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Live Review: The Flaming Lips at the Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles
Wayne Coyne is one happy guy. Sweet and exuberant, the Flaming Lips frontman with the grayish beard and child-like wonder spent much of his band's May 31 show at the Hollywood Palladium raising his arms in exultation, throwing balloons and confetti, shining flashlights into the rapt audience, even getting it to sing "Happy Birthday" to some of the other attendees.
Meanwhile, fans dressed as bears, birds, dogs and cats--even Jesus and Santa Claus--danced onstage, as huge balloons rained down on the crowd, and spotlights and smoke filled the air. Behind the band, a huge video screen synched freakish visuals with every one of the Lips’ joyously trippy notes.
Welcome to the world of the Flaming Lips: rock theater at its quirkiest and most appealing.
The band’s last two albums, "The Soft Bulletin" and "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots," have received high praise from critics and fans alike, but the Lips are and always have been one of rock’s preeminent live acts--if not for the sheer power of their music, certainly for their innovative and engaging live shows.
Besides playing their one top forty hit--"She Don't Use Jelly," off 1993's "Transmissions from the Satellite Heart"--the Lips mostly stuck to tracks from "Bulletin" and "Yoshimi," including a throbbing "What Is the Light?" and a very fine version of the soon-to-be campfire classic, "Do You Realize." That the band's music explores such profound topics as man's mortality, the emotions of robots, and the lives of bugs only added to the whimsical beauty of the LA performance.
As the curtain drew to a close on the Lips' magnificent Wonderland, Coyne repeatedly thanked the audience, hopping madly and lifting his arms in excitement, gushing at one point, "You are the best fans ever!" And as the last bits of confetti fell, when the theatrics and cinematic space-rock had ended, surely the Flaming Lips, Jesus and even Santa Claus, remained in high spirits long after the final bow.
