Who
The Flaming Lips
Support
Public Service Broadcasting
Amber Run
Hoople Blue
Where
Birmingham O2 Academy
When
12th August 2017
Price
£35.00
Who with
No-one
Position
In the middle
Comments
After travelling to London to see The Lips in January I really wasn't expecting a second opportunity in 2017, but when the guys announced a cheap outdoor show at a mysterious new venue in Birmingham on a Saturday night, how could any sane person resist? During the show I was trying to figure out if this was the 9th or 10th time I'd seen the band, but in fact I believe it's the 11th, which I suspect would make them my third most seen band ever after SFA and Half Man Half Biscuit. I purchased the new Lips album and was doubly excited that Public Service Broadcasting - who'd so wonderfully stood alongside Super Furry Animals and Manic Street Preachers in Swansea the year before and came out of it well - were to be the main support act. I invested in their first two albums but didn't get around to buying the third that came out a month before the show, although I must say I felt real disappointment that the up tempo PSB numbers were few and far between, with most of the material making little impact on my first couple of listens, giving me little motivation to find the time to really get to know their album tracks. I was also extraordinarily busy, having come back from a holiday in Yorkshire, where Hull had somehow upstaged York thanks to being quieter and not charging you a fortune to do everything, and trying to get up to date with TV, which felt like a losing game. I do sometimes wonder exactly where my time goes, but the summer featured a Wolf trail in Wolverhampton and a Bear one in Birmingham, which meant that my weekends were pretty full with the intense desire to cross them all off my list, an exercise I was still yet to complete at the time of writing, and which has consumed my weekends to the point that I'm only starting to write up this review over three weeks after the show, despite my best intentions to keep on top of everything.

I was bitterly disappointed when the intriguing Rainbow Venues venue near the Custard Factory was struck off the plan, with an email announcing that the show had been moved to the shitty Birmingham Academy. To be fair as it was The Flaming Lips I'd had gone anyway, but I'd been really looking forward to checking out a new arena, and with a strong line-up of four acts and an early 5pm start I'd been expecting a festival atmosphere. A second email gave the reason as licensing problems, but whether that was a smokescreen to hide a real reason, such as a lack of ticket sales from the idiotic Birmingham crowds, I'll never know. The Academy didn't seem particularly busy - or at least not until PSB took to the stage - and also had closed off the balconies, and Wayne made no mention to what the original plans were, but it seemed clear that any fault rested with the organisers or ignorant music fans passing up the chance to see the finest purveyors of live music around, and the band couldn't be faulted. It was in fact my first time at the Academy since Gogol Bordello in 2014, making me wonder how I've managed to avoid it, or if it's more of a reflection that my favourite artists choose to avoid it too! I wore my Furrymania SFA top as praised by Kliph way back in 2002, and prepared myself for a dry day, which apart from a brief shower it indeed was. I should have wore a sun hat though, but as usual the forecasters failed to inform me just how strong the sun would be. I changed my jeans to those with the deepest pockets out of justified paranoia after the shitshow I'd endured in London, starting the day of the gig off with a refreshing swim. I heard The Flaming Lips on the way in and read NME, tearing out a lovely picture of Wayne to take home and save. This weekend was my second on the Birmingham bear trail, but I'd made a great start on the city centre already so focused on the outskirts, except for going inside the Bullring Church and outside ThinkTank, venturing also to West Bromwich and being sad that I didn't have more time to wander around Sandwell Park and the farm inside, which seemed a shockingly impressive tourist attraction and park for a town not noted for its beauty!

