This past Thursday night in Chicago was the first night of the year that there was serious snow during rush hour. Cars could barely break and visibility was almost nothing. I saw a few accidents and fire trucks driving by on my way to of all places the library, which was about a two-mile drive. After spending the last five years in Miami, I could only ask myself, “why would anyone want to live like this?” Soon enough, I came to my understanding at the local radio show the XRT Big Holiday Concert featuring Pete Yorn, Phoenix and Flaming Lips concert at the Allstate Arena last Friday night.
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XRT Big Holiday Concert featuring Pete Yorn, Phoenix and Flaming Lips |
 Entertainment
Allstate Arena
Rosemont, IL
December 11, 2009
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Pete Yorn’s set began the night for me. His set sounded at the level of where a successful national touring artist should be. Unfortunately, these days, those standards aren’t very high. Not to dis on Pete Yorn, but he just seemed tired, and his performance simply did not touch me on a deep level. His song, “Don’t Want to Cry,” came close, if only it didn’t feel so cliché. The most memorable part of his set was their tambourine player, the most animated out of them all, who would spin, twirl and dance around at peak moments of their songs. Despite being perhaps gimmicky, he raised the energy and gave people something to get excited about.
Next up was Paris based group, Phoenix, whose drummer just had a family emergency and had to bail last minute, but they decided to perform anyway… drummer-less. They played about four short songs, one of which was a nice intimate guitar and vocal arrangement. It actually turned out to be a very pleasant contrast from the previous lineup of rock bands. Phoenix tried to think quick and used programmed beats by their keyboard player, which they had to recycle for at least two out of their four songs.
It’s obvious that they were not prepared to play without a drummer but the crowd didn’t seem to notice or care. It’s a shame really. There may have been something really special there if they could’ve pulled it off. The crowd was empathetic to the situation besides a few audible boos here and there, but they certainly weren’t complaining when Phoenix ended their set with their brand new never before heard acoustic arrangement of, “1901.”
At last, it came time for the Flaming Lips. After a 30-minute set-up time, a computerized nude woman started off the show projected onto their stage sized portable screen. The video quickly focused in on the um well, women’s vagina. It started glowing, pulsating, and strobing out of which the band eventually came out of by way of a hidden door. The lead singer Wayne Coyne appeared center stage, in some limp plastic that instantly became inflated into an ovary kind of bubble ball. Inside the ball, Coyne began rolling around the stage and eventually on top of the audience to about 50 feet out (including running over our photographer and Editor in Chief of Lumino). I suppose you can say it all went along with the theme of their new album, “Embryonic.” Although of course the gerbil ball is something Wayne and the band have been doing for years.
The introduction was impressive, and the rest of the show did not fall short. Their attention to detail was amazing and it paid off in making the audience feel considered and loved. The Flaming Lips dispersed balloons perhaps filled with confetti out into the crowd early on. The balloons bounced around for the entire first half of the show, creating a very surreal slow-motion kind of space. Some would adorably fight over who got to hit the balloon back up into the crowd. The gentleman next to me struggled to get to one and ended up hurting his hand, forgetting that he had a cast on it.
When it came time for “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” Coyne brought up audience members to join him on a couch in the middle of the stage. Couples all around me embraced each other, held hands, and at that moment the sentimental beauty of it all became so clear. Like how the city endures the cold together, all ten thousand some of us were in it… together.
You can tell that Flaming Lips are no novice to this reaction, and they experimented with all types of audience participation techniques; clapping hands, screaming, singing and responding, having everyone put up the peace sign with positive vibes. There was a quantum physics style approach to their response to the war in Afghanistan as Coyne played the bugle horn to their version of the Funeral March. Like the way a sports team riles up a city, I felt like honking my horn and celebrating as soon as the concert was finished. You walk out really feeling this was a special moment in time, an event on par or beyond something like New Years Eve as it reminded me of my dreams, aspirations, and most of all, love!
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