What to expect at a Flaming Lips concert.
By Michael Lopez
2/16/2016, 3:00 p.m.
Tweet to: @Slickster_Mag
Unnatural, weird, freakish, disturbing, there are very few word that I can use to accurately describe a band that is the literal definition of weird…
The easiest way to describe this concert experience. Think of the most extravagant birthday party you have ever been too. A party in which we celebrate life, death, and all the moments that bring us joy in our lives a good example of this being la Dio de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival in Mexico. In this festival, warm light colors illuminating the night sky like a Van Gogh painting. Balloons littering the floor as they drift through the air as a bird descending onto its nesting ground.
This next part is my personal experience with the band from when I first saw them.
When I first saw the Flaming Lips, it was at the 2013 Free Press Summer Fest festival at Eleanor Tensely Park in the city of Houston. At that point, I had only listened to their music I was so excited to see one of my most favorite bands. I could hardly wait. I was shaking and sweating with anticipation (that was mostly due to the fact that I had been walking through the festival all day but that was beside the point).
I remember standing at the Mars stage just waiting for them to start. That is when I saw the singer Wayne come out for a sound check. I always thought it was funny that he just casually walked across the stage like he gave no amount of fucks. People were yelling his name but he did not even notice them. As he tuned his guitar, the thought ran through my head: Man, I think this is going to be the most amazing thing I am ever going to see.
Then, out of the blue for the sound check, he started playing the instrument leg of one of my favorite songs “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pt.1.” I remember hearing it and having an eargasm as I started to sing along to the song. The sound check only lasted for the intro, but by then I was fucking pumped for the concert.
When the concert started, all the lights went out the sounds of the amplifiers kicked in. The drummer started beating on the drum. Then, as if an explosion had gone off as they started to play their song “Race to the Prize,” the lights kicked in and confetti started flying everywhere. Everything started to go insane; there were dancers dressed as fairy tale characters, beams of light shot from the stage, and the giant Jumbo Tron behind the band cut on and started playing different clips.
This went on through the night they had play “Yoshimi” again for the crowd, I think one of the most amazing parts came when they started playing the “Yeah Yeah Yeah” song. (I’m pretty sure that you noticed by now all of the titles to their songs are very weird and crazy. You probably wouldn’t believe me if I said that their names just keep getting fucking weirder.) There’s a part in the song were Wayne starts singing the title of the song and when he does this the screen behind him is synced perfectly to his singing and started spelling out the word “yeah” in over fifty different languages. At this point, almost all of the giant balloons had popped but there was still one left it flew toward Wayne, he did a spin and hit the balloon with the end of his guitar shattering the balloon into a million pieces.
I was fucking speechless at this point.
That was when Wayne stopped playing and started blowing up a giant ball. It took about a good five minutes for the ball to be completely full of air. (I’m pretty sure by now, you already know what’s going to happen.) I was standing a good 20 feet away from the stage, but I was in the middle pretty much, when I saw Wayne get into the bubble and started riding it on top of the crowd. He rolled all the way back to where I was, it was pretty much a split second until he was right on top of my dad and me.
He looked me dead in the eyes for what seemed to be like an eternity and suddenly wave at me, calling me a fuckin’ sissy but I was literally in goddamn tears. He rolled on the crowd for a good five minutes before he started to roll back to the stage.
You would think that that would be the grand finale of any other concerts but that was just the first five songs, he announced to the crowd that he wasn’t going to play any more of the old hit, instead he wanted to focus on the cover album of Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” that he had just finished producing that same year.
Cutting forward a few songs, they begin to start playing the song “Money” right before they played the song they brought out five giant balloon, in honor of the song Wayne announced. He wanted to give back to the crowd, so Wayne and all of the artists who played at Free Press Summer Fest (including but not limited to Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg, and Primus) had chipped in a grand total of about 10 grand.
And with the beat of the drums, the song began. That’s when Wayne started throwing the balls of money at the crowd. It was a spectacle watching the people in the crowd fight over the money, quite literally a swarm of people gunning for those balls like ants on a mound.
The entire rest of the show followed suit. It was a night to remember.
Words can only do so much for a band like the flaming lips, so I’ll leave you with their tour dates and a link to their website. This part is all up to you; I sincerely hope to see you at their next concerts!
Tour dates for 2016
April 9, 2016, San Antonio, Texas –Maverick music Festival
May 1, 2016, Orlando, Florida – Moonstone Music Festival
May 26, 2016, Morrison, Colorado – Red Rocks Amphitheater
May 29, 2016, Houston, Texas – White Oak Music Hall