I headed back to the Jewellery Quarter and was pleased I could see the full trail without any fuss, having hoped to visit the Museum too but being short on time, noting that the same fantastic miniatures exhibition by Willard Wigan I'd seen in the Wolverhampton Chubb Buildings was there, but feeling thankful that I'd already visited it. I walked back into town via St Paul's and went to Steelhouse Lane Lock-Up, which was a recently closed jail I'd purchased tickets for and bizarrely was opposite the Children' Hospital! It was ludicrously over-crowded, making me wonder why they didn't take advantage of the interest and turn it into a regular attraction like the fantastic Shrewsbury Prison, but it was still good to see another new place in our second city, which somehow still has plenty to offer that I haven't explored before. I got a blank wristband I saved anyway and preceded the visit with a shitty milkshake from an American diner, which could have been wonderful but was ruined by the addition of cream that I didn't ask for nor was it advertised. Although the concert was looming I got the tram to Handsworth Park to cross two more bears off my list, before taking the risk of a bus back to the city centre after enjoying dinner at KFC. I remembered to keep well hydrated and purchased a large drink with my meal as one of many refreshments of the day, with the cashier impressively swapping the incorrectly poured regular-sized drink for a large one without my having to point out she'd done it wrong. I had held hopelessly ambitious thoughts to enjoy a proper sit-down meal but time had ran away from me, as I dashed to Birmingham Academy for around 6pm, after being searched and realising that the venue was still quiet after 1 hour of open doors and the balcony was fully curtained off. The room felt bigger than it normally does although I'm surprised that it has the same capacity as the Civic, although I fear most of those were people unable to see a thing thanks to the over-hanging balcony. I was surprised by the wall-to-wall bars around the perimeter though, and I guess if I was inclined to drink awful beer I'd have been well served here!

I didn't see any drunkenness though as the crowd seemed aware that enjoyment would be guaranteed without any extra stimulation necessary, but it was tough not to knock drinks out of people's hands as they were standing too close to me, and my elbows seemed to keep getting in the way. I spotted a young kid with his Dad being introduced to some decent music, and also a guy in an exceptionally bright luminous top. There were also a twatty couple meticulously ignoring the stage and the music, and the corners of the venue were decorated with four giant inflatable red mushrooms, which were unexpectedly deflated just before the main event. I felt quite shit after being out since early morning, which is perhaps the big downside to having such an ambitious day out, but I easily secured a good position, and luckily thanks to no real pushing, idiots or moshing I was able to stand my ground. First band Hoople Blue had started at 5:45pm and were finishing off their set as I arrived, and as such I can't comment on them at all. The DJ teased us with the spoken intro tape to Do You Realize, before playing The Golden Path, which I've only heard the band performing once as technically it is credited to The Chemical Brothers. Next up were Amber Run at 6:45pm, who were a five-piece band with a singer who looked like Jon Snow and keyboardist who was the spitting image of Trey Parker. They were enthusiastic and went down well, earning some goodwill for admitting that they'd thought of quitting, before playing the song they'd written that had given them the motivation to continue. It was tough to tell whether the vibes were just good or if a few people actually knew the material, but the crowd joined in with hand claps and the disco ball above the band was prominent, and although they didn't stand out as particularly excellent to me they seemed like good guys, and the general atmosphere of the evening was clearly positive despite the change of venue. If it could feel so good somewhere so shit how awesome could it have been if the original vision had been fulfilled?

The atmosphere was damaged by some disgusting guy who seemingly shat himself, making me wonder if the same person who'd pulled this trick at both Happy Mondays shows I'd seen had developed a penchant for American psychedelic space rock too? Let's hope not! It was horrible, and I moved forward a little. The strobe lights to the side of the stage made a couple of very dodgy explosion noises to worried looks from us but no concern from the stage, and by the time it hit 8pm and Public Service Broadcasting were due onstage the room had really filled up. It was fantastic that the fans had got the memo that The Wonder Stuff crowd had missed that this was no ordinary so-so support slot but a worthy contender to the main event, and I do wonder if it was knowledge of their music or general open-mindedness that meant PSB were so well-received. Certainly if I hadn't seen them in Swansea I'd have had no idea how good they were, although I can tell that they were catchy enough to make a good impression on those who didn't know a note because when they were catchy they were ludicrously so! The guys were backed up with three small screens and it really felt like they'd been awarded the same production values that they could expect as a headliner, which really allows us to connect and appreciate them, and also helps hype us up and enjoy the main event more. I hadn't shot any videos during Amber Run but made up for this with PSB, starting off during Progress, which was the flagship single from their third album. This captured the band comfortably nodding away and the sound coming across as muffled on my camera, and it was great to see the K I'd later inherit clearly visible in the background! My second video featured one of the guys filming his band mates with studious concentration, the footage being projected onto the screen to segue into the stock backdrops. It was sad that PSB had chosen to be more conventional by actually speaking to us, only bringing out the electronic thank you's a few times, and not saying the name of Birmingham in that hilariously pre-programmed computerised way we'd enjoyed the Swansea Liberty Stadium shout-out a year earlier.

