GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-ONE
Who
One lesson I finally took on board was that visiting the chip shop before a gig can leave you feeling queasy so I went for the sensible alternative of KFC before heading home then back out into Birmingham. There was some rain but it could have been worse and in particular the weather was warmer than it had any right to be for November. I was txting my good friend Tom to try and arrange a meet-up but my priority was firmly focused on seeing The Flaming Lips and finding the new Academy, which was further away from the centre than I'd envisaged! Amazingly this was the eighth time I'd seen the Lips and I knew it would be a rush but as I already was having eight days off work it would have been cheeky to ask for even more hours off! The map I'd printed off to help me locate the new Academy wasn't very helpful but I got there by following the crowds and ignoring the touts, arriving at around 8pm, one hour after the doors had opened. The venue was a little confusing but thankfully there were no searches to delay me further and I realised I'd come in from the left side and it would be a challenge to get a good position. The room was already rammed and people seemed to go out of their way to knock into me. I eventually got a reasonable position just in front of the balcony to watch the support band who were already onstage. I found out afterwards that they were called Stardeath And White Dwarfs and the lead singer is Wayne Coyne's nephew. Due to my poor position and the time elapsed since writing this up I'm afraid to say they just passed me by without making much of an impression, my notes simply stating that they were noisy and had long songs. Also towards the end they said they were finishing then carried on, plus they delivered a somewhat predictable tribute to the Lips.
I could quickly tell that the venue was an improvement on the old Academy, but how could it be anything but? For starters the strobe lights didn't hurt your eyes and the sound was loud but clearer. Generally the room looked slightly bigger and smarter and I was so impressed I'd rate it almost a quarter as good as the Civic! Once the support band finished I edged my way forwards, my continued high beer standards making it easy to avoid the undoubted mediocrity of the bar. It was certainly annoying to be behind all the new fans and I definitely felt I had a God-given right to push in front of them. In a pleasant surprise I then bumped into Tom, who I'd given up hope of meeting due to how busy it was! We settled for a reasonable spot around the middle behind the typical freakishly large headed people and waited for the show to start. As usual the band set up their own equipment (with help from roadies) before the lights dimmed and Wayne came onstage with what could only be termed a health and safety announcement. He warned us about the strobe lights and to look away if it all became too tense, plus gave some tips for the balloon stunt which, to cheers, he confirmed they'd be doing tonight, and he made the front row aware of the potential dangers. Wayne also apologised in advance for if he should pronounce Birmingham wrongly, before the band did some final checks for the show. In fact Wayne was at the side of the stage seemingly practising punching the air at one point! They also had a cool/huge video screen which looked like the upper half of a gong which dominated the stage, even if the screen was of a lower quality than usual.
By now time was getting on and it had become clear that this would be a shortish set. However they then delighted me with a soundcheck! Although the lights weren't dimmed and the band didn't make as much of a deal of it as they should have done, Kilph did the appropriate pointing and they also blasted some very loud music after announcing, for example, "this is the left speaker at 130 decibels". It was cool and the best part was I've since found an MP3 of it and am now able to do my own soundchecks - I never realised that left and right had been mixed up on my very own speakers, which shows that soundchecks have a serious role to play! The introduction music was then played which included In Excelsior Vaginalistic from the Christmas On Mars soundtrack accompanied by a woman on screen dancing naked before sitting down and opening her legs. By now the lights were dimmed and we were entering a frenzy and then a door in the video screen opened up and the band, unbelievably, came out of her vagina!? It was the craziest but most ingenious entrance imaginable, especially as they'd gone to great efforts to hide the fact that there was a door in the video screen. Immediately I commented on how the hell I'd explain this when I got home, but there you have it! Wayne and his team then took their time inflating Wayne's balloon before he entered the crowd and went over all our heads for a few amazing minutes. I can't imagine ever getting tired of this! By the time Wayne got back to the stage everything was ready for the highly-welcome Race For The Prize, which was as delirious as usual and nicely drawn out. On the left we had male yetis and there were lady yetis on the right and more balloons than I ever dreamed possible were released!
It was a great start even if the moshpit was smaller than the song deserved (as usual) and the big heads in front hurt my neck a little. Also the band appeared to have gained a new guitarist who was even introduced by Wayne! As Wayne's face mic was switched on a girl made the hilarious heckle of "Wayne you sexy beast!" which completely caught him off guard. Also more balloons than anyone expected were still bouncing around and Wayne commented that, just in case we were wondering, they do use the same number of balloons at each show. As the small ones were gradually popped, huge balloons filled with glitter were intermittently unleashed. However, either due to a more focused attitude or the lack of time, the band spent little time chit chatting. Silver Trembling Hands was next up and we were encouraged to scream it back when prompted and it was the most successful of the Embryonic tunes. Then The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song had its intro sheered off seeing as Bush was thankfully no more but it hadn't lost any of its power. I'd had little idea how the band would have changed their set/show but one of the more divisive decisions was reworking some classics. I've never been too keen on Fight Test and I enjoyed the new slow version which brought out the underlying tune, even if they did draw it out a bit too long. However I can understand how people who'd never seen the Lips before may have been disappointed and I could definitely hear the similarity with Father And Son by Cat Stevens. Still, the volume at which it was sung back suggested that this was still much enjoyed!
