To truly give justice to the sensory circus imposed on you by the Flaming Lips, you must first learn to sink to their level. Or would that be, rise to their level? I am not quite sure where they are located. You may even have to travel as far as to Cassiopeia, the youngest Supernova remnant in the Milky Way. Or perhaps the quickest way would be to just place some confetti on your tongue.
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The Flaming Lips
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 Entertainment
Art
Aragon Ballroom
Chicago, Ill.
September 7, 2007
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An enormous Area 51 type saucer thing hung from the sky with half pin-ball bottoms and multidirectional lights attached to its lower end. The “Lips” were about to make a landing. The ear throttling hum of a space geyser shook the crowd into awareness as Capitan America climbed out of the bottom hatch of whatever the hell that thing was before us.
Finally, on top of this contraption of multidimensional transportation, Wayne Coyne waved his smiling face, and entered a plasticene womb of which he rolled around the crowd in, like a giggling ferret let loose in the living room. Once the ship went back up the band was on flanked by teenagers in Santa suites on one side and young girls with alien heads (all of them brandishing spotlights) on the other.
“Race for the Prize” went straight to your legs as your toes curled back to hold you while giant green balloons fell from the sky and playful canons shot pounds of streamers. Mr. Coyne seems to have an affinity for distracting people. Some may say this is to cover a lack of musical talent, but you can’t believe everyone. The bassists Michael Ivins sat calmly in a skeletal Halloween suit with dark glasses playing every note with concern and emotional emphasis. “You’re humble narrator” must also mention the Zeppelin-loving Steven “Bender” Drozd, the plays-it-all guy who helped to arrange most of the bands newer music.
The band as a whole maintained the energy of the physical by adding to the rhythmical with every song they played. The emphasis was on setting the mood in quite a blunt and psychotic way. Love and caring for each other was at the central theme in the long messages sent from Coyne between songs. His thanks to everyone that has ever supported him went on for a while, yet it was genuine.
With such bizarre names and lyrics to songs it doesn’t seem likely that you would end up constantly singing along however this is not the case. “Free Radicals” and “Riding to Work in the year 2025 (You’re Invisible Now) have the hooks that keep you swaying with a trans-psychodelica sound and a blatantly obvious philosophical meaning. Then there is “Yoshimi” an extremely engaging song that the crowd salivates all over. The line “You won’t let those robots eat me” chanted in this light-hearted atmosphere of dreams fills everyone with glee.
Eventually everything slows for a somber reflection by Coyne over the mess we seem to be faced with in the Mid-East. His antiwar attitude resonated with the crowd. He gave a brief history lesson on the song “TAPS” and played it through a modified Bugle making the point that one day hopefully, he will be the only one playing that song. “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” a cheesy way to get out your anger against the war and “The W.A.N.D” another politically charged song brought the evening together in association with the message of peace.
The bag was then opened for classic hits “Do You Realize” and “She Don’t Use Jelly” sounding even bettering than on recording in this giant hall. Wayne exploded a giant balloon filled with confetti on the end of leaf blower and before you could realize, climbed back into his shinny metal flashing disk and went on to the Galactic Center, or maybe just another city with lasers and confetti.
They seem to have come a long way from playing the Batman theme in a transvestite bar, or maybe not? Regardless on your point of view, a Flaming Lips show is always a celebration of life, music and the pursuit of all things fun.
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