7,000 fans lucky enough to score a ticket to Radiohead's show at the Hollywood Bowl witnessed not only a band at the top of its game but also an act that at times seemed to be the best on the planet.

 

Certainly that's high praise, but during its two-hour set -- the first of two sold-out nights at the Bowl -- the quintet from Oxford, England, managed to cast a spell over the crowd without resorting to fist-pumping anthems like U2, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam or even Coldplay. Radiohead simply operates on a completely different level: It connects with the audience through sublime and hypnotic intensity rather than by pummeling a crowd into submission via bravado.

 

Even its politics are subtle. Throughout the set, two Tibetan flags were draped on the backs of keyboards; this was never addressed but nonetheless sent a message as the rest of the world celebrated the Olympic Games in China. And, in the jaw-dropping, fuzz-bass-fueled "The National Anthem," the band employed snatches of audio hijacked from infomercials that effectively mocked mindless consumerism.

Radiohead has enough confidence in its music and fan base

....

http://www.reuters.com/article/musicNews/idUSN2526383920080825

Who would everyone else offer up to be worthy of the "Best Band on the Planet" title?

I'd probably go with Radiohead actually.

Agreed.

 

Alive and still playing, or mostly dead and no longer together?

 

The Beatles, no question for me.

I'd say it's hard for a deceased band to defend the title... I love The Beatles, but what about today's active bands? I'm going to have to say Radiohead as well, although I feel they could lose the title just as easily as they've seemed to gain it.

I don't have strong feelings about Radiohead.  I stopped listening after OK Computer, which admittedly belongs in the universal list of greatest albums ever made, but nothing they did after made me come back to the table.

 

OK... alive and still recording?  Since this is totally personal and subjective, and I'm grabbing this from my own record collection, the only artist/s whose albums I don't just buy, but PRE-order, are the White Stripes and Beck...and I have all their albums, some in multiple formats.  Maybe I like that stylized Americana thing more than the synthetic British noodling.  But Jack White is walking a fine fine line of jumping off the crazy edge, though.

I definitely agree that Beck is a contender.

Radiohead is the best band in the world, according to Radiohead.