I listen to a lot of unpleasant gloomy crap, but I now know that as long as I keep going to see The Flaming Lips every couple of years, there will always be some musical balance in my life. I had seen them twice before last night, and both times had been spectacular epic occasions, the kind of thing you look back on with a teary eye and a grin in years to come, so my expectactions were high as they rolled into my fair city for the first time. Race For The Prize has to be one of the best songs it is possible to start a show with, it’s absolutely huge. Unfortunatly it came second last night, but seeing as they’re touring for their new album you can hardly blame them for keeping it fresh. They still came through with all the crazy stuff though, fake blood and monkey hand puppets and giant rabbit costumes and a truckload of confetti, and even though it was practially exactly the same as every other time I’ve seen them, they still made me feel like all was right with the world, they made me want to dance and smile and run around barefoot and have water fights and…yeah, you get the idea. It may well have been the wrong side of cheesy on a few occasions, but it was still an event, which makes a huge change from the posing introverted sixth form post-rock dirge I find myself watching with alarming frequency. I’m sure if I saw that kind of thing all the time it would get old pretty quickly, but as long as I can go on seeing The Lips every once in a while, then I get the feeling that everything will be just fine.

Posted: 07|10|02 at 7:52 am. Filed under: live reviews.
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