the flaming lips new year's eve freakout!

i have been a fan of the flaming lips for years but until september i had never seen them in concert. jason and i saw them at the bank of america pavilion in boston, under a huge canopy right on the water of the atlantic ocean. it was a perfect indian summer night in massachusetts, the kind of weather that lets you know the crispness of autumn is on its way but isn't quite here yet. the show was an incredible experience. we laughed, we cried, we sang, we flashed peace signs with no irony. i could go into greater detail, but that's a blog for another time!

after the great experience we had in boston, we decided the show was worth the trip from dallas to oklahoma city to ring in the new year at the flaming lips annual new year's eve freakout. we bought our tickets, and tried to talk every single friend we knew into taking the trip with us. our dear friends dusty and jennifer rose to the challenge and accompanied us on the way. somewhere along the way, we heard that they were going to play a full set, followed by pink floyd's dark side of the moon after ringing in the new year. talk about a freakout. we responsibly took a cab from our hotel to the cox convention center, where the concert was being held, because drunk driving isn't cool.



(they gave out all these little green blinky lights to everyone, which created a really cool effect when the house lights went out.)

for the majority of the show, we stood behind the first row of stadium seats on the house right side of the stage. it was a great view, and though we're planning on getting pit tickets next year, i was pretty happy with the distance of me to the band.



i can't adequately describe the sheer passion with which the flaming lips perform, let alone the enormity of the spectacle. it's mind-blowing. we were amid thousands of balloons being joyfully punched from person to person, while confetti cannons shot little paper bits into the sky. people in bizarre animal costumes sway and bob to the side of the stage, making you feel just a little sorry for the kids frying on acid in the front row.



the music is a living organism, and the musicians entire bodies become a catalyst for sound. one of the highlights of the show for me was during the song "convinced of the hex," when lead singer wayne coyne dropped to his knees and rhythmically slammed maracas into the ground with so much intensity that it seemed like prayer. it's exuberant and purifying to connect with a convention center full of people bound together only by sounds.

i love this shot of wayne. it wasn't doctored at all in photoshop or any other editing software, just blown up to full size and cropped. i love the almost painting-like quality it has.



so, they played a set of thirteen songs that was not unlike the set we heard in boston. i danced like a maniac with jason, most notably during "the yeah yeah yeah song." wayne kept teasing us with the impending new year, giving us little updates between songs as to how close 2010 had become. at the stroke of midnight (which actually read 11:58 on my watch, but who's counting), they released what felt like a million balloons that had been taking up the seats behind the stage. it was madness for a while, everyone was hugging and kissing and reveling in the newness of 2010. the band took a little hiatus, and we moved towards the back to be fully enveloped by the sights and sounds of dark side of the moon.

welcome to a really, really great light show.







i really like the flaming lips' (with star death and white dwarves) take on dark side of the moon. any hippie worth his or her sea salt knows the album inside and out, and the flaming lips do a great job of honoring the original material while adding their own experimental slant. before they started playing, they had the audience all set our cell phones for 12:55 am. it was a delightfully modern twist on "time" when cell phone alarms rang out in place of bells.



all in all, this show was definitely one of the best of 2009 for me, and a great way to ring in the new year. it was even worth having to wait for over an hour before we could snag a cab in the cold chill of oklahoma. we finally prevailed when jason bonded with a cabbie by bribing him with twenty bucks. at any rate, i'm sure jason and i will be going next year. hope to see you all there.