Can anyone see the drummer........

Hullo ma wee blog,

Another concert and another trip to Glasgow. This time to the 02 academy to see The Flaming Lips in concert. From Oklahoma, they're described as a space/Neo-psychedelia/Indie rock/Alternative rock band.
They're also acclaimed for their elaborate live shows, which feature costumes, balloons, puppets, video projections, complex stage light configurations, giant hands, large amounts of confetti, and frontman Wayne Coyne's signature man-sized plastic bubble, in which he traverses the audience. In 2002, Q magazine named The Flaming Lips one of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die".

I can understand why.

It was one of the most fascinating spectacles I have ever encountered at a concert. At one point, with hundreds of orange and yellow balloons of various sizes from small to extraordinary bouncing around inside a fairly small venue, being stunned by long strobe effects and masses of confetti explosions, it was like an out of body experience of music inside one of those lava lantern lights you used to get.

It was just surreal......and hugely enjoyable.

And the music just throbbed through you, lifting your very being to the beat and being held there by a combination of Waynes eclectic personality, strange lyrics and Neil Young on acid singing style. It was just, well....fascinating. And very...Orange; from the stage crew to the speakers and kit it was like Christmas at the Easy Jet fantasy land store.

Not a gig I'm going to forget in a hurry.

Support was 'start of the white dwarfs' I think....... they didn't do an awfy good job of lodging the band name in the conscience, but they were interesting and competent for a group of 4 young lads who hadn't really got too far beyond just letting rip when they could. Unfortunately they may have been given some of the less experienced stage hands to help their performance cos whoever was managing the smoke machine was a wee bit heavy handed and often you couldn't see the band at all. The drummer did a fabulous solo on one track but he was nowhere to be seen which was a shame for all the effort he must have been putting in somewhere in all the fug. I thought the lead singer also sounded like Neil Young and during the gig Wayne mentioned that the lead singer was his nephew. That'll explain it then.....

It all gave us plenty to talk about as we drove back home in the early hours of Monday morning. And on a school night too......

Well.....for the lovely G anyway.

see you later.

Listening to The flaming lips 'Yoshimi battles the Pink Robots'