Wednesday, April 26, 2006

The Flaming Lips LIVE

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Well wouldn't you know it...it was my turn to drive and Poolstock was jammed to buggery again. Still, by some amazing coincidence I managed to arrive at just about the same time as the Gee man was getting off his train. Still that's where the plan went tits up. Sure we got to the Apollo in plenty of time and got a nice parking spot but disaster struck when the nearby chippy was shut.

Please bear in mind that I had not had any dinner, and my entire day's consumption had been a total of a Chunky Peanut Butter Kit Kat and a big bottle of Lucozade. A quick walk around found nothing else except for a pleasant little pub, so my evening meal consisted of a few pints of lager coupled with a packet of Salt & Vinegar crisps and a packet of Pork Scratchings.

We got to the venue itself to see that we'd missed The Go Team supporting, which was a shame I suppose. We were upstairs on row GG (oh the hilarity) and I was rather taken with the KT Tunstall look-a-like a few rows in front of us.

So on with the show...and what a show it was. Starting off with Wayne Coyne in a giant see through inflatable balloon surfing over the crowd...you know you are in for a fun night. People dressed as Santa and aliens...smoke machines bellowing...tons of orange baloons being let loose...it was all there folks.

As for the songs...well for a start there wasn't many of them. Of course when the songs are great (Race For The Prize, Yoshimi, She Don't Use Jelly etc.) you don't need all the trimmings, but there were occasions when you felt that all the extra-curricular activity was covering some pretty mediocre songs.

Don't get me wrong, I had a great night and there is certainly nothing quite like a Flaming Lips concert, but you just wonder whether or not the Lips could captivate the audience in quite the same way with a more "conventional" (i.e. dull ;)) show. Still, in this kind of form, the Flaming Lips are one of those bands you just have to see at least once in your lifetime.

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