Flaming Lips Boston, 2009: Because It Deserves a Thread of its Own

[the shortest route to the sea]

I guess mods like you could consider merging this. I just think the experiences was so incredible and somehow describable that I needed to do just that! I think it would fit in the concert thread. Anyway

So I get to the concert at like 5:30, after hearing that my friend can't come oh fuck I guess I'll sell the ticket. I get frustrated over that plus I'm sick plus I'm back to school plus I'm tired plus friggin' computers...quoi qu'il en soit...ou elle...so I wasn't very happy. Ended up waiting 30 minutes after door (an hour in total) to sell my extra to some midget for 20 bucks (was 40). I saw my friend but didn't want to interact with him. Saw a kid from star island and felt strange and reminiscent. Saw a kid who played trumpet with me at camp and felt strange and reminiscent of someone else who I've been thinking about. Managed to get an awesome shirt but they didn't have the proper size of a more awesome shirt and the friggin' atm only gave 20s when I had 15 dollars in my account. Found I was sitting in the fucking nosebleeds. All in all though, going into 7 o'clock I was tired, stomachachey, lonely, and frustrated.

Stardeath and White Dwarves played. I got into them towards the end, but mostly I didn't connect with all their headbanging rock goodness and energy. It felt like kiss but shittier. I got into it though, their artfulness, their good bass player. I was starting to get some energy.

Explosions played. Fuuuck they played. They played everything and Birth and Death of the Day. At concerts I express myself physically, using my body as an instrument, sometimes percussive, sometimes piano, sometimes guitar, mostly a combination. I got into a flowering state, a state of preparing and growth and readying, the same I got into when I saw sigur ros. I rocked out a bit on Birth and Death of the Day, but mostly I stayed in my bubble. They were so damn good.

Now, at BMSR, and at many concerts, I start off trying to transcend my body. Trying to push as hard as I can to leave it and be a being of only music. That can't happen, so if I'm aware enough I can see that I have to just enjoy and accept what I can get from the music, which can lead to a real giddyness. But after BMSR, which was so great, I was still a bit bleh. I came into this concert with that expectation: enjoyment, moderately.

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.

They riled us up like no crowd had ever been riled up. There were lights and huge screens, one of which had a camera right next to the mic so the lead could talk to everybody. The opening video was a rotoscoped naked woman dancing, and eventually she sat down as if to give labor (theme = embryonic), and suddenly there was this glowing oval of light which just pulsed as they pumped us up even more and then the band members came through the screen as if popping out of the cosmic vagina and I was like COSMIC VAGINA and it was at that point that I lost all willingness to hold anything back or have any reservations about anything I do at this concert. I began to trip musical balls by just being there.

So then the lead singer appears in this plastic ball, and starts rolling around the crowd. Penguins and cats appear on the side to pump us up even more. Then they start with "Race for the Prize" and I just couldn't hold anything back and I started to really get into the groove of my body. It was fantastic. I let everything go, and I had space to do so, because I was on the proverbial lawn. A girl of about 19 or so ran over, we hugged for a moment and we kissed each other's cheek and then she ran away and it was awesome because we were just sharing all the joy in our hearts.

Crowd involvement was so key... the ooh ooh ooh for silver trembling hands became a call-and response of screaming and stuff. It was amazing. During the part after the breakdown of the "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" I felt separated from my body and yet so here and I just went absolutely full power for the rest of the concert on. There were quiet versions of Yoshimi and Fight Test, and there was a pause between each verse and chorus to rile the crowd up and get their energy up. They fucking played that song that they said they would never play again at Pitchfork and it was amazing. They fucking played a new song from Embryonic that they had never toured before. They fucking played She Don't Use Jelly. They fucking had everyone sing happy birthday for Linsey in the front row. They fucking played Vein of Stars for Ted Kennedy. They fucking played Pompeii am Gotterdammerung, which was the last song I'd expect them to play live but there was so much energy. They ranted about bush and how awesome obama is, and had us all raise the peace sign into the air (I stretched harder than I ever had in my fucking life) and then went into the W.A.N.D. So many other songs, I can't wait until someone posts the gigography.

Throughout this I get more and more ridiculous. I mostly keep my two feet on the floor, but I start using my hips and eventually can't stop using them. My arms are instruments and then drums and then just punched the air and then stroked. I purposefully lost my voice to give everything I had. I jumped at one point and fell over. I let everyone see who I was, because during concerts I get in touch with a more perfect sense of myself because I Don't Think! I meditate or I reach zen or whatever but I am me and even though I didn't give up my entire sense of self I couldn't get a coherent thought in until 30 minutes after. I knew people were watching me and judging me and I didn't care! Unlike other times where I get meaning from creating synthesis afterwards, or purposefully trying to create it, I instinctually knew what everything meant while I was dancing. People were supportive and I have never felt sexier or more feminine or more beautiful. Of course they ended with Do You Realize. The girl came back, and we did some more expressive dancing (I realized she was tripping both musical balls and other balls, whereas I was just tripping thousands of bright purple musical balls), and she kissed my cheek again and she left. Two souls connected and were extraordinarily intimate for a moment and then departed. The concert ended and it was ok. Nothing like that will ever happen again and it's ok. I was smiling uncontrollably and being talkative and open and waving goodbye to people on the bus and sighing and dancing for hours afterward. I'm going to be such a beautiful goddamn mess ever tomorrow. I'm sort of glad I went alone, because nothing held me back. I am so tired in so many ways and I have 6 hours to sleep.





Wrote this last night. If I didn't feel like shit so much now I'd be more enthusiastic about it. Best concert I've ever been to. Will talk more about it when I can find the entire sequenced gigography.

[Hiro]

Good god, I want to see them. ;__;

[Placebo Headwound]

That's part of the reason I fucking love The Lips so much.

But reading this makes me extremely sad that they've announced nothing in terms of coming to NYC.

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

I saw em a year or so ago at a festival complete with wayne in his giant bubble. I touched his foot.

But really, it was probably the most enjoyable show I've ever been to. They really go through all the stops to make it what it is.

It's a completely awesome atmosphere. I mean, even the audience seemed especially friendly and caught up in the mood the lips pump out in waves. You cant really help but smile and just be genuinely happy.

[the shortest route to the sea]

It's a completely awesome atmosphere. I mean, even the audience seemed especially friendly and caught up in the mood the lips pump out in waves. You cant really help but smile and just be genuinely happy.

I think that's what drove a random stranger to embrace me, the atmosphere. But surprisingly, a good deal of the people in seats weren't moving or swaying much, meanwhile I'm supplying the energy for the entire back row. still, they didn't switch my experience much.