WHITHER Radiohead in 2003? Having given the world two monumental records in The Bends and OK Computer, Radiohead found themselves at the end of the Nineties heralded as the most vital and important rock band of their generation.

However, seemingly intent on shedding this unwanted tag, singer Thom Yorke took an abrupt left turn with the difficult album Kid A and its Siamese twin, Amnesiac, both of which had critics either stroking their chins or scratching their heads. Two years later, Radiohead are about to release Hail To The Thief — an appropriate title for a record already available on the internet courtesy of an unscrupulous bootlegger.

To coincide with its official release, Radiohead have lined up a short tour of medium-sized Irish and UK venues, beginning with this gig at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin, on Saturday, and ending in London with shows on May 24 and 25. Because the tickets for the Dublin show were sold via the band’s own website, the more abstruse, opaque material that might have alienated a less partisan audience was welcomed with open arms, while older, more orthodox songs from the time when “tune” wasn’t a four-letter word (Airbag and Lucky for instance) elicited a mass singalong from the 1,200 capacity crowd.

The best of the new songs on the night was the opener, There There — the lead single from the album — which began with an orgy of percussion courtesy of drummer Phil Selway and guitarists Ed O’Brien and Jonny Greenwood. Then, halfway through, Greenwood kicked into guitar-hero mode as he tore into his six-string with relish. It was thrilling, but it got diluted by the more esoteric 2+2=5 and Where I End and You Begin, both from the new record.

Indeed, much of Hail To The Thief seems to straddle the soulful songcraft of old and the more recent formal experiments — but it’s way too early to judge.

Yet though Yorke and Co should be applauded for pushing their musical boundaries to the limit, emotionally much of Radiohead’s output post-OK Computer just leaves this listener cold. The 21st-century Radiohead are interesting rather than involving — sometimes the road less travelled is a cul-de-sac.

Yorke was, however, committed and impassioned — one minute sitting resolutely at the piano, the next flinging himself around in a trance-like state as the band struck up another insistent hypno-rhythm — and what stuck in the memory were the visceral performances of Just, Airbag and, in the encore, a magnificent Paranoid Android.

Overall, a night of exhilaration mixed with frustration.

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