review: the flaming lips

Most recently the Lips have been working on a film in addition to their relentless touring schedule that began with the drop of 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Their shows have changed very little over the last couple of years, and they have maintained a fairly stable set list featuring complicated synching of sound and video projection. However, there was a chance that Allgood would provide an opportunity for variation, as they have been in the studio working on new material now projected to be out in early 2006, titled At War with the Mystics. They have a new track getting some exposure from the "The Wedding Crashers" movie soundtrack, but it rather than psychedelic rocking or jam-band experimentation, it sounds more like adult contemporary. So after seeing their show four times in two years, Bloodless was betting on more of the same. Bloodless was mostly right, but with a couple of very interesting exceptions. Dispensing with their usual Carmina Burana balloon extravaganza the Flaming Lips started with their video introduction and the usual "Race for the Prize" opener. From there the setlist diverged into "Whaaaa?!" as the psychedelic rockers took a detour into the prog rock homeland with Bohemian Rhapsody. In some recent interviews, Coyne has credited the band's participation on a Queen tribute CD to pushing their new material in a more prog rock direction. The Allgood performance showed a marked increase in political commentary – even over last year’s Coachella, including Steven Drozd “Riffing on Rumsfeld” singing a little ditty using the "known knowns" quote. Then after saying "They'll let us do one more only if you go so apeshit they think something bad will happen" Rummy and the rest of the Bush foreign policy crew appeared in the flashing video behind the encore of War Pigs. Who knew the Lips could do Sabbath so well?

back