

Johnny Greenwood filled the space over the beats with sometimes chopping, sometimes sweeping guitars.

Pouring through “Thin Thing,” “Speech Bubbles,” “A Hairdryer,” the trio deepened the mood with brilliant jazz-infused rhythms gravitating around Skinner’s accomplished and artistic drumming. Greenwood filled the space over the beats with sometimes chopping, sometimes sweeping guitars. He used his instrument more for rhythmic balance at times, and others like a full symphony. All the while Yorke played with the emotional power the band was wielding, and with the emotions of the crowd, too.

By the middle of their set, when they played “We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings,” the die had been cast, and the audience – the whole venue – was completely under the power of The Smile. And it seemed like no-one wanted that to end.

After two songs where the trio was joined by Robert Stillman on horns (and other things), they band ended their main set with this band’s “one hit” – “You Will Never Work in Television Again,” explosively treating the fans.

The audience – the whole venue – was completely under the power of The Smile

The encore featured three songs, and they closed with Yorke’s single “Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses,” and by this time the Mission Ballroom was almost exhausted. The whole place came together for that last song – maybe overwhelmed. I know this because a gentleman next to us admitted he was crying – and so were we.

Towards the end, that same fan standing next to me started talking about how amazed he was that the band always showed so much control. I told him about the first time I saw Radiohead in 1993 – and he excitedly told me he was born in 1993. He was also talking about how The Smile was in control of all of us, from the first moments of the show to the end. And he was right. That ability to – and the desire to – control is foundational to the artist, and Yorke and his mates have that. It was obvious that night, and it’s why that show in 1993 never left me.

The Smile Setlist – Mission Ballroom, Saturday, December 11, 2022

Courtesy of Setlist.fm