The Flaming Lips | Wednesday, April 21

Flaming Lips at Riverside Theater

In the still-futuristic-sounding year of 2010, a review of a Flaming Lips show can sometimes be nothing more than a series of answers to increasingly familiar questions: Were giant balloons and confetti involved? Were audience members dressed up as pandas and shit? Did front man Wayne Coyne enter in an inflatable hamster ball? Did he do that thing with the nun puppet? Was he at any point covered in fake blood? Will any of this ever get old?

Of course, what’s often overlooked is the Lips’ music, a fact that didn’t seem to bother the Oklahoma freak-rockers during Tuesday night’s sold-out show at the Riverside Theater. (For the record, the answers to the above questions are yes, no, yes, no, no, and no.) Dwarfed by a giant, half-moon video screen that frequently featured looped footage of sparkling, naked ladies, Coyne and company wasted no time in creating a spectacle that few 21st century groups would even dare to attempt. The costumed furries of yore were replaced by fans dressed in orange Oompa-Loompa jumpsuits, while a video camera mounted on Coyne’s mic stand gave the audience a trippy, fish-eyed view of the lead singer. Later in show, Coyne even donned giant Hulk hands that shot out green lasers from their palms. All in a night’s work.

The bulk of the evening’s songs were drawn from the group’s previous two albums, last year’s Embryonic and 2006’s little-loved At War With The Mystics. “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” came across surprisingly well, however, while the rest of the set leaned heavily on the Lips’ penchant for blown-out psychedelia. A pared-down version of “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” and a dutiful performance of “She Don’t Use Jelly” served as welcome sing-alongs late in the show, though selections from the group’s most adored album, The Soft Bulletin, were sorely missed. The Lips’ allegiance to Pink Floyd was also given plenty of play, with the group covering The Dark Side Of The Moon’s “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse.”

In the end, the unabashedly sincere “Do You Realize??” served as the Lips’ parting shot, with Coyne imploring the audience to throw up good old fashioned peace signs. It was during ridiculous, euphoric moments like this when any number of thoughts crossed your mind: The Flaming Lips have been playing for nearly 30 years. Wayne Coyne is almost 50. Where do they get all that confetti? 2010 still seems like the future. Peace still seems like a good idea. Dear God, this never gets old.

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