The Flaming Lips : Webster Hall, New York, NY 3/31/2006

The Flaming Lips have a new (excellent) album coming out, At War With The Mystics, so they prepped for the record release with a few small shows at some rather hotspots – Florida’s Langerado Festival, SXSW and NYC’s Webster Hall. On this night, The Lips packed the small New York room with F-U-N and Wayne Coyne’s continual stage banter made sure you knew you it. Repeatedly. It wasn’t inane chatter though, as Coyne is incredibly articulate and talked about everything from the reasons why they still play their old hits to the current state of our government (one of these speeches was much more enlightening, here’s a hint…the first one).

The fantastically daring group posses a unique quality – their music can become grandiose and orchestrated in one stanza and then sound like it is slinking into an empty garage in the next. Each song, during what felt like an incredibly short set, was its own self contained world. No segued linkage of songs, just hit, banter, and hit was the continuous formula. Then again, to classify the songs played as “hits” is not 100% accurate, as the Lips are not multi-platinum recording artists, but for the faithful in attendance these were the songs they came to see.

Sing-a-longs, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 1” and “She Don’t Use Jelly” were greeted with hoots and hollers, while newer tunes, “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” and “The W.A.N.D” were soaked in for the first time. “The W.A.N.D” in particular is a gem that glows fierce fluorescent energy, guitar riffs shining while lyrically angrier then most of the Lips repertoire, it stands out like an uppercut.

The side show to the music of course, as much a part of the Flaming Lips concert as the songs themselves, was the omnipresent fanfare. From the Holy Trinity of Jesus/Santa/Alien dancers to the internet clips of Japanese girls being chased by lizards projected on the screen, to the confetti, to the boxing Nun and the close-up lipstick microphone camera, the Lips more than any other band today perform a true performance spectacle. At times the nonsense can distract, but who doesn’t want to be hit in the head by streamers and see a female Jesus dance with a flash light during a cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody?”

The Lips are a party, not a mindless kegger, closer to the creative freaky kids in high school who hang around the darkroom cutting loose on the weekend when the parents are away. When the band was in gear and smoking, like during their set closing cover of Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” they bring more to the table then just silliness, they bring power playing, spot on pitch perfect singing and perhaps most importantly, they demonstrate what a successful live show can become.

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For more info see: flaminglips.com

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