Radiohead live at Royal Arena in Copenhagen, on Dec 4, 2025. Clips in this video: 2 + 2 = 5, Everything in Its Right Place, The National Anthem, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, You and Whose Army, Just. Videos and editing by Aki Kärkkäinen. (Subscribe to my YouTube channel.)
After years of hoping, I was finally about to see Radiohead live.
Getting here hadn’t been easy. Thousands were shut out during the September 2025 ticket lottery, so landing tickets in the second sale in October felt like a miracle. Then came Thom Yorke’s throat infection, which postponed the first two Copenhagen dates. Even on the day of the show—December 4th—we didn’t receive confirmation they’d actually perform until noon.
Arriving at the venue, I wondered how a band like Radiohead would translate to such a large arena. Their recordings are famously intricate sonic landscapes: multi-layered instrumentation, polyrhythmic arrangements, subtle textures that reveal themselves over repeated listens. These are songs built like architecture, where every element occupies its own carefully designed space. Could all of that survive in a space this vast?
Radiohead live at Royal Arena in Copenhagen, on Dec 4, 2025. Photo by Aki Kärkkäinen.
My concerns proved partially justified. From where we stood on the general admission floor, the mix struggled to capture what makes Radiohead distinctive. The bass dominated everything: a low-end rumble that flattened the sonic spectrum. Thom Yorke’s vocals and keyboards, and Jonny Greenwood’s multi-instrumental contributions cut through intermittently. It was disorienting to watch musicians labor over their instruments while hearing almost nothing of their contributions.
Oddly, when I checked the short video clips on my phone afterward, the band sounded better in those recordings than they had live. Whatever the phone’s microphone captured seemed to pick up a more balanced mix than what the PA system was projecting to our location.
Radiohead live at Royal Arena in Copenhagen, on Dec 4, 2025. Photo by Aki Kärkkäinen.
But perhaps my expectations needed calibrating. This is, after all, an energetic rock band with exceptional composing and songwriting talent. Much of Radiohead’s essence centers on Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, as their The Smile side project demonstrates.
Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that a better sound mix would have revealed the full picture: that Radiohead is an ensemble where all the musicians contribute to their distinctive sound. When these elements collapse into muddy bass and isolated vocals, you’re hearing a fraction of what Radiohead is.
Despite the technical frustrations, I’m left with something valuable: the experience of seeing Radiohead live.
Radiohead live at Royal Arena in Copenhagen, on Dec 4, 2025. Photo by Aki Kärkkäinen.
The setlist on Dec 4, 2025:
- Planet Telex
- 2 + 2 = 5
- Sit Down. Stand Up.
- Lucky
- 15 Step
- The Gloaming
- Kid A
- No Surprises
- Videotape
- Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
- Idioteque
- Everything in Its Right Place
- Bloom
- The National Anthem
- Daydreaming
- (Nice Dream)
- Let Down
- Bodysnatchers
Encore:
- Fake Plastic Trees
- Jigsaw Falling Into Place
- Paranoid Android
- All I Need
- You and Whose Army?
- Just
- Karma Police