Public Service Broadcasting declared that they'd be playing a few from their new album but I felt confident that they would eventually deliver the hits, and was pleased to be proved gloriously correct! During Go! I succeeded in capturing the title of the song on the video screen and I shot a third video, featuring the crowd chanting "Go!" with real recognition and better sound and picture quality than I'd obtained earlier. The three brass guys did the same wonderful trick of showing up during the most exciting moments, and although I couldn't tell if they were the same trio at least one of them was definitely from before, and they repeated the same genius high five and duck trick they'd done last time around during Gagarin! As much as I like Go! this was Gagarin's night, and it was a double-hitter that perhaps stole the show by virtue of the fact it felt fresh and exciting, whereas as brilliant as The Flaming Lips are I have heard it all before, and they now draw proceedings out so much it sadly does often detract from the excitement. I shot three videos in all during Gagarin, first capturing the intro and one of the guys playing the trombone like an air guitar, before rocking out and then delivering a perfectly timed salute when the Russian hero was mentioned! There was even some moshing in front! My next video captured the brass trio dancing during the instrumental section and when a spaceman appeared out of nowhere in a full spacesuit and started to dance around the stage I couldn't resist capturing this moment too! It was so catchy and wonderful that I doubt anyone was unmoved, and the rapturous applause was so fantastic that it set a very high benchmark for The Flaming Lips to live up to. What was a contender for the best indoor support slot I've ever seen followed this fantastic one-two of their two greatest songs with an anti-climactic Everest, which was a strange choice but at least it helped to bring us back down to earth and ticked what would otherwise have been a minor omission off the list. Earlier on we'd also got Spitfire, so the guys had lived up to my expectation of delivering the hits but also finding time for the requisite new tunes.

The Flaming Lips had plenty of chance to get ready for their 9:30pm start, with all the members appearing ahead of time, with Wayne in a red suit and sporting an eye patch getting a particularly large cheer. Twitter suggests that the eye patch was due to an injury but it was also clearly doubling as a fashion accessory, and I must say that Wayne made it a great look, capturing a pirate spirit that had been unleashed many years beforehand on the Spongebob And Patrick Confront The Psychic Wall Of Energy song, which suited the band down to the ground. It was also a delight when the curtains of the balcony were pulled back to reveal that PSB and their entourage had secured themselves prime seats and were waving to us. Michael Ivins as ever was quiet and in the background, and two band members sported green wigs, including the drummer. Stephen took in drums, guitar and keyboards as well as some announcements and chat, and it's hard to grasp that The Flaming Lips were a genuinely potent musical force even before he'd joined! Wayne chatted to us before the start, asking us to scream, and telling us how the Newquay crowd the night before had emitted some impressive high-pitched noises that we had to live up to. Although when I check the setlist and see that those lucky bastards had got to enjoy What Is The Light? The Observer, Feeling Yourself Disintegrate AND She Don't Use Jelly it's no wonder that they were screaming! Although it was frustrating that they received a far superior setlist to what we'd enjoy, we still rose to the challenge of screaming loudly, making me realise that even though music lovers in Birmingham may be thin on the ground, at least the fans who'd made the effort of attending did have taste. Although I do wonder how they could have previously played the NIA, and just how so many fuckwits could have turned up to that but not been motivated to return for more. I accept that the newer albums hadn't quite measured up since At War With The Mystics, and in turn this output was weak compared to the glorious under appreciated stuff that the guys were doing in the 1990s, but still, the live show was so extraordinary by comparison with others that there's little excuse to miss out, and the fact that I had to attend alone was a sorry state of affairs.

