Paperjam

The Flaming Lips, NIA, 9th November

Gigs // Nick // 15th November 2006

I had an awkward schedule over the previous few days involving travel two and from London four times and Edinburgh once over the previous 5 days, plus an impending work visit to the States the following day that meant there was a slight lack of enthusiasm about a dragging myself out to Brum on a school night. However I had missed the Lips previous visit to Birmingham on the flimsy excuse of yet another transatlantic trip the following day and general exhaustion that I believe is commonly known as ‘burn out’ amongst us executive professionals. Otherwise known as ‘try and do a proper days work and then complain you pampered arse’ amongst everyone else.

As our resident cynic Jim had come back from the previous gig with a smile plastered over his face that lasted for a week – beating the previous record by 6 days, 23 hours and 47 minutes – I thought it might be something that my desiccated and empty corporate soul could benefit from.

I will say that the NIA is a weird place for gigs, it being amongst other things the previous venue for top notch camp TV show Gladiators, so the ghost of Wolf stalks the concrete bunkers of the entry hall. Probably advertising hair products They also cut the arena in half rather than try to fill it in the round, so it’s kind of the NEC times a half. Even cut in half it feels too big for a decent atmosphere so I was worried whether the Lips could kick it there.

We totally missed the support, who are apparently good, and got into the standing room front whilst the headline were sound checking. Whether it is calculated or just what they do, having the band themselves pissing around on stage checking things work rather than some roadie saying ‘one, two’ into a mike is disarmingly shambolic, and sets the mood nicely – everyone is relaxed and in some ways expectations are lowered, so the start of the show is all the more striking;

The music starts, and the huge video screen that takes up the entire back curtain flickers into life. A dozen people dressed as aliens appear on the left, a dozen santas on the right, adding to the light show with a bunch of industrial sized torches. While the music builds, Wayne Coyne appears in a massive see-through hamster ball (or Zorb type thing).

Rather than just bouncing around the stage, he immediately gets thrown into the audience and is carried around half the arena before finally arriving back on stage and gets out of the ball in something like a birth, ready to start the first song proper. The shear stupidity and joy with which this is done would make you forgive anything that follows, but as the first song proper kicks in a shit-load of helium balloons the size of space hoppers fly into the audience and two air cannons shoot a ticker tape parade into the arena, covering anyone who is in the standing area. The effect is like being inside a giant lava-lamp with added pizzazz, and a soundtrack of pure liquid joy. I have to pinch myself to prove this is real. In the space of the first song I am convinced that the Flaming Lips are the best live act in the world, ever.

After such an extraordinary start, you think they’ve shot their bolt, but even in the cavern that is the NIA the feeling only rarely flags. The Flaming Lips standards are all played, the audience is mellow, more balloons (including some even bigger ones) come. Apparently the previous night there were chandeliers in the room so they didn’t use the balloons – so we got double portions. Wayne has a walking stick that fires streamers. There is a laser show unseen since late 80’s raves, which combined with the lave lamp balloons and hand held smoke machine wielded by Wayne looks gorgeously retro. All the while the music flows and is obviously impeccably rehearsed but to the level that they can play around with it, stopping and starting to get the audience to sing along.

Wayne does his typical rambles, which get longer between each song as the night gets later, but it’s all good natured and steeped in his own brand of positivism, particularly after the democratic parties successes in the midterm elections in the US. He also name checks the previous Birmingham gig (making me more fed up I didn’t go) on a number of occasions, but it doesn’t matter – everyone is happy.

After around an hour and a half of happiness, they go, leaving us with a wonderfully cheesy karaoke rendition (words up on the big screen to sing along) of Bohemian Rhapsody. Even Queen didn’t do the middle bit live. They may have done the harmonies a bit better though… There are many lovely points in the gig, such as Wayne explaining where in a particular song is the best time to declare your love to someone, or telling some gig virgins that not all audiences are as cool as this. It is a bit of a hippy love-in but we all believe it.

On the drive back we messed up forgetting half the M6 is shut, did a huge loop via West Brom and took far too long to get home, but it simply didn’t matter. The Flaming Lips managed to transfer a bit of positive energy onto us, and even if it only lasts for a day it is a day lived in a better world. The only downer from the evening is I am so pissed off I didn’t go to the gig at the Carling earlier this year.

Flaming Links...

Flaming Lips Web Site

All sorts of stuff here

Review of the academy gig in April

Yes I was happy for about a week afterwards, honest.