Other Lives at Lincoln Hall | Concert preview

When Radiohead tours, you can expect a carefully vetted buzz band in the opening slot. Grizzly Bear, Liars and Modeselektor have all gotten the call in recent years. However, none emulates the English outfit as much as Other Lives, an unabashedly Anglophilic quintet hailing from Oklahoma, and not Oxford, surprisingly. Yet there’s more than a trace of a British accent in singer Jesse Tabish’s oblong enunciation, veering in and out of falsetto in a way that’s unmistakably indebted to Thom Yorke. When fastened to the group’s silken chamber-pop, the effect is overwhelmingly familiar.

No doubt Tabish will tire of the comparisons, as will his bandmates, who are versed in a variety of strings and horns, suggesting ambitions other than rock stardom. Nevertheless, it’s hard to imagine an ominous cut like “As I Lay My Head Down” existing without Kid A. The same goes for the ghostly orchestrations swooning throughout “For 12,” adorned by Tabish’s delirious and ambiguous lyrics. Both tunes stem from the band’s second and most recent album, Tamer Animals, mixed with session ace Joey Waronker (whose many gigs include drumming for Yorke’s Atoms for Peace). On cuts such as “Old Statues,” spaghetti-Western guitar flourishes and phrasing reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour offer a window into Other Lives’ other influences, even if there’s ultimately no way to obfuscate the source code.