Flaming Lips a sensory overload at Winnipeg show

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This article was published 22/09/2010 (5838 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Flaming Lips were almost too powerful in Winnipeg Tuesday night.

The Oklahoma band blew a circuit at the Burton Cummings Theatre five songs into their two-hour set, cutting the power to the P.A. and their large circular video screen, which measured 40 by 50 feet – one of the largest lighting systems ever to grace the stage of the historic venue.

The outage only lasted a couple of minutes as the crowd of 1,500 roared its approval both when the power went out and when it came back on.

“We’re going to pretend that never happened,” frontman Wayne Coyne said before launching into a rambling speech about dreams and reality that was nearly identical to the one he said before the beginning of the heavy psychedelic epic The Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine.

It’s not like there wasn’t any warning, though.

Prior to the show Coyne warned the crowd about the heavy use of strobe lights, which gave an indication of what was to follow – a sensory overload of sight and sound that ranged from playful and light to deeply emotional.

Having seen the band twice before at music festivals in the United States, I wondered if they would bring their entire show to the relatively small stage of the Burt, but they didn’t skimp on anything but the setlist (more on that later), pulling out all the tricks in their arsenal as they waved their freak flags high.

The band – multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd, bassist Michael Ivins and drummer Kliph Scurlock — took the stage one by one, emerging from a glowing spot between the legs of a female projected on the circular video screen.

Coyne walked onto the stage, gave a wave and entered his “space ball,” which was inflated to become the world’s largest hamster ball. He walked on the hands of the crowd and rolled around on his back before getting back on stage.

When the band launched into Worm Mountain off their latest album, Embryonic, the room exploded – literally. Four confetti canons that resembled snow blowers shot streamers into the crowd, dozens of giant colourful balloons were thrown into the audience and two groups of dancers pulled from the crowd dressed as Yo Gabba Gabba’s DJ Lance Rock took their places on either side of the stage, where they remained the entire night.

The 14-song set relied heavily on tracks from the new album, which is the most experimental and challenging of their 27-year career. The material isn’t as melodic as their best songs, but live they make more sense and are equally as powerful, with the heavy throbbing groove of See the Leaves – which concluded with the stunning effect of Coyne shooting green lasers out of giant hands onto a pair of disco balls –Worm Mountain and The Ego’s Last Stand serving as three of the night’s highlights.

It was anything but a greatest hits set though, with no songs from the albums The Soft Bulletin or Clouds Taste Metallic making the cut. The earliest song the group played was their only real hit, the quirky 1993 single She Don’t Use Jelly, which had the crowd singing along.

Otherwise, the band stuck to material from their last three albums, but dropped The Yeah Yeah Yeah song and Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell, which have been a regular part of their setlist lately.

Still, it was hard to complain about what we did get.

I Can Be a Frog featured the audience making a series of animal noises with Scurlock; the tender ballad Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots turned into a giant sing-along; the strikingly melodic Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung allowed Drozd a turn at the microphone as Coyne smashed a giant gong; and the anthemic The W.A.N.D. had fists in the air.

Coyne was extremely chatty and noted how the theatre might have been the tallest they have ever played, talked about destroying one’s ego and was genuinely honest describing how the band’s fans are the greatest in the world.

“We all know to give love is the great joy of being alive,” he said at one point.

And as has become custom, the band ended the night with Do You Realize??, an achingly beautiful love song that somehow manages to be deeply depressing and life-affirming at the same time with lyrics that remind you, “everyone you know someday will die,” before imploring you to make the most of the time we have here.

The message seems to be one the Flaming Lips are following.

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca