The Royal Oak Music Theatre rocked again last Sunday with legendary psychedelic punk rockers, The Flaming Lips, triumphantly returned for a night of powerful, emotional, and very loud music. One of the first bands to announce tour dates as the long, covid-moratorium on concerts was beginning to end just under a year ago, this show ended up being rescheduled from November due to issues related to not being able to cross the Canadian border to perform at that time (again due to covid). To say the sold out crowd was enthusiastically expecting a great show would be an understatement, and the band delivered a multi-sensory experience with something for everybody (as the often do).
The evening began with a 50-minute opening set from veteran touring rockers, Heartless Bastards, who were well-received as the audience gradually filled the room. This was the last show of the tour's current leg, and the last to feature Heartless Bastards as openers, so a bit of their stage banter was both gracious for getting to be a part of it and melancholy for it coming to an end. Featuring a variety of songs from their growing catalog, the band's engaging rhythms and well-balanced mix earned applause and appreciation throughout their performance.
Quietly approaching their 40th anniversary, The Flaming Lips have continued to grow and to change, most notably in the last decade. Now down to only one original member (singer/songwriter, Wayne Coyne) following the recent retirement of founding bassist, Michael Ivins, the group has plowed forward with new original songs, interesting collaborations, and innovative covers albums which often feature vastly-rearranged versions of songs that are sacred to some, such as those of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, or The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Currently touring in support of their most recent traditional LP, 2020's American Head, the current shows are featuring fewer songs from that release and a few more deep cuts from as far back as 1987. Especially notable was the inclusion of two such songs from 1993's, Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, which paired well against more recent material and had notably not been featured regularly until Ivins' departure.
The Lips dazzled with all their traditional live features, including super-powered confetti cannons, Coyne performing much of the show from within his famous bubble, surreal and cartoonish inflatables and other props, an amazing light show, and most of all, the giant wall of ultra bright LED screens behind the band at all times. These are a very important part of the show as they are synchronized with pre-recorded performance videos and sometimes the lyrics of the song being performed, one line or even one word at a time, often emphasizing the most heartfelt or the funniest parts. The concert began with a soft opening, as Coyne addressed the audience informally with the house lights still on and introduced "My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion" and followed immediately with "Do You Realize??," both from 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, one of their very best and most successful albums, also celebrating its 20th anniversary.
After a detour into 2017's psychedelically dark, "How??," the band returned to Yoshimi to play the title track, allowing two big singalong moments within the first four songs of the show. This was also significant as the mid-section of the two-hour performance alternated between deep cuts and new songs, some of which were probably being heard for the first time ever by at least a few in the audience, and which got more varied reactions. One of the most arguably painful elements of many Flaming Lips concerts is their need for a bit more time between songs than most bands (whether due to having more people and more instruments, the props and other things on stage, or to be properly synched with their screens). Add to this the fact that their fan base is middle aged and older for the most part, and what's left are sometimes awkwardly quiet transitions between songs, usually accentuated by Coyne's comical begging to less-comical pleading or even pandering with the crowd to continuously make noise between the songs and even during quiet or vocal-less parts within them. This comes across better in a festival situation by comparison, but it has been a part of the band's performances for over 15 years now and can sometimes take away from the vibes established by the song that just ended or the next one just beginning.
Multi-instrumentalist and long-time member, Steven Drozd, rarely moved from his keyboard station, also often singing and playing 12-string electric guitar, but the many replacement band members (and replacements of replacements) that have accumulated over the last 10 years stand inconspicuously off to the side and back of the stage, participating but receiving almost no focus or attention at all. While they each added to the songs well, it's clear the focus is now Coyne and Drozd, and the supporting cast is appreciated but also lucky to be along for the ride.
Hardcore and old school fans certainly appreciated renditions of "Moth in the Incubator," "Oh, My Pregnant Head" and "Love Yer Brain" the most, but the new songs sounded great too and were strong between the older ones. The long-standing crowd favorite, "She Don't Use Jelly," was another high point and is always one of the most engaging songs of the night, and the inclusion of "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate," from 1999's, The Soft Bulletin, was a beautiful way to end the main set.
A strong four-song encore included a B-side, two deep cuts, and ended with the bombastic, "Race for the Prize," usually featured as an opening song and all the more appropriate following or during a pandemic as the lyrics describe two scientists competing against one another to discover an important cure. The encore section also featured some of the most engaging visual and physical elements of the night, including a giant inflatable bubble filled with costumes, props, and balloons being launched onto the top of the crowd on the venue's floor and passed around frantically throughout "Worm Mountain," and during "Race for the Prize," an overdose of confetti and the band's famous inflatable letter balloons, always shouting out the town they are in, and always including an enthusiastic, "Fuck Yeah!"
The future for this band is always unpredictable, but it appears that Coyne and Drozd, at least, are in for the long haul, which after 38 years, could be closer than they and most of their fans would like. In spite of that if not because of that fact, they continue to gather to share and celebrate the band's music with them and with each other, and after the recent stretch of shut downs that prevented that very important part of engaging with one's favorite artists, being able to do that has never been more significant.
The Flaming Lips set list:
My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion
Do You Realize??
How??
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (pt. 1)
Moth in the Incubator
Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell
Will You Return/When You Come Down
Oh, My Pregnant Head
Love Yer Brain
She Don’t Use Jelly
At the Movies on Quaaludes
Dinosaurs on the Mountain
Feeling Yourself Disintegrate
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Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear
Worm Mountain
All We Have Is Now
Race for the Prize
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(Louis Armstrong-“What a Wonderful World” outro tape)
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