The Flaming Lips deliver overwhelming performance for crazed Louisville fans with support from Le Butcherettes.
Judging by the overly excited conversations occurring all around the venue this evening it was clear that tonight’s show was going to be something special. The opportunity to see The Flaming Lips perform their spectacle in the smaller Amphitheater setting was not going to be missed.
The Flaming Lips were raucously greeted to the Iroquois Amphitheater stage by a huge roar. Before starting the evening, Wayne Coyne took a quick moment to address the crowd, pulling a folded up picture from his pocket. Wayne went on to explain that he met with the woman’s family before the show and was moved by their time together. He placed the picture on the bass drum behind him and dedicated “Do You Realize??” to her and her family.
The guys then started the evening with the familiar sounds of Richard Straus’ cover of “Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30” culminating with an absolute shower of confetti and huge balloons bounding from the stage, creating this unbelievable experience.
Without allowing anyone a moment to breathe, a gigantic inflatable robot magically appears on stage as “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1” was next in the performance, followed by “Flight Test” and the “Star Spangled Banner” with Steven Drozd expertly working the talkbox.
Over the course of the next almost 2 hours, the stunning array of colors, lasers, strobe lights and video expertly integrated with the music on stage creating this mesmerizing attack on our senses.
Frontman Mark Coyne spoke to the crowd, appropriately summing up what the evening was all about. He explained that “The Castle” is a sad song for them to perform, requiring a little more concentration for them to play it the way they want to but nobody should be sad. He encouraged everyone to go crazy and have “the best F**king night of your life!”
For “There should be Unicorns” Mark was out in the crowd, sporting inflatable rainbow-colored wings while riding a “Unicorn” draped in lights and tossing out confetti while hi-fiving everyone anyone who could get close enough adding to the overall spectacle of the evening. A cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity had Mark enclosed in a giant transparent plastic bubble, unfortunately, the configuration of the venue stage prohibited him from his usual surfing the crowd.
As the final chords of the encore song, “Do You Realize??” was played and the house lights came up there was a genuine buzz of electricity in the crowd, many were overheard saying this was the best Flaming Lips show they had ever seen. It seemed as though everyone did indeed have “the F**king night of their lives”.
The Flaming Lips Set List:
Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 (Richard Strauss cover)
Race for the Prize
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1
Fight Test
The Star-Spangled Banner (John Stafford Smith cover)
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)
The Castle
There Should Be Unicorns
She Don’t Use Jelly
The Captain
Space Oddity (David Bowie cover)
Oczy Mlody
How??
Are You a Hypnotist??
The W.A.N.D.
A Spoonful Weighs a Ton
Encore:
Do You Realize??
Opening the evening is Guadalajara, Mexico based garage punk band Le Butcherettes. Fronted by the incredibly demonstrative and intense Teri Gender Bender, Le Butcherettes delivered a blazing 35-minute set ending with a wild and crazy Miley Cyrus cover of “Wrecking Ball” proving to be a perfect complement to the Flaming Lips this evening.
