Flaming Lips on Austin City Limits

12-19-2004, 11:32 AM

This one wins hands down for "Weirdest performance I have ever seen".

I can't really begin to describe the show, other than to say that the highlight for me was a cover of Sabbath's War Pigs where the lead singer was draped in an American Flag, and pours a vile of fake blood over his face (a comment on the war, I suppose). This neatly transitioned into a respectful rendition of "Over the rainbow", with lead sax by the guitar players dad. Note: I am not making this up.

I have been watching ACL for better than 15 years, and this was hands down the most bizarre performance that I have ever seen.

A few of the tunes were not too bad, and my wife was bobbing here head along...until they broke into War Pigs...have not seen that much blood since I stopped watching the WWF.

BGL

Mark Pfeiffer · 12-19-2004, 11:44 AM

Actually, this was fairly representative of what it's like seeing them in concert. (There wasn't any rear projection of various images, some of which would have probably got PBS in trouble with the FCC.) You failed to mention the people in animal costumes dancing around and waving lights, by the way.

I don't know when they taped this episode, but the set they played was pretty similar to when I saw them live in April 2003. I'm not the most well-versed Flaming Lips fan--more attuned to them from "She Don't Use Jelly" through the two sunnier albums The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots--but I believe Wayne Coyne has been doing the fake blood thing for some time, so it wasn't necessarily a political statement.

I wondered what someone unfamiliar with them might think, though. It's quite a show and one of the most fun concerts I've attended.

Rachael B · 12-19-2004, 11:44 AM

Are you sure they didn't actually get the feed from CBGB's?

12-19-2004, 11:57 AM

I was going to mention the animal costumes, and the two weird anime type things dancing behind the band, but I decided the Sabbath/Over the Rainbow discussion would get the point across.

My 6 year old daughter thought the animals were a hoot, although when the blood came out, it kind of put a damper on things.

Quote:

I wondered what someone unfamiliar with them might think, though. It's quite a show and one of the most fun concerts I've attended.

Well, other than hearing about them here, I would fit that description. I am down with weird sh*t, but that show exceeded my weird sh*t-o-meter, thats for sure.

The band was tight (they had the riffs from War Pigs down, although they did not play the whole song, no leads, no intro, etc.) , but the vocals were a bit on the rough side, IMHO. I get the feeling that the drummer would have been right at home in a hard rock/metal band.

Not to side track the discission, but I really liked The Shins, who came out after Flaming Lips. Quite a contrast in stage set up; just four dudes playing some pretty sparse, but very cool tunes.

BGL

Eric Alderson · 12-19-2004, 05:08 PM

I love the Flips! Can't wait for the new album next year.

**HTF Ads**

Henry Gale · 12-19-2004, 07:50 PM

The Shins taped their ACL show on September 12th. The Flaming Lips were taped on September 21st.

AricB · 12-20-2004, 09:54 AM

All of that sounds like their performance at coachella last year, except there, he go in a giant clear bubble and rolled out over the crowd. no joke, it was cool to see there, but i dont know I'd pay to see it otherwise, I'm not a huge fan by any means. i'll have to check tivo to see if it recorded it.

Zen Butler · 12-20-2004, 10:17 AM

ADMIN: He forgot "THE", it's "The Flaming Lips"

What a present, a "the Flips" thread. Come one, come all.

Easily, my favorite band, active today. I would give a limb to see them on Dec. 31st in Madison Square Gardens.
The Flaming Lips are psychedelic in its' truest. Only, "the Flips", bring a little something different to the table. They remind of some sort of traveling psychedelic circus. What's nice, is that this is not only available to the concert-goer. No, their demented, bunny-laced space-pop translates to their recordings. The imagery is their for all to see. Pure genius. I still get chills listening to them, they are just so f...ing good.

BTW, I love the Shins.

I really want to see that ACL's performance.

Matt Birchall · 12-20-2004, 01:05 PM

Yours truly at a show last year:

I've seen them three times now (including the time above), and the one thing that I remember from all of their shows is that I had a smile on my face the entire time. The show last night was no exception. I just wish that ACL would have given them the whole hour. Nothing against The Shins, but there's nothing quite like a Flaming Lips show, and the longer, the better.

"War Pigs" was a treat, and so was "Over the Rainbow"--which I was thinking they were going to blend in with a Floyd cover--maybe "Breathe" and/or "Us and Them", which they've done before.

I'd give anything to see the New Year's Eve show at MSG with them and Wilco. . .

Karl_Luph · 12-20-2004, 01:54 PM

I taped this Sat.night 12/18/04 and they had on Chris Isaak and Norah Jones. I don't know what happened,maybe they were on earlier.