The Flaming Lips don’t just put on a show, they have created a spectacle. This isn’t just a band playing and a singer singing, it’s a group of people with the most incredible understanding of what it is to be in the crowd. They know when things are boring, and they make them exciting again. They know what it’s like to be terrified of having fun in a crowd. They don’t just entertain you, they shake you up and loosen all your bolts so you can be entertained. They give you no good reason to cross you arms. They give you no chance to stop smiling. They find every way possible, to let you, be a part of their show.
Crowd participation comes in multiple forms. You can be one of the lucky handful chosen to dance in costume on stage. Or you could be one of the regular schmo’s in the crowd singing along and wielding one of about 1,000 laser pointers that were passed out. The show opened with some of the band members being birthed through the glowing center of a woman’s legs on a massive LED backdrop. After they enter from the secret door on the backdrop, the lead singer Wayne Coyne then made his entrance by walking over the crowd in a giant bubble while the confetti cannons began their onslaught. There was no floor when the show was over with, only a multicolored mess of the simple joy of colored pieces of plastic. The band played old classics like “She Don’t Use Jelly,” and experimented with the crowd a bit during a new tribal trance song that will be featured on their upcoming album due out soon titled Embryonic.
There was an unfortunate, but well handled break, when the power was automatically shut off from pyrotechnics triggering the fire alarm. Luckily, the pyrotechnics were attached to a megaphone that Wayne was using to sing with. He was able to throw some banter at the crowd and keep the show rolling. The party returned shortly after and soon enough we were all waving our laser pointers at a giant mirror. With the help of a little smoke we created our very own laser security grid in the theater that even the C.L.I.T. couldn’t bypass it.
As the show ended I realized, that yes, I really do have the most beautiful face, and you should too. The Flaming Lips put on a show with the standards of an extravagant Vegas style production for their fans because they believe their fans are worth it. Go see this band, skip work, ditch class, miss your curfew, do what you need to do to see this in your life time. It will be one of those memories that only a heavy drug addiction or massive head trauma could take away.
–Sean Pullin