By Samir MathurContributing writer
Staff page
It’s very difficult to explain a Flaming Lips show to someone that’s never been to one before. I’ve seen them a few times over the last decade, and I can remember the following props being involved: a jacket made of strobe lights, fake blood capsules, giant Hulk hands, a huge gong, Wayne Coyne’s legendary hamster ball, all the confetti in America, and of course people dressed up as aliens and Santa Clauses. At the center of this insane travelling circus is Coyne, a man who is always, always, happy to be wherever he is. His constant joyfulness comes off as absolutely genuine, which makes it all the more endearing. Going to see this band is always a memorable experience and well-worth your effort.
All that, and I haven’t even mentioned their actual music yet. By many accounts, recently they’ve been skewing pretty heavily towards songs from their latest record, ‘Embryonic’. To be honest, I haven’t been particularly enthused about one of their albums since 2002’s ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’, but in my experience, the live shows do a great job of collecting all the best songs from all their records. So, it’s a shame that, apparently, songs from ‘The Soft Bulletin’ are being excised from the set. But never mind that, any show with songs like this and this involved are entirely worth going to. Plus, again, you’ll have so much damn fun at the show that you won’t be crying about how they left off ‘The Spark That Bled’.
To get you even more psyched for Thursday night’s show, our pals at Park Ave CDs are hosting a ‘Zaireeka’ listening party tomorrow night. In case you’re not familiar, that would be the 1997 Lips album that consists of four separate discs of music, which were supposed to be all played simultaneously. For some reason, the idea was not a huge commercial success, but fans have tried creative ways to make it work, such as the legendary Parking Lot Experiments, which are well worth reading up about. Anyway, Park Ave CDs will be playing the album in the intended manner, and giving away rare artwork and records, so go and experience the experience.
The Flaming Lips play the House of Blues on Thursday (10/14) with Stardeath and the White Dwarves. Tickets are $44.30, and are available online.
Park Ave CDs presents: Zaireeka Listening Party and Concert Pre-Party, tomorrow, Wednesday 10/13, at 8pm. Click here for details.