The Lips started as they intended to go on, with a very drawn-out start before opener Race For The Prize. I had now firmly switched to my new strategy of shooting many short videos throughout the concert, although until I get a new and improved PC and stereo system I do have little opportunity to listen back to them. My first video was a very short and blurry interpretation of the band launching into the song proper, but my second one was a devastatingly clear record of a fantastic moment, capturing balloons, moshing, the disco ball up above, confetti, and the crowd singing along to the instrumentation before the first lines. Perhaps The Lips should be looking for another opener, but it's hard to imagine anything that can measure up, and I have absolutely no complaints! The video screen was simple, focusing on colours, and to be fair given the volume of balloons and confetti there was only so much visual stimulation we could take anyway. I stowed some of the confetti in my pockets, and although the start was unnecessarily drawn out and not as thrilling as the openers of the past, once it had got going it was really something to behold! After Prize was a brief moment when the lights went dark and we could hear a brutal popping of balloons that had found their way to the stage, and Wayne then re-emerged holding a giant silver chain of balloons spelling out "FUCK YEAH BIRMINGHAM"! It was the same fantastic greeting we'd received in London, although as the name was longer it was a little more ambitious, and when Wayne tossed it toward us I was ready, finding that the K in fuck was directly above me and managing to secure it with no real competition. Even better, I captured a great video of Wayne waving the balloons aloft before tossing them toward me and I accidentally kept it running as I was wrestling for the balloon. I now had a firm hold of the K at waist level, and interestingly some of the letters were being tossed around for a good while, suggesting that few fans were keen enough to try to get this fantastic memento home!

Next up was Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt. 1, which again started off slowly but Wayne didn't stop us to redo the karate kick bit for once! Behind him an inflatable pink robot was being blown up, with a roadie guiding it into position and Wayne holding it up so it wouldn't crush him, and the robot was an intriguing design that seemed to be deliberately evoking a robotic penis vibe! This was a great new moment and I captured a video of the robot slowly being inflated, by now managing to shoot excellent picture quality because I was a good distance from the stage - close enough to see well but far enough not to be stuck in a crush. Wayne then vanished for There Should Be Unicorns, and I was expecting him to re-emerge from the back of the stage so was surprised when he appeared far to our left on his unicorn, being gently guided through the crowd by roadies as the song progressed, although sadly this meant I got a worse view than the lazy gits who were hanging at the rear bar! I don't know how Wayne can interact so closely with a crowd and get them to part, but the man must be confident in our goodwill and in The Flaming Lips crowd not acting like dicks! He'd found time to change from red to green, and I shot three videos of the moment, the first being very blurred and shaky, and the second being similarly bad, as I didn't realise I was filming amid the excitement. By my third attempt I did better, although practically everyone else was trying to film Wayne on his unicorn too, and it was a special moment for all concerned, and the kind of excess we could only have dreamed of back at V2000 when their talent was at its peak but the budget slightly more limited! Wayne joked about a lady in the audience being 110 years old and looking good for her age, saying that her favourite song was Do You Realize but that they were holding it back for their finale, and out of fear for her being too pissed later they would sing her happy birthday now. She was pointed out as being on someone's shoulders and I'm not sure if this was pre-planned or in response to a heckle or sign, but Stephen led a singalong with some very distorted vocals, finding space yet again for one of Wayne's favourite tunes. I'm sure I also heard the same lady who'd heckled Wayne with "you sexy beast" repeating the same magic comment from eight years previous in the same venue!

