It looked like glowing red critters (radioactive spermatozoa?) were crawling all over it. When someone finally launched one over the railing, it prompted a big cheer, which was, in a way, one theme of the evening: Celebrate life's little victories.Īt one point Coyne had the lights turned down and he asked the crowd to train the lasers on one of the airborn balloons. Towards the end, Coyne encouraged the people on the floor to share a balloon with their friends in the balcony. The stage was stocked, too, with cannons that disgorged blizzards of confetti tubes that sprayed streamers and at least a dozen huge orange balloons that bounced and rolled over the crowd most of the night. They also brought white glow sticks, which were tossed around in large bunches throughout the night. (One of their distribution methods: Heaving fistfuls of the lasers into the air and onto the crowd.) If there were 1,000 people on the floor (and it felt like there were), 900 of them held one of the red laser pens the band's crew "distributed" before the show. The Lips always come with props and toys but this time they splurged. Wednesday's show was like all the others: a prolonged eruption of mania, visually, sonically and spiritually.
So a lot of people were seeing the band and its three-ring spectacle for the first time, which only magnified their joy and enthusiasm. That's five shows in nearly eight years, but the Lips' first show in a formal/indoor setting in Kansas City in a long time.
Before that they squeezed in a ragged show at City Market and before that a show at the Bottleneck Granada in 2000. It was their first show in this area since last year's Wakarusa festival - about 15 months ago.īefore that, they'd performed in Lawrence in 2002, opening for Beck at the Lied Center. Wednesday night, the Lips packed the Uptown Theater to fire-marshal capacity. In fact, despite the repetition, they seem to get more entertaining and more enjoyable. Yet every one I've seen (three) has been worth seeing. Same gimmicks same tricks even, for the most part, the same set list. If you've seen one Flaming Lips show over the past three or four years, you've pretty much seen them all. Not pictured: drummer Kliph Scurlock of Lawrence. Those who entered at Yoshimi might consider this as a step back, but the Lips have found a way to evolve again, without carelessly knee-jerking for change.Above: Steven Drozd, Wayne Coyne and Michael Ivins. The strongest showing here comes in the form of “Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung,” a glorious outing with cinematic drum crashes from Michael Ivins and seraphic vocals from Coyne worthy of regard along the greatest moments in Pink Floyd or King Crimson’s career. A few of Coyne’s lyrics here serve as more obvious veiled political statements (“Every time you state your case / the more I’d like to punch your face” and “You think you’re radical but you’re not so radical in fact you’re fanatical” from “Haven’t Got A Clue” and “Free Radicals” respectively), while others imply an insurmountable war against powerful, evil wizards (“The Wizard Tuns On” and “The W.A.N.D.”). Other tunes, namely “Yeah Yeah Yeah Song,” tackle serious subjects with a slightly sillier approach, finding singer/guitarist Wayne Coyne musing “With all your power / what would you do?” amidst vocoder-based backing vocals and rocket-style sound effects. Tracks such as “The Sound of Failure / It’s Dark, Is It Always This Dark?” and “Vein of Stars” make best use of these techniques at times eliciting feelings of epic grandeur not unlike that which Yoshimi’s “Are You a Hypnotist?” and “Do You Realize?” were capable of. This time primary instrumentalist Steven Drozd takes each song to operatic heights with a melange of treated violins, analog drones, flutes and subtle guitar noise. features less of the electronics and processed beats that helped etch out their sound on the latter album. Aurally more like revered classic The Soft Bulletin than 2002’s equally brilliant Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, A.W.W.T.M. At War With the Mystics continues The Flaming Lips pursuit of meaning through whimsical storytelling and lush orchestration.