In The Morning Of The Magicians was as unwelcome as ever though and frankly unforgivable considering the limited time. Its only element of interest was that the large inflatable mascots were unleashed around this point, including the fast-dancing caterpillar king and the ever-stationery gay salamander! I can forgive Convinced Of The Hex as it was one of the better new songs but playing Evil was unnecessary. It was preceded with a speech from Wayne about evil people but the newer songs passed much of the crowd by and See The Leaves was similarly superfluous. Wayne was trying to get us to scream but I think the band knew that this mid-section had been too slow for its own good and decided to pick up the pace again. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1 was the obvious crowd-pleaser and again they played the slow version which made a welcome change to my ears, even if it went on a bit. Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung however was the definitive example of the band doing their own thing and succeeding as they wheeled out a gong with strobe lights which lit up whenever it was hit (although one light was slightly off!). The song itself may not be their best but the spectacle made it one of the high points of the evening! I was then caught off guard by a song they claimed to have been playing for several years and would continue to do so until the war had finished. It was Taps, which is an American trumpet-led piece regularly played at funerals. Wayne made us do the peace sign and it was a touching little moment but was more suited to an American audience I think?
The W.A.N.D. is a much more exciting war song and I'm starting to appreciate it more and more, even if its sensory overload would still be better utilised for Lightning Strikes The Postman! It was around this point when Wayne explained why The Flaming Lips audience is the best in the world and about how some of us are having a great time despite sadness in our lives and so forth. He also praised how we got into the spirit of the show by treating their balloons as magical orbs from space! Wayne then threatened to play Vein Of Stars but thankfully sensed our resistance to this tedious ballad and launched into She Don't Use Jelly instead! All the usual tricks were in place, namely the chat show introduction, the video and the blowing up of the huge balloon at the end. By now I knew I'd be missing the train but didn't mind as clearly the Lips had saved the best for last (which they don't always!) and this was also the final night of the tour. It was a delight to see the crowd appreciating She Don't Use Jelly as much as it deserved, as the hysteria perhaps reached its high point as the real fans sung back every word and the non-believers were also swept along in the excitement! This brought the main set to a wonderful end and Captain America appeared to split the crowd into two halves and engage us in a screaming competition before the Lips returned to the stage.
Do You Realize?? was the obvious but welcome choice, the only sadness being that this was a one-song encore. It had its usual chat show introduction plus a new drawn-out ending as insane amounts of glitter were released into the crowd. I wished they'd followed it with A Spoonful Weights A Ton but it wasn't to be and I guess they'd played late enough already. I'd gathered two small bits of confetti as mementos and had quite a sore throat thanks to singing along so much. We'd missed the last train back but the finale had been unmissable. It's just a shame that the middle section had been so saggy! We jumped on a busy train back to Wolverhampton and my sore throat made talking quite a chore but for the sake of economics I resisted buying a drink. Annoyingly I had no choice but to consent to a taxi ripping me off to get home but as I didn't have work the next day I stayed up to start drafting the review, those notes sadly not being accompanied by many recollections at the time of writing! It's a shame as my gigging record is one of my life's more amazing achievements but at least in writing these reviews I get a chance to reflect and ensure the key elements are documented! The Flaming Lips remain amazing even if Gogol Bordello offer a compelling alternative in the best live band in the world department. Also next time I hope to see the Lips in a better venue, I'll be more familiar with Embryonic and I think the set will be better balanced, so a good show can only improve!
Mark: 9.0/10
The Flaming Lips
Support
Stardeath And White Dwarfs
Where
Birmingham O2 Academy
When
17th November 2009
Price
£20.00
Who with
Tom
Position
In the middle
Comments
My preparation started off when I ordered the special edition of Embryonic online and had to wait weeks for it to arrive in the most unnecessarily large packaging ever. Still, inside was a medium-sized poster plus a furry (yes, furry) version of the album on two CDs and a DVD, so I guess it was worth the wait. I also had enough chances to hear it for it to start to sink in, plus I listened to the rest of their (frankly huge) back catalogue too. It's a good thing I was so intent on my forthcoming holiday to Eastern Europe as otherwise I'd had been furious when Status Quo postponed their Stoke On Trent gig just two days before this. It was the worst publicised cancellation ever, featuring just an A4 notice subtly stuck to the doors of the venue, and the final straw was when the booking agent had the nerve to send through a "did you enjoy the show?" email the next day. This was bad, but my consolation was the thought of not having to spend hours crafting a review afterwards, plus the fact I'd seen them play before! After venturing all the way to Stoke-on-Trent we enjoyed an Indian meal which included a starter served on hot rocks which poisoned me slightly, plus on the day of this show I endured problems printing holiday emails, but it just didn't matter, I had things to look forwards to, so exciting that they've delayed my writing of this review by several weeks!
Setlist
Soundcheck
Intro (In Excelsior Vaginalistic)
Race For The Prize
Silver Trembling Hands
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
Fight Test
In The Morning Of The Magicians
Convinced Of The Hex
Evil
See The Leaves
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1
Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung
Taps
The W.A.N.D.
She Don't Use Jelly
Do You Realize??