Next up was Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung, with my video showing Wayne jumping around like a boxer sparring, loads of red lights, and although you couldn't hear the gong it was great how the strobe lights around it lit up when it was hit! There were also many twat hands in the air blocking my view, and the couple next to me had even invested in some glowing illuminated gloves, but it didn't detract from the moment, and this unusual regular number was started to worm its way into our affections. I'd recorded The Flaming Lips live at Glastonbury from BBC iPlayer but hadn't got round to listening again until after this show, but I'd been impressed that The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song had returned to the setlist, as it was more pertinent than ever in this time of political fuckwittery, and it's reached a point where Wayne no longer felt the need to say anything about it, perhaps being so burned out by politics that he wanted to avoid the subject, or sensing that things were getting so bad and the badness so painfully obvious that it no longer needed a mention, and we should instead try to escape from it. I was thrilled that The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song was present and correct tonight, although the minimalist flashing of the affirmative word on the screen was nothing compared to the full-on video that the song had enjoyed in the past. Wayne resisted the urge to do a full-on slow introduction - which is unusual as this is a rare song that genuinely benefits from one - but it was still a highlight, with my video capturing a full minute of the intro and Wayne swishing around a plastic sheet like it was Superman's cape, before I cut it out once he'd hit the first line proper. Great stuff! How?? was the second of just two numbers from Oczy Mlody, and the only tune that I failed to shoot a video for. It's good, but I'm surprised that the guys didn't choose to rely more heavily on their new material, making me wonder if it was due to a massive focus on being crowd-pleasers or if The Lips had sensed that the new material just wasn't as exciting as much of the old? Next up was Space Oddity, where Wayne again clambered into the bubble and sang most of it from the stage, before his customary trip into the crowd and managing to head right to the back of the room.

I shot a stonking four videos here, the first being very dark as the bubble was inflated amid lovely instrumentation, the second being a crackly one of Wayne singing amid red lights and many Twat Hands, the third being a short and hopelessly blurry one of Wayne at the back of the crowd, before I finally nailed it with some clear images of Wayne singing, and even some clear footage of the footage through the screen of another camera focused on Wayne. He made a long speech afterwards about how they'd been moved to play it live after Bowie's passing, and had grown to love performing it and just had stuck at it, and how lines such as "tell my wife I love her so" were so powerful. He also joked about being out of control in the bubble and a guy not seeing him coming, and it's pleasing to see that Wayne seems to enjoy this moment almost as much as the crowd do! Wayne also encouraged us to scream, join in, and help people who were generally having a shit time to bring some fun and positivity to the evening. It was all admirable, but I am starting to wish that the guys would throw more tunes in, as sorting their Glastonbury set afterwards it made me realise how ludicrously long they dedicated to each song, with so many being unnecessarily drawn-out, and sometimes at the expense of large portions of the full-on performance. The Flaming Lips are fantastic and I am supremely confident that someone who'd never seen them before would be even more impressed than I was, but at the same time I remain aware that they used to cram more material in, and the shows had felt tighter and more focused, and as a result the speeches had seemed even more uplifting and powerful in the past. The disco ball was lowered for Are You A Hypnotist??, making me worry it would knock Wayne out, and my video of the introduction captured the minimalist visuals, with just two flashing lights inducing epileptic fits for anyone unfortunate enough to suffer from such things, before I cut out the recording as Wayne hit the first line. I hadn't invested as much time as I should have done reminding myself of The Flaming Lips back catalogue so had almost entirely forgotten about The W.A.N.D., but it felt good when the two large inflatable eyes took their place on stage, and although I was sad not to see the strobe light vest it did mean this number could finally stand on its own two feet - or is that eyes? - rather than being a poor replacement for Lightning Strikes The Postman.

I shot my longest video of two minutes here too, including the slow burn introduction and Wayne hyping us up and encouraging us to do a rather complex clapping rhythm, before the guitars kicked in after some teasing bursts. This video ended amid some apeshit strobes, then I shot a much shorter and blurrier one of the climax. The main set then ended in great fashion with A Spoonful Weighs A Ton, which was cruelly dropped from the running order in the past but I am pleased to see it has become a regular number again. I still sorely miss the Teletubbies backdrop though, but my video captured the slow introduction and a radiating simple sun effect, as Wayne hyped us up before hitting that wonderful chorus, as amazingly my camera didn't explode amid the bass frequencies! At the end the word "LOVE" was flashed on the screen and Wayne even went old school and hand-tossed some confetti at us out of a bin bag, and on my video I captured a lovely glimpse of Stephen beaming a smile at Wayne, suggesting that the vibes in the band were good, which is sometimes hard to tell as the focus is so firmly on Wayne and his relentlessly positive attitude. I believe only Wayne left the stage because time was short, and the set finished as promised with Do You Realize?? I shot a video of the slow introduction (slow yet again!) and hands waving as it came into focus, then a short and sharp final clip near the end. The rainbow was inflated across the stage in the brief interval when Wayne had been offstage, but on the screen I could see that the classic original Realize video was being played, in one of the few moments when genuine background footage was used rather than just colours and lights. After a 9:30pm start the show drew to a close shortly after the 11pm curfew, and somehow they'd only managed to squeeze 11 numbers in. I guess it's a credit to the band that the show didn't hopelessly drag because of this, but this statistic does put the time-wasting into perspective a bit!

