The Flaming Lips

Ah yes, the show at Central Park SummerStage on Monday. Musically I quite like the Flaming Lips: did you hear their remake of Dark Side of the Moon? Love it.

My problem was with the needy, out-sized ego of the singer: between every song he'd do a pumping motion with his arms if he felt the applause wasn't sustained enough. He also had some childish political "thoughts" which he felt compelled to share: you know what, if every audience member did a peace sign all together it really, really won't change anything. Hippy-ist thought for the consumer generation. Likewise some of the lyrics feel self-consciously quirky and twee, and probably deliberately not taken to the extremes that might make them really interesting: check out Gong / Here & Now if you feel the need for unadulterated hippy quirkiness.

I'm always looking for that wall of sound at a concert that you can slam into. Flaming Lips delivered the wall, but sometimes also they provided a sparer sound with lots of spaces where interesting things could happen between the notes. Maybe they should record more sessions on the radio so the listener can cut through the visual excess to the musical core.

The (deliberately?) retro staging allowed me to have fun with my camera, but the blow-up ball and the roadies and groupies all dressed in orange just felt cultish. Everyone on stage (and many in the audience) were just ecstatic: you know what, it was a good show, but it wasn't really great sex. And that's despite the band members coming on stage through an on-screen projected vagina and the two phallo-horns ejaculating orange confetti and white smoke over the audience.

The whole event just felt over-indulgent, and made me long for a band like the Antlers who just get on the stage and play. A colleague recently criticized my over-detailed emails by observing "you've got cum on your hands". Yes, the Flaming Lips too had cum on their hands.