it bugs me the way ed's voice crackles on the "she once believes" lyric in the second verse of nothingman on the recorded version. yet paradoxically, i will only listen to the recorded version now. i'm very much over this song live (particularly where it's become a part of the 3-5 song, slow-burning start to every concert).

Great live version of "Nothingman" -- the debut I think, and possibly the only time it was ever played live with an electric:


I definitely understand feeling a bit bored by it in the current setup though.

The recorded version is top PJ for me.

And what the hell Chris, his vulnerable performance is what makes it so great

i was at that show!!!

trag, a pitchy high note does not equal vulnerability

Smile is wildly underrated; I don't know if it's *better* than Nothingman but I don't regret giving it the vote; it might well be my favourite song on No Code

tell that to Thom Yorke

there's nothing funner in the catalogue than saying "this is how I feel!" in Ed's swaggy way along to the music

Agreed, plus the word written in Eddie's script with the picture of the three crooked hearts is an iconic tattoo at this point

terrible take

Chris can’t feel emotion

You guys are getting way off topic

In the 30 years I've listened to the album version of that song I don't think I've ever considered Ed's singing on it 'pitchy'.

They can never really do justice to the song live as they can't replicate the harmonies.

Low Light suffers from this too.

It's unfortunate because Stone and (especially) Matt are both pretty decent harmony singers, but for whatever reason it's not an element of their performance that they've made the effort to develop beyond the utilitarian.

Mohawk Ed.

Re Nothingman and Low Light, they’re both Jeff compositions, so he handles the harmony vocal. Stone or Matt would be much better; Jeff can’t sing in key to save his life.

I like the harmony work on Gigaton and I think we might get some on Dark Matter

Not embarrassing, but makes me sad: Jack Irons never rejoining the bad were he able to get healthy. The way the band played with him is my favorite way they play.


Actually embarrassing: Future Days. That's the kind of song you record into your iPhone and text to your wife. And I think what makes it truly embarrassing is that the rest of the band was like, "eh whatever it's fine" and sent it to press. Yellow Moon could have been developed into a show-stopping closer if it hadn't been amputated in favor of Future Days.

My least favorite parts of Gigaton share this heritage of Eddie writing something that's ho hum diary entries (like 7 o'clock -- even titled like a diary entry) and the band not being able to turn it into something interesting.


Also embarrassing: forgetting how to mix live recordings so you can hear Stone. Like he was sonically fired from the band and nobody noticed. Cf the entire mix on Live on Ten legs which is so anemic I forget it even exists.