Flaming Lips live in London

Last night (oh wait… it’s past midnight… the night before last) I saw the Flaming Lips at the Forum in London. They’re one of my favourite bands, this was probably the fourth or fifth time I’ve seen them and they just keep on getting better and better. The setlist (still deservedly heavy on songs from ‘The Soft Bulletin’) hasn’t really changed much in the last couple of years, apart from the addition of songs from ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’, and the same goes for the backdrop films, but it doesn’t matter. There’s almost a feeling that the Flips are happy to perform to this perfect, audience-approved script, each time imbuing it with more and more warmth, passion and humanity. The party atmosphere increases with each tour, too… back on the Soft Bulletin tours, the films and Wayne’s mic-stand webcam were the main visual attractions. Giant mirror balls and balloons, lots of confetti and animal suits appeared for the first Yoshimi tour, and now we have the spectacle of twenty-or-so animal-suited guests flanking the band on stage, dancing as if their little furry hearts depended on it.

To be honest, the sound at the Forum never seems to be as good as comparable London venues such as the Astoria or Shepherds Bush Empire. Still, that wasn’t a huge problem… every Flaming Lips gig is like a birthday and Christmas combined, so it’d take a lot to wipe the HUGE grins off the faces of the audience.

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