And all your bad days will end

Supposedly there are people out there who don't like the Flaming Lips' show. Well, obviously there are people out there who don't like the Flaming Lips' show, there are a lot of people out there who don't like a lot of things. Hell, not even Pitchfork liked the Flaming Lips set at Lollapalooza 2006, saying they were a big "flop," and even going so far as to say that Wayne Coyne is "indie rock's Carrot Top." Like whoa, Carrot Top?

Lollapalooza 2006 was my first Flaming Lips show, and it was really a religious experience. Then I saw them again in September 2007 at the Aragon, which conjured up all of the same good feelings all over again. Now here they are, headlining the Pitchfork Music Festival, and playing the songs that the fans voted on, which turned out to be, largely, the songs they play anyway.

Yeah there was a lot of confetti, and yeah there were lots of balloons, Wayne was riding on someone in a gorilla costume, and generally speaking there was incredible sensory overload, but that all comes with the territory when you're talking about the Flaming Lips. Then you have the music. This was the first time I saw them where they deviated a bit from the pool of songs the normally play, dusting off "Bad Days" from Clouds Taste Metallic, "Mountain Side" from In a Priest Driven Ambulance, and a Fearless Freaks number that they said Wayne said they've never played live before and will never play again, in addition to the normal tracks from which they pull. [though, in their defense, they dusted off a Zaireeka song at the Aragon] But, basically, people love the singles from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and don't we all? [full setlist is posted at setlist.fm]

There's nothing quite like 15,000 people experiencing the Flaming Lips together, singing along at the top of their lungs to "Do You Realize???" I completely forgot about the song, and after they played "She Don't Use Jelly" I, stupidly, didn't know what would come next. "Wait, what's number one?" Then they did the countown.

1!
2!
3!
4!
:guitar strum:

...oh, that's right. Holy SHIT.

Then the confetti, and the smoke, and the singing along. At least from where I was standing, everyone seemed to be on the same page. I can't speak for the people in the back, or the people who seem to be too cool to care. There aren't too many bands I really badly want to see every time they come to town, but the Flaming Lips are one of them. Even if they play the same songs every time, and do the same performance every time, I still need to be there. It's less a concert and more of an experience. I'm out there, tearing up and singing along at the top of my lungs like some sort of weirdo dope, but then I look around and everyone else was doing the same thing.

It was an incredible 80 minutes. Damn right it's a religious experience, and I know I'll be right there the next time they roll through Chicago.

I don't know what separated this time from the last two times I saw them. I don't want to use terms like "better" because I know that I can probably find more appropriate descriptions, but this time seemed...different, but in the best way possible. "I rocked my ass off with the Flaming Lips and it was the best night of my life" is basically the truth. I saw the Flaming Lips at Pitchfork Music Festival, and it made me a better person. Insert another t-shirt superlative here. That's how it basically was.


A final note: one of the balloons had a wedding proposal written on it. People seemed to be trying to get it passed to the front so Wayne could read it, but someone kept hitting it backwards. Later it showed up again with "YES" written under the proposal. Way to go, Dan and Amy, I hope you guys are together 4ever!

I posted my picture set up there. Here's a video of the end of "She Don't Use Jelly" and "Do You Realize???" that's surfaced on YouTube.