Reviews

The last time Radiohead played Dallas – 10 years ago at Fair Park Music Hall – it was an esoteric cult-rock band with no interest in being huge.

But mass stardom came anyway. More than 20,000 fans packed Superpages.com Center on Sunday night to hear the British quintet play by its own rules.

There were no spotlights. No explosions. No fist-raising anthems. Just two hours of moody, minor-chord art-rock delivered with utmost precision.

It was an arena rock show that, in some ways, was better suited for a much smaller space.

Radiohead bypassed video screens, except for a skinny strip of murky images at the back of the stage. Sans spotlights and video, band members were nearly invisible to 60 percent of the audience.

Lucky fans up close got to enjoy Thom Yorke's bobble-head theatrics and spastic-elastic dance moves. Fans on the lawn had to settle for a dazzling light show, made up of 70 vertical tubes that flickered and glowed like a massive optical art exhibit.

The band kicked off the night with "All I Need," one of a slew of tunes it played from its latest CD, In Rainbows. But the most dramatic points arrived in the encores: "Paranoid Android," a near-perfect "Fake Plastic Trees" and the hushed "Exit Music (For A Film)."

Some bozo in the crowd nearly ruined the latter by screaming during a quiet passage, prompting a snarky retort from Mr. Yorke. But for the most part, the capacity audience hung on every note, from Mr. Yorke's eerie falsetto to Jonny Greenwood's typewriter percussion segment.

Stylewise, Radiohead hasn't changed much since it played here a decade ago. Tempo and volume fluctuated, but every song stuck to one mood: melancholia steeped in angst.

That's a mighty odd recipe for a big summer outdoor concert. But when you nail that mood as powerfully as Radiohead did, the recipe works.