RADIOHEAD TURNS IN ENGAGING SHOW.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Critic 

Upon first listen, Radiohead's latest album ``Kid A'' is an incoherent mess, a chilly mishmash of electronics, distorted vocals and indecipherable lyrics.

And those are just the good parts.

On stage Friday at a jampacked Greek Theatre, the acclaimed British post-rock quintet transformed the new material from cold and abrasive to warm and engaging.

It was a delightful surprise in an intense and intriguing two-hour set that featured eight of ``Kid A's'' 10 tracks, several unreleased songs, a B-side or two, and epics from ``The Bends'' and ``OK Computer.''

One of the most exciting moments came during a pumped-up version of the current record's ``Idioteque,'' which saw spidery front man Thom Yorke doing a sort of tortured insect dance to the speedy beats of weird-noise maestro Jonny Greenwood, who divided his time evenly between guitar abuse, keyboards, programming and fiddling with his hair.

The 6,000-strong crowd, a who's-who of young Hollywood, remained riveted, turning pin-drop silent for a heavenly reading of the fragile ballad, ``Fake Plastic Trees.''

There wasn't a great deal of talk between songs. Yorke seems to be an almost painfully introspective figure and his stage banter rarely exceeded, ``This song goes like this.''

But the music spoke for itself beautifully. Articulate, remarkable numbers like ``Paranoid Android'' and ``Karma Police,'' both from ``OK Computer,'' were show-stoppers, delivered with passion and precision from what has become the most interesting and witty guitar band on the planet.

But is Radiohead truly a guitar band? Certainly not in the traditional sense.

Greenwood, the group's ``guitar hero,'' often uses the thing as a percussion instrument. That's when he's not putting it through some gadget that sounds like radio static. Or ignoring it completely while programming blips and bleeps on a twinkling console off to the side.

However, nobody seemed to be pondering such issues Friday. Fans were too busy reacting with glee to challenging pieces like ``Kid A's'' opener, ``Everything In Its Right Place,'' in which Yorke nearly disappeared behind a keyboard in a far corner of the stage, and the slightly more familiar ``Optimistic.''

When an album hits No. 1 - which ``Kid A'' unexpectedly did a few weeks ago - it means an enormously wide cross-section of the public has shelled out for the record.

Normally, top sellers are highly listener-friendly and hold few surprises. That's not the case with ``Kid A,'' the most unconventional and musically ambitious disc to reach the pinnacle in memory.

Likewise, the members of Radiohead don't follow the prescribed course. The Greek date, in fact, was one of just two U.S. shows the reclusive band agreed to.

In a further unorthodox move, Radiohead will release yet another album of new material in February. One of those unreleased songs, the politically motivated ``You And Whose Army,'' sung by Yorke at the piano, drew one of Friday's strongest responses.

Without compromise, Radiohead has achieved the near-impossible by carving out an original spot in a pop landscape that seems to have traveled every path repeatedly.

And as the Greek show proved, Radiohead is worth believing in.

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Photo:

(1 -- 2) Jonny Greenwood, left, and vocalist Thom Yorke, above, crank it out at Radiohead's concert at the Greek Theatre.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer