In 1995, Radiohead released their second album, The Bends, featuring a number of songs that became longtime staples of the band’s live performances. Over the past 25 years, each of the 12 songs that make up The Bends have been played live in concert by the British rock veterans.
Many of those live performances of The Bends tracks can be viewed via the JamBase Live Video Archive (JBLVA). Follow this link to queue up every video in the archive featuring Radiohead playing songs off The Bends.
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Avoiding a “sophomore slump,” the follow up to their 1993 debut Pablo Honey — which featured the hit “Creep” — contained some of Radiohead’s best-known songs, as The Bends introduced “High And Dry,” “Fake Plastic Trees,” “Street Spirit (Fade Out),” “My Iron Lung,” “Planet Telex,” “Just” and the title track. Those were placed alongside deeper cuts “Bones,” “(Nice Dream),” “Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was,” “Black Star” and “Sulk.”
The band would continue to experiment and expand their sonic landscapes with 1997’s OK Computer and 2000’s Kid A, with many seeds of their pending exploration planted within The Bends. Over the past quarter-century, the songs and the band have evolved showcasing ever-innovating musicianship that’s been hard to match. Below, explore Radiohead’s maturation through 25 years of playing each of the 12 songs on The Bends live in concert via the JBVA. The videos are presented in the same order as the album, which each starting, when clicked, at the song indicated in the heading (checkout the songlists below the videos for alternate versions of The Bends songs and more).
