One might be inclined to call the Flaming Lips a legacy act at this point, putting them alongside their 90s-era peers. But the reality is that the Oklahoma band has always stayed relevant through their dedication to experimenting with new sounds alongside a live show that is unrivaled in terms of sensory overload, colorful spectacle and pure joy. Still touring in support of 2020’s American Head, the Lips came through Portland, Oregon to play a rescheduled show at the Crystal Ballroom on Tuesday, November 15th. Particle Kid opened.
After opening with “Sagittarius Silver Announcement,” with a sound that brought to mind The Doors’ Jim Morrison boarding a space ship, the band wasted little time with the first of several confetti cannon explosions during “Silver Trembling Hands.” The technicolor onslaught showcased the percussive power of two drummers as Wayne Coyne sang from within the familiar confines of his bubble. One of the few “hits” of the night came next with the infectious psych-pop anthem “Do You Realize,” which was prefaced with a story about a friend of the band putting some of his departed wife’s ashes into their confetti cannons. There is no way of knowing if this was truth or fiction, but said cannons then blasted the crowd while Coyne performed the song under his inflatable rainbow. While Coyne’s between-song diatribes are often entertaining and enlightening, they also slowed down the momentum of the performance for this show. “Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear,” for example, came with lengthy instructions on how the crowd could participate before the band finally unleashed the heart-warming cacophony of psych-folk. The excessive use of vocoder – an effect that is obnoxious in even tiny doses – by Coyne and Steven Drozd almost took away from the lyrically powerful “How??” and the longtime favorite “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1,” the latter of which featured a giant dancing inflatable robot. Of course, these are only minor gripes that were easy to overlook in favor of the beautiful barrage of lights, fog, confetti and unexpected gadgets and costumes donned by Coyne throughout the set.
During the second half of the set, the band would get into deeper material, with the orchestral “Flowers of Neptune 6” and the super thick and fuzzy guitar work of “At the Movies on Quaaludes” that felt like a Curtis Mayfield song on drugs. Steven Drozd busted out his 12-string for “Assassins of Youth,” that included a brief rave sequence complete with lasers and also found him doubling down on the vocoder. “Always There, In Our Hearts” carried a Pink Floyd-circa-Animals sound before bursting into a psych punk freakout, and it was followed by the band setting off the venue fire alarms with their smoke machines during “Will You Return / When You Come Down,” which featured Micah Nelson laying down a whammy bar-heavy guitar solo to take the song to euphoric heights. Other highlights included a truly Flaming Lips-esque take on Madonna’s “Borderline” that felt like a tripped-out doo wop tune, and an especially rousing version of the band’s old tune “She Don’t Jelly” that was accompanied by a flurry of bubbles.
The peak of the show may have been the very last song when the band played the always awe-inspiring rush of psych-pop “Race for the Prize” amidst a blizzard of confetti. Oddly enough, this was the only tune played from The Soft Bulletin, perhaps the Lips’ best album. This fact came as a disappointment to anyone looking for a sort of greatest hits performance. And though it would have been a logical and reliably satisfying move, that has never been the credo of the Lips. Instead, they delivered a performance in Portland that showcased how they have evolved over the years while staying fresh and vibrant.
All photos by Greg Homolka.
One Response
There were indeed ashes spread over the crowd. This was verified by the husband, his daughter, and mom. Not sure if that’s legal or not. May be worth looking into.