While only possessing a handful of household tunes, The Flaming Lips cannon of work spans 3 decades of varied music, covering the genres of grunge-punk, dream-pop, experimental electronica, and one incredibly dark album. Whatever they dabble in, they always pull it off, which is why no one should be surprised that the band has been hired to produce for pop tarts, rappers, and just about everyone.
Given their vast catalogue, what kind of show could Brixton expect to see on a cold night in January?
A fucking awesome one.
They got the household tunes out of the way at the very top. After opening with a sunny “Race for the Prize” while releasing dozens of balloons for the audience to gleefully bat around, they launched right into a “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” sing-a-long. Frontman Wayne Coyne stopped the audience 3 times. He said that for any other band the sing-a-long would have been the greatest thing to happen to them, but to achieve Flaming Lips level of audience participation, the karate chops after the 2nd line must be nailed. And nailed them the Londoners did. With the crowd now high on life, The Flaming Lips took the opportunity to introduce one of their new tunes, “There Should be Unicorns.” As if we needed any more visual stimulation, Wayne came out onto the stage riding a giant unicorn. We were transported from the dead of winter to a summertime festival in a fairytale land.
Throughout the next two hours, the band spaced out old favourites, new songs, and plenty of banter from Coyne. His voice hasn’t been the same for quite awhile, but what he’s lost in vocal abilities, Wayne Coyne has manifested in charisma threefold. It’s hard to imagine a more compelling and unique stage presence than this grey haired Peter Pan.
One very moving bit of banter was after their cover of “Space Oddity”, during which Coyne mustered up every bit of vocal strength to pay tribute to Brixton’s own David Bowie. Afterwards, confided into the audience his own experiences as an outsider in Oklahoma, and how bizarre bands like The Flaming Lips could have never come to be without the Thin White Duke paving the way for weirdness. He then insisted that whatever it is we do, keep doing it because you never know who out there is relying on you to. I choked back a tear on that one.
The end of the evening was every bit as enthralling as the beginning, starting with a rip-roaring “The W.A.N.D.”, which gave us a taste of their punk rock roots while still being encompassed in electronics. The band then closed out with the beautiful “A Spoonful Weighs a Ton” before retuning with a one-song encore of “Do You Realize?” The song writing and performance abilities of this group are so impressive, they make you feel joyful while singing about the death of everyone around you.
Yes, there could have been more songs. I was craving “Buggin” and perhaps one or two samples from the early 90s, whether it be “Should Don’t Use Jelly” or “Turn It On.” It’s hard to imagine how The Flaming Lips could tie all of their various sounds together in one show, but if any band can pull off the seemingly impossible, it’s these guys. I can’t wait to see them again.
Set List #
- Race for the Prize (Soft Bulletin)
- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1 (Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots)
- There Should Be Unicorns (Ozcy Mlody)
- Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung (At War With The Mystics)
- What Is the Light? (Soft Bulletin)
- The Observer (Soft Bulletin)
- How?? (Ozcy Mlody)
- Space Oddity (David Bowie cover)
- The Castle (Ozcy Mlody)
- Are You a Hypnotist?? (Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots)
- The W.A.N.D. (At War With The Mystics)
- A Spoonful Weighs a Ton (Soft Bulletin)
Encore
- Do You Realize?? (Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots)
London, England