Under a fountain of Technicolor party balloons being popped and pung around like an Aero Roadshow we notice an ensemble of Pixies and Santa-costumed stage dwellers, then from out of the dusky red smoke comes the bubble. Like seeing your old Geography teacher doing the coolest stage intro ever, Wayne Coyne is thrust and bounced amongst the audience as they erupt to opener ‘Race For The Prize’ (taken from past NME album of the year ‘The Soft Bulletin’) ecstatically cart wheeling around in a Saturn-sized ball of oxygen, he finally manages to veer his bubbleship stage-ward. If there was ever a bid for coolest way to crowdsurf, Wayne Coyne deserves a medallion. For us mere mortals though, we’ll have to make do with getting twatted by the bouncers in the Barfly. The Flaming Lips’ live vision seems to have become so overblown (in a rather good way) it almost brings to mind a cod-piece clad 70s Prog band riding on Horses in Stadiums. Confetti cannons explode, dizzying space Lazers strobe and Santa dances alongside a neon-Gnome under a reel of Japanese pop-art . The Others live in the Scrote n Tin this is not.
Leaning heavily on their last 3 lp’s doesn’t seem to dampen any spirits tonight, with skunk addled Supper Furry Gruff Rhys joining the band for an epic run through of ‘Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots’, it’s at this point you realise the Lips have come full circle, possessing enough tunes in their arsenal to conquer an arena this size. Wayne Coyne is every part the showman, like Beck’s suited Uncle chasing a rainbow of microdots around the set of Tron. There’s the anti-Bush tirade mid-set (don’t most US bands have one now?), culminating in a cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘`War Pigs’ and a crowd response that could quake the White House. The highlight comes with Lips classic ‘Waitin’ For Superman’. Visually it has more in tow with a night at the theatre; an endorphin rush of genius pop layered in lush strings and droneadelica beats. It’s another amazing Flaming Lips show , just don’t pop another balloon in this writers ear though.
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