The Flaming Lips, London Troxy (11/11/09)
A Flaming Lips show is always a thing of joy. Last night was no different, despite their new album having less tunes than any for a while. It is no worse for that, but I was wondering how the songs would work live at their gig at the Troxy last night.
The Lips pulled out all the stops from the beginning. The enormous video screen behind the stage portrayed a woman with legs apart, evidently giving birth as the band members appeared from the womb (a door high up in the video backdrop). Wayne Coyne emerged from the womb in his famous bubble, walking/stumbling across the raised arms of the crowd who eventually helpfully pushed him back towards the stage where he launched into “Race For The Prize”. Hundreds of giant balloons were released into the crowd as Coyne fired streamer guns up into the air. All at once the venue looked like a cross between a wedding, a cheap disco and a circus. Fun doesn’t even begin to describe it.
After Race For The Prize, the Flaming Lips kept the good vibe going with a couple of songs from Yoshimi… including Fight Test and Morning of the Magicians, as the crowd threw the giant balloons around and gazed up with wide grins at the never-ending rain of streamers. To the side of the stage were a troupe of rabbit girls and a couple of hairy yetis dancing, as Coyne climbed up on the shoulders of a man in a gorilla suit to sing.
What was particularly nice was that Wayne Coyne paused to ask the crowd in the pit to throw some of the giant balloons up to those seated above. A Flaming Lips gig is a wonderfully inclusive event, these pros know better than to ignore those in the seats like most indie bands do.
After 20 minutes of non-stop fun, Coyne signalled that things were about to take a dark turn by instructing the crowd to burst all the balloons. “When I sing the next song with all these balloons around, it doesn’t work, it sounds like a bad day at the circus”, said Coyne before launching into “Return of the Hex”. Embryonic’s opener is one of my favourite songs from the new album, driving bass and minimal instrumentation, it sounded great live. Not so successful was “Evil”, which the Lips played to a backdrop of a monkey suffering vivisection. You could suddenly understand why the balloons had all been burst. Coyne explained he believed people can choose whether they are good or evil, and that he wrote the song to remind him of the bad things he had done when he was younger, although it was probably too late for him now. On hearing this you just wanted to give him a hug. How can someone so generous in their entertainment of a crowd and with such a strong sense of fun have committed such evil? Surely not - you wanted to tell him to stop being so hard on himself but who knows what he has been through.
Coyne spoke to the crowd throughout, which I always enjoy, telling us that the Troxy used to be a bingo hall, and talking about how London helped them break big in 1999 when everyone here was talking about the Soft Bulletin (it was voted album of the year by the NME in 1999). He explained that he had known his bassist for 28 years, and they had all known the guy playing acoustic guitar since he was 12. He also played the last post on the trumpet for those killed in “George Bush’s war”, explaining that they did so for selfish reasons, because without the war some of the people who have been killed would be at their gigs. Rambling maybe but you can’t fault the sentiments.
The Flaming Lips called for a singalong to “Yoshimi”, which they promptly got, before ending their set with the superb “She Don’t Use Jelly”, written all the way back in 1993. An enormous gong surrounded by colourful lights, Wayne Coyne spraying dry ice everywhere and more exploding confetti signalled this could be the grand finale, but after a few minutes they came out for an encore of “Do You Realize?”. Coyne introduced the song by talking about the Flaming Lips’ mentality of taking people away from pain for an evening, and of being one entity of fun, and it was clear he meant it. This really did feel like the end as Coyne pumped up an enormous balloon full of confetti until it burst over the audience, more explosions rang out, and huge blowers made the streamers look like colourful rain as the crowd sang along to the bittersweet words of Do You Realize?
As always with the Lips, a superb gig and great fun. I am a big fan of the new album, and I would have preferred to have heard a few more songs from it, particularly the excellent Ego’s Last Stand. It would have been quite a different gig though, so it is something of a quandary, To do their excellent new material justice the Lips probably have to tone down their live shows - but where would be the fun in that?
November 12th, 2009 at 6:21 am
My cheeks still ache from grinning all through the gig last night. I am definitely not a hardcore Flaming Lips fan, had never been to one of their legendary gigs before and don’t much care for the new album but last night, WOW!! They were sensational, I don’t think I have every seen a happier room of people. The confetti, balloons, laser lights, and dancing yetis made for the most amazing spectacle, there was so much to look at and the music was almost a bonus. Wayne Coyne is a fantastic frontman and so much fun in comparison to a number of sulky, mumbling indie bands. I hope they play Glastonbury