onsdag 6 Jul 2011, 3:14

Fri 1 Jul – The Flaming Lips Performing The Soft Bulletin

Sometimes I wish I lived in the bustling metropolitan that is London. Friday 3rd of July was most definitely one of those evenings. Having jumped on a train from Hampton Wick as soon as I’d finished doing my bit in the rat race for the week, it took me almost 3 hours to get to Alexandra Palace, by which time I had completely missed Deerhoof playing the album Milkman and Dinosaur Jr. had already got through half of 1988’s classic Bug.

From what I did get to hear of J Mascis and co, they were kicking out some monstrous noise, with a wall of feedback induced noise washing over the grand hall that is Alexandra Palace. Despite the venues impressive stature, the sludgy, grizzled noise carried brilliantly, and could be heard from the far end of the foyer where we entered.

Whilst standing around waiting for Flaming Lips to come on and play the amazing Soft Bulletin in it’s entirety, we looked around trying to spot just how much of a show we had in store for us. There wasn’t too much to be given away immediately, a few giant balloons hanging down from the ceiling at various points, a couple of confetti cannons either side of the stage. Relatively modest for such extravagant performers I thought…

I’m happy to admit I was wrong. Very wrong. Their entrance was nothing short of spectacular, having emerged from the centre of the backdrop via a ramp, which was a giant round screen displaying some insanely psychedelic visuals of a naked girl banging a cymbal. Whilst some non-Soft Bulletin backing music pulsed, Wayne Coyne proceeded to climb into a deflated zorb and willed it to grow, like a full grown hairy child being born. The crowd, as can be expected, was thrilled to have the man rolling around on top of them like an excited child learning to crawl for the first time across a wave of people.

We all know what’s coming next. Race For The Prize, arguably one of the best Flaming Lips songs to date, jubilantly happy and quite often a opener for their live shows. The full extent of their showmanship began to come to fruition, as the crowd were engulfed in confetti, hordes of dancing Dorothy’s and other characters from The Wizard of Oz joined the stage to continuously dance throughout the night and the giant balloons were released over the sea of adoring fans. We’d begun the night’s show.

An amazing night was ahead of us. One of my favorite things about a Flaming Lips show is Wayne’s banter between tracks. Sometimes comical, sometimes personal, there’s always something interesting to learn about the band’s reasons for making certain songs, or life lessons to be taken away. Interestingly, Wayne explained how when the album was recorded between 1997 and 1999, they never envisaged playing it live, it more an experimental collaboration in the studio to create interesting music.

Wayne at times appeared slightly nervous and conveyed how certain songs, such as Slow Motion, had only ever once been played live and encouraged the audience to anticipate mistakes. My opinion? Wayne is far too modest. For an album which has seen few live outings, I’d go as far as saying it was a flawless performance. From the deliriously happy sing-along favourites of The Spark That Bled, to the intensely psychedelic The Gash, to the stripped down, piano led ballad of Waitin’ For A Superman, the evening was a raging success in every aspect.

There was time for a brief encore, which to my delight Do You Realize? was pulled out of the vast bag of possible musical endeavors . You really can’t ask for a better ending to such an evening. With lyrics projected on the screen like some sort of verbal constellation, Wayne filled the vast space with his usual giant hands, apart from the fact this time they had lasers shooting out of them. Yeah that’s right, laser hands. It’s the closest thing you’ll ever experience to being re-born.