The love affair between Radiohead and its audience is one of empathy.

In the band’s most recent single, “House of Cards”, Yorke beckons: “Forget about your house of cards, and I’ll do mine./ And fall off the table, get swept under.”

A house of cards is a structure prone to fall down: “The infrastructure will collapse from voltage spikes.” While the most obvious interpretation would be that the singer wants a woman to run away from her flimsy marriage (“Put your keys in the bowl/ Kiss your husband goodnight”), I, of course, believe the message is directed towards me.

I’m not suggesting that Thom Yorke is in love with me––although he could be. I simply see the house of cards as a metaphor for my feelings. Yorke knows that I sometimes feel fragile and forlorn. Forget about it, he coaxes, and I’ll forget about my problems too.

Not only does Yorke understand me; he is asking me to join him. He does not neglect to inform me that he has his own house of cards (“I’ll do mine”), and that we should both forget––together. This is the connection essential to understanding the staggering love-worship for Radiohead.

Think back to the song “Creep”, their first smash hit, in which the band pulls a similar stunt. The anthemic chorus, “But I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo./ What the hell am I doing here?/ I don’t belong here.” Yorke feels like a weirdo, and I feel like a weirdo too. Radiohead totally gets me.

On Saturday night, our relationship was in full swing. The show was completely sold out. At one point in between songs, Yorke thanked openers Kings Of Leon, joking, “If we were that good-looking, we’d be famous.” Once again Yorke was appealing to me with self-deprecation. I’m sure the rest of the crowd felt it too––those people who feel like creeps, weirdos, those who don’t belong, who want perfect bodies and perfect souls, who wish they were as special as someone else.

Yorke’s intended punchline, obviously, was that, ha-ha, Radiohead is one of the most famous bands in the world. And it is the previously described sentiment––Yorke wishing he were someone else––that made Radiohead so famous in the first place.

How is it that these 25 million album-selling, festival-headlining rockstars are still our favorite outcasts? How do they inspire so intense a devotion from so massive an audience? What the hell is Radiohead doing here, headlining All Points West? Do they really belong here?

The answer, quite obviously, is yes. Radiohead, oh Radiohead. Your performance was earth-shattering, heart-melting, bone-crunching. I love you.

The Setlist:
“Reckoner”
“15 Step”
“The National Anthem”
“Kid A”
“All I Need”
“Nude”
“Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi”
“Where I End You Begin”
“The Gloaming”
“Faust Arp”
“No Surprises”
“Jigsaw Falling Into Place”
“The Bends”
“Bangers and Mash”
“Everything In Its Right Place”
“Exit Music (For A Film)”
“Bodysnatchers”
–FIRST ENCORE–
“Pyramid Song”
“Videotape”
“Airbag”
“Fake Plastic Trees”
“There There”
–SECOND ENCORE–
“House of Cards”
“Planet Telex”
“Idioteque”

Visit Radiohead on MySpace.