The Flaming Lips: 9/24/06 Hammerstein Ballroom

Sunday night I did something I’ve wanted to do for many years, be part of a Flaming Lips concert. Note the fact I said “be a part of” as opposed to simply “watching” or “going to” a Flaming Lips concert. This is because Wayne Coyne makes you, the audience member, feel like so much more than a simple concert go-er. He makes you feel like one of the regulars at a Flaming Lips house party. I have never seen a band-leader, or in his case a ring-leader, do such an amazing job of making every audience member feel like the only audience member. I simply cannot get over the fact that this band did what it did. Standing on stage, perhaps 20 feet away from me, Wayne has this ability to come across as the most likeable guy in rock n’ roll. He makes you think if you ran into him at random, that the two of you would be best friend for life. Before the concert even starts he is showing what a cool guy he is. He is up there on the side of the stage watching the entire set of the opening act, which is something I’ve never seen a musician do. Not only that, but he helps the roadies set up the equipment, a feat I’ve seen indie label bands avoid. Add that to the fact that the bend is such an excellent live band (something I didn’t expect), and you’ve got yourself a concert you’ll remember forever. That statement doesn’t even include the lasers, about 15 guys dressed like Santa Clause on stage left, an equal number of girls dressed up like “sexy aliens” on stage right, such vast quantities of streamers that the view of the stage was completely obstructed, a giant bubble Wayne used to walk and crawl across the audience, hand held smoke machines, an amazing collection of videos played on a screen behind the band, roadies dressed up like “superheroes” (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Thor, The Flash, Space Ghost, Bat Girl) and about 100 giant yellow balloons bouncing like popcorn through the audience.

For a band that’s been playing since 1983 I was quite shocked to hear only two songs that predated 1999, those two being their biggest US hit, “She Don’t Use Jelly,” and a song Wayne didn’t think the band had ever preformed live before, Steven Drozd, the guitarist/ keyboardist, begged to differ, “You Have to be Joking (Autopsy of the Devil’s Brain),” off of Hit to Death in the Future Head. I have seen a couple of Flaming Lips set-lists, and it is rare they play anything pre-The Soft Bulletin, but I was hoping for old stuff, and I got it. The only thing that could have been better would have been in they played "Talkin' 'Bout the Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants to Live Forever)," which is also off of Hit to Death in the Future Head, which I should mention is my second favorite Lips album (I won’t disclose my favorite, guess if you please), and therefore I’m biased towards songs from that album.

Anyway, the live aspect of their music made me realize what it is I have disliked in the two albums released after The Soft Bulletin, and that is they are too polished. The band is producing gloss when I want matte. Although Wayne has stated that the last three albums have all been products of the studio, it is only Yoshimi…and At War with the Mystics that feel like studio crafted albums. I feel as though I can’t fully describe what I’m trying to say without using vague terms such as “earthly,” “organic,” “live,” and “human,” to describe what they’re missing, so I won’t. However, all those terms were there when I saw the music performed live. At War with the Mystics could easily end up on my list of most disappointing albums of ’06, but the songs from that album were amazing live. Too often you see a band and think “damn that was a great song… on the album,” but not with these guys. (With sentences like that I feel as though I’m trying to sell the band, go ahead say it “The Guinness Tooth is a tool.”)

As you can see this isn’t your typical concert review, I didn’t tell you how long the set was, I didn’t tell you which songs they played, I didn’t even tell you to what effect the special effects were used, no, what I want to convey to you is the fact that The Flaming Lips do something no other major label band do. They connect with their audience, after 23 years, in the same way a bunch of teenagers in their first band try to. They have a true love for their craft, they want to create the most beautiful, the most sincere, the most spectacular concert possible. They want you to leave feeling like I felt. They want to be your best friend.