Flaming Lips

Flaming Lips gigs are a bit different.



The clues are in the entrance Wayne makes in his now legendary space ball (imagine a grown man in a huge hamster ball running over the heads of the crowd), the collection of santas and elves flagging the sides of the stage and the showers of confetti, streamers and fifty odd huge orange balloons let loose on a bouncing crowd.



With no album to promte on this tour, Wayne and co are clearly in more of a sing-a-longa party mood than ever, concentrating on their more anthemic numbers and refusing to be satisfied until the audience are all raising their voices in one accord.




Please forgive the excess of images, but this was some performance. In fact the only downside is that all the theatrics (and the over long inter-song waffling bollox) start to detract a little from the music. In fact it does feel rather like a gig for the already initiated and I worry a little about how my gig companion T is finding it. Is it quite so entertaining if you're not so familiar with the source material?

The second place afforded to the music itself is a bit of a shame when the band have so much to offer on that front, but then again it's hard to truly feel shortchanged when you've been part of this madness.

The image of huge orange balloons is one that will stay with me for some time and somehow I suspect that the usual 'guitar band in a dark pit' style gigs that I usually favour, may seem a little lacking in colour in comparison for a while.