Last Wednesday, The Rapids Theatre in Niagara Falls, NY was the latest landing spot for the crazy, out of this world Flaming Lips tour. To call the event a concert is not enough of a description. It’s more like a spectacle of color, light, smoke, sound and crazy characters with rave and frat party atmosphere. Wayne Coyne has led the Flaming Lips since 1983 and has shaped them into the leading edge purveyor of psychedelia. From the opening 2001 theme and “Race for the Prize,” the room was filled with flying confetti, swinging lasers, huge bouncing balloons and steaming shots of smoke effects. Coyne was at the center of it all and led the audience on a mind-numbing journey through new and old Flaming Lips material.
The tour is named “There Should Be Unicorns” and Coyne describes it as “rock’s greatest acid party with balloons, confetti cannons, and rainbow visuals.” True to his word, the stage and sometimes the room were filled with lights, confetti and a variety of songs welcomed by Lips fans with crazy enthusiasm. After the opening song, the madness continued with “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” as Coyne sang in the grasp of a 30 ft high inflatable Pink Robot. “There Should be Unicorns” with Coyne mounting a neon-maned LED covered unicorn and riding it around the arena. “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” followed with lyrics emblazoned on an LED curtain that ran the width of the stage. Coyne further upped his antics by rolling over the
audience in a giant inflated hamster ball during “Space Oddity,” a tribute to one of his idols in David Bowie.
The show ended with and encore of two song from way back in Lips history, “She Don’t Use Jelly” from 1993’s Transmissions From The Satellite Heart” album and “Do You Realize” from “Yoshimi and the Pink Robots” album in 2002. Any way you look at it The Flaming Lips live show entertains, dazzles and surprises like no other act on tour today.
Setlist:
Also Sprach Zarathustra (Strauss-2001 movie theme)
Race for the Prize
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt 1
There Should Be Unicorns
Pompei Am Gotterdammerung
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (with All Your Power)
How??
Space Oddity (David Bowie tribute)
Are You a Hypnotist?
A Spoonful Weighs a Ton
Encore:
She Don’t Use Jelly
Do You Realize?
We would like to thank Marc Violino from teh Rapids Theatre for the credentials to review the show.
