Tuesday, November 07, 2006

...likes her hair to look real orange

So I went to see The Flaming Lips last night in Manchester...which was nice, although sadly from this moment forth I shall be unable to enjoy anymore gigs unless fifty or so giant balloons are released into the crowd and confetti cannons fired repeatedly by an enigmatic mad professor type front man a la Wayne Coyne. Wacky props aside, they sounded pretty close to amazing too. It was also incredibly refreshing to see a band perform a set of crowd pleasers rather than delving into their more lengthy and diverse back catalogue or perform a tedious amount of as yet untitled future B-Sides (thanks again Hot chip). Also opening with my favourite Flaming Lips' track 'Race for The Prize' really was a statement of intent- and whilst playing the 'hits' along with several of the better tracks from their current L.P meant there was no predictable finale or encore (thanks again Young Knives)- in fact coming back on stage to carry on the song they left the stage to 5 minutes previously was good, but not as good or surprising as their fine rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, which was barely audible over the crowd's jubilant voices screeching along with every word. Okay so Wayne Coyne has a tendency to take a eon when introducing a song and can appear a little Bono-esque (without the evil smugness) but it's all coming from a good place and said with genuine intentions so I did feel incredibly cynical when I realised I was rolling my eyes at another 7 minute song introduction- but hey when the song kicks in all was forgotten.

No comments: