In 2002, British pop music ‘zine Q wrote that The Flaming Lips were one of the “50 bands to see before you die.” Well, your opportunity will never be better than when the band arrives at the Pavilion next Tuesday, September 12.
The Flaming Lips formed in Oklahoma City (of all places) in 1983, when leader Wayne Coyne stole some musical gear from a local church hall. The band made their live debut in a transvestite club in Norman, and then released a self-titled LP on green vinyl. Over the next 20 years, through the arrival and departure of various bandmates, Coyne has led the Lips through a career of both critically respected music and a series of live experiments and concert happenings that have made them legendary. Coyne’s genius lies not merely in the fact that he thought these things up, but that he actually did them.
Always looking for a live spectacle, the Lips’ shows in the late ’80s featured a particularly dangerous trick: They would fill a cymbal with alcohol, light it on fire and, at some point, the drummer would bash the cymbal, sending flames leaping all over the stage. Stage gear was incinerated, audience members scattered, and Coyne’s brother (and then-lead singer), Michael, was sent scurrying for a fire extinguisher to put out the inferno. The band only attempted this stunt twice, but at one of the shows, an A&R person for major label Warner Brothers signed them.
The Lips continued making records and touring, but their ascendance was anything but deliberate. In 1993, Transmissions From the Satellite Heart was considered a commercial bust, but a year after its release the tune “She Don’t Use Jelly” somehow hit the radio, and, against all odds, the band found itself with a U.S. Top 40 hit. It would be their only one. The band also lip-synced a memorable appearance on “Beverly Hills 90210.” But their true claim to fame was their sonic experiments and live performances.
In the 1990s, Coyne became very interested in sonic happenings—and not just in the studio. At one point, he assembled 40 cars in a parking lot and had each driver start 40 separately recorded tapes of his music and sounds on the cars’ sound systems while he sat in the middle. This led to the band’s Warner release, Zaireeka, which consisted of four separate CDs, meant to be played simultaneously on four CD players. (Somehow, the label that would not release Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot thought this was a viable proposition.) Then Coyne took this experiment to another level: He invited an audience of varying sizes to a performance, gave everyone a customized boombox with sounds that he had recorded, and then conducted the boomboxes to play and be turned off as he desired. In true Lips’ fashion, the band actually took this idea on tour.
On bigger stages, the band was equally adventurous. At a Texas show in 1999, Coyne handed out headphones and pocket radios to audience members. While the band played in front of a huge video screen, the techs transmitted the show via FM from the soundboard. This meant that the audience heard the loud bass sounds live from the PA, but also a clear hi-fi mix from the phones.
Coyne would sometimes emerge from a smoke-filled stage, wearing a strobe light around his neck and singing into a megaphone. Sometimes he played tunes while covered in fake blood. The video element was always in play, from hand puppets to high-tech lighting and video. Audience members got into the act as well, and Coyne encouraged fans to bring ray guns, balloons, and all sorts of visual elements to add to the show. His credo is: “You came to see a show. We came to put on a show. Let’s do it.”
Anyone who has seen the Lips recently, including their tour as Beck’s backing band, will tell you stories about confetti, mirror balls and people running around the stage in bunny suits. I have always loved the band’s music, which sometimes comes as close to ’70s prog rock as you can comfortably get, but is also tuneful, funny and psychedelic. Coyne and The Flaming Lips have created the equivalent of a surreal modern opera, with music at the center, but probably best experienced live. For fans of the band, as well as the curious, the Pavilion show should be an unforgettable concert adventure.