A friend of mine who saw the Flaming Lips earlier this week in Sydney wrote “I’m too old and cynical to be brought to tears at a rock concert.” My instant reaction was “Pfft, I can out-cynical you!” but after last night’s Lips show at Festival Hall in Melbourne, I realised I can’t.
The spectacular psychedelic vaginal entrance, had the Flaming Lips “born” onto the stage, while singer Wayne Coyne - encased in a gigantic rubber ball - rolled around the top of the audiences heads.Upon his return to the stage, (and escape from his spherical wonderland) the band launched into ‘Race For The Prize’ from 1999’s ‘The Soft Bulletin’, in which hundreds of balloons bounced over the audience in a dazzling rainbow of pure fun. When the chorus kicked in, the stage lit up like the coolest Christmas tree ever decorated and confetti rained down on 5000 bedazzled fans.
The show was a mix of hits and album tracks. Coyne dedicated the song ‘My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion’ from the band’s 2006 album ‘At War With The Mystics’ to Nick Cave and the Birthday Party, telling the crowd (in a nicely placed local reference) that he “doesn’t know where he’d be without Nick and the boys.”
‘The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song’ was given a political introduction, saying it was written about the perilous George W. Bush, who was in power at the time. “Now we have Obama and the world is a better place,” he quipped.
The song’s lyrics are angry, but Coyne suggested we just sing it with happiness, now that the subject is out of power.
A crowd favourite was their 1994 hit ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’, which was released when a substantial portion of that audience were barely out of their nappies (although I admit I was barely out of mine when the Lips formed in the 80s), but the true show stopper was the single song of the encore, ‘Do You Realize?’ from their critically acclaimed album ‘Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots’.
Before they left the stage after the main set, Coyne joked with the audience saying “Just cheer, we’ll come back,” and come back they did.
The Flaming Lips are an absolutely must-see band. If you are too cool for them now that they’re playing to thousands of people, then fine, but you’re really missing out. These guys keep getting bigger, and more importantly, better - and any band that can transform the horrendous prison that is Melbourne’s (and possibly the world’s) worst venue into a celebration of fun and happiness, is ok by me.
Long live the Flaming Lips!
