Chances are that anyone who regularly makes it out to the valleys of Naeba, Niigata Prefecture, for the annual Fuji Rock Festival will tell you that it's not for the weather. If there's one thing every year that punters will cross their fingers and hope for more than quality performances from their favored artists — it's for clear skies. Or at least just one full day without the rains that have become so run-of-the-mill at Japan's premier music festival. Now with the event wrapped up, though, if last year's gathering is remembered as one of the wettest Fuji Rocks since the event's inception in 1999, then this installment will definitely go down as "the sunny one."
Actually, the only real rain that festival-goers were made to endure was just after British rock outfit Radiohead closed the Green Stage on the Sunday night — and even that lasted for an almost refreshing 10 minutes, barely enough time for the retreating audience to put on their ponchos before promptly taking them off again. And plus, if it was going to teem down, then after the group's sublime performance was just the right time.
After a whole weekend of waiting for the five-piece to take the biggest stage at the festival, the waves of expectation and anticipation rippling through the well-over 40,000-strong crowd were palpable. Opening their gig with "Lotus Flower" followed by "Bloom," the band took the crowd into their own pace by playing a modern setlist centered around songs off their latest albums "The King Of Limbs" and "In Rainbows." Nonetheless, fans of the band's back catalogue made their appreciation clearly audible during the opening riffs of "Kid A," the title track of their fourth album released in 2000, and "The Gloaming" from their 2003 album "Hail To The Thief."