published: 13 /
7 /
2002
"Monkey hand puppets, hand-held smoke machines and crowd surfing frogs can only mean one thing-the Flaming Lips are back in town." New writer Lisa Mundy finds them in typically enterprising form at a show in London
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Monkey hand puppets, hand-held smoke machines and crowd surfing frogs can only mean one thing-the Flaming Lips are back in town. The imminent release of new LP 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' has put charismatic singer Wayne Coyne in an even more buoyant mood, full of praise for London, "the place where it all started for us".
A moment of perfect synchronicity means that the messiah-like figure of Coyne bursts a balloon full of glitter onto himself at the exact moment the band open with new single 'Do You Realize ?' Coyne reprises the head-bleeding routine from the last tour for 'The Spark that Bled'. The raw emotion of the tracks from 1999’s 'The Soft Bulletin' is still affecting. The title track from the new LP is greeted with recognition by media whores with promos and the lucky few who got in there before Audiogalaxy was closed down by The Man. Everyone else will doubtless appreciate its genius lyrics about evil-natured robots and karate in good time.
Glitter balloons, mirrorballs and theatrics give Flaming Lips gigs a magical air. The band encourage people to bring hand puppets, so when Coyne gets his monkey out for an epic version of 'Feeling Yourself Disintegrate' he is greeted by a herd of creatures singing right back at him. The projections behind the band are lavish. 'Sleeping on the Roof' is accompanied by a remarkable projection of Coyne’s right-hand man Steven Drozd doing a one-take human beatbox whilst smoking a fag, but they avoid falling into pretentious "interpretative theatre" territory down to sheer force of personality and some top tunes.
Next comes a lengthy discourse by Wayne Coyne. A natural orator, he talks at length about the annoyance of bands only playing songs from their new LP when the fans want to hear classic tracks. This leads into a guarantee that the next song will be enjoyed "even by the people who are only here to do cocaine with their friends". The liggers on the balcony nod their heads in agreement as the band launch into a blissed-out, drone style version of Kylie’s 'Can’t Get You out of My Head'.
The 1993 breakthrough single 'She Don’t Use Jelly' gets one of the best reactions of the night, proving Coyne’s point that sometimes familiarity is best. It’s a shame the Lips have moved away from the guitar-based lo-fi psychedelia of their past and into more adult-orientated territory, but at least they are finally getting the recognition they deserve, albeit 10 years too late.
For his grand finale, Coyne explains how its been proven that the best sound a human being can hear is another human expressing joy. To test this theory he asks the crowd to make as much noise as they can for the last song. The results are astonishing. It’s hard to hear the music over the sheer volume of the crowd. People are hugging and kissing each other as Coyne says "there’ll be so much energy in here you’ll still be able to feel it in three days time". You can’t argue with the man.
Returning for a triumphant version of 'What is the Light/The Observer', the band seem as reluctant to stop playing as the crowd are to let them go. Yet all good things must come to an end. Part carnival, part theatre, and totally uplifting, The Flaming Lips are guaranteed to leave you feeling better about yourself and your fellow man. In these cynical times that’s something pretty special.
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