After I left the room clutching my K I stopped briefly to take a photo of the illuminated sign outside the venue, before teaming up with the guy who'd acquired the C so we wouldn't feel so weird clutching massive silver inflatable letters and walking through Birmingham on a Saturday night. We feared they were starting to deflate but it's still absolutely fine for me three weeks on, and I squeezed in some top quality jokes about needing to find the F so we could sell chicken, securing a high scrabble score, and that I'd need to steal the unicorn next time to live up to this moment! He seemed a top guy who lived in Oxford and had actually been in Swansea to see Public Service Broadcasting, so had been fully aware of their genius too. Once at New Street Station I allowed myself to be drawn toward the soft drinks on sale, before being brave enough to walk away upon seeing the disgraceful £2.50 price tag, then I waited for the last train, trying to keep my K subtly hidden and hanging around the side of the platform. A girl called Keisha was enthused by my K and insisted on a photo with me and it, but the conversation dried up as I realised that she didn't know who The Flaming Lips were and was musically retarded, preferring the dreary sounds of Justin Bieber, so I found my own seat on the train and gave the K a spot to itself, which grew awkward as the train started to fill up, but I didn't really have an alternative, and people showed enough respect for the K to not ask me to move it! Once the band exceeded the 11pm curfew I did start to worry that it would be a late night show, so was thankful that I wouldn't be having to miss the train, as getting back under my own steam would have been an appalling pain!

I'd read that a fantastic meteor shower was due but I didn't catch a glimpse of anything, but my focus was firmly on getting the K home without some utter cunt thinking it would be funny to try and steal or pop it, and I was delighted to not only succeed, but that my silver inflatable letter is still alive and well as I write this! I couldn't resist posting on Facebook about it, although usually I am still on Facebook strike out of disgust for the Jean-Michel Jarre debacle, and frustratingly I could barely sleep, so it was fortunate that I wasn't too tired the next day and that my ears stopped whistling too, and that despite feeling shitty as I was destined to after such a long day out that it hadn't interfered with my enjoyment of the show. Not getting around to writing up my scribbled train notes properly for weeks may have meant some memories were lost, but despite a few intriguing additions this was largely the same show I'd enjoyed in London. Unusually the next day I felt far more compelled to listen to PSB than The Lips, taking advantage of my phone before my headphones stopped working with it, although I have since sent off my iPod for a long-awaited fix, and hopefully this will get me fully back into listening to music once I have the tools to do it. This concert is a pretty much automatic 9/10 because it's The Flaming Lips, and the brilliance of Public Service Broadcasting too mean that a high rating is without doubt. I am concerned about the declining studio quality of The Flaming Lips output but they can still write a decent song, and as long as they continue adding new and interesting elements to the live show and still find room for some classics I'll be happy to keep on watching them. I wish I'd got to enjoy the superior setlist that Newquay had got though, and I'd really expected She Don't Use Jelly to be back, but what I want from the guys is a longer and more concise set, with the return of some old favourites like Postman and the addition of some never-heard classics like Deathporn and Turn It On. Despite some cool things I'd never seen previously, I had heard everything before, and I would hope that enough fans have knowledge of the Lips back catalogue to also appreciate some gems next time around!
Setlist
Race For The Prize
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt. 1
There Should Be Unicorns
Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
How??
Space Oddity
Are You A Hypnotist??
The W.A.N.D.
A Spoonful Weighs A Ton
Do You Realize??

Mark: 9.0/10