Joy and Tragedy fuelled Flaming Lips Show at NXNE

By: Colin Rabyniuk –

A Flaming Lips performance is a near-transcendent experience. Between the endless good vibes and kaleidoscope light show, the audience couldn’t help but leave in a better state than when they arrived.

Last night at Dundas Square was no exception.

The band started with a barrage of rocketing confetti and enormous balloons that were released onto the crowd from sidestage. Frontman Wayne Coyne crowdsurfed in an inflatable, see-through bubble. All this while their signature opening wall of dense noise blasts through the PA.

“Everybody go crazy,” Coyne said when he got out of the bubble. “Not for us, but for everybody else here because they’ll just have an even better time.”

Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne crowdsurfing in a plastic ball at NXNE. June 16.
Photo by: Colin Rabyniuk

Yet for all the theatrics and positivity, their set was a sombre one – out of respect for the Radiohead tragedy earlier that day.

“We’re sending the thoughts and good karma of everyone here to all the people involved [in the stage collapse],” Coyne said before starting into “Waitin’ for Superman,” a song about looking for answers in the face of disaster.

Coyne, ever the showman, was spotted offstage at the beginning of Portugal. The Man’s set, stoking the crowd with his toothy smile and raised thumbs-up. This is one reason why Flaming Lips shows are so powerful. Behind the confetti launchers and inflatable bubbles is a sincere desire to have the best time ever.

Portugal. The Man at NXNE. June 16, 2012. Photo by: Jessica Douglas

Portugal. The Man played an understated, Beatles-inspired set.  It was an interesting contrast to the Flaming Lips. They played an excellent Helter Skelter cover, and their final song, And I, faded into the chorus of Hey Jude at the end. Except for the occasional grin, they manoeuvred through their songs without many frills or flare, letting the music stand on its own.

That’s something the band Of Montreal could learn from.

Of Montreal played in the afternoon heat on a crowded stage of musicians and costumed dancers.

Wearing unitards and pig masks, big breasted pink and blue bat suits, or getups resembling the Greendale Human Being, the dancers floated around the band with little sense of movement or unity. It seemed gimmicky and pretentious, much like the shitty disco-rock they danced to.

Portugal. The Man at NXNE. June 16, 2012. Photo by: Jessica Douglas

NXNE officials estimated 25, 000 people attended the free concert, making it the largest ever held at Yonge and Dundas Square.

Oberhofer, Hollerado, Art vs. Science, Ceremony, Brasstronaut, Parlovr, and the Burning Boyz rounded out the day-long show.

“I saw the Flaming Lips and it made me a better person.”

– Menno Versteeg, lead singer of Hollerado during their set Saturday afternoon.

Flaming Lips Setlist

1. Sweet Leaf 
(Black Sabbath cover)
2. Worm Mountain
3. She Don’t Use Jelly
4. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)
5. Knives Out 
(Radiohead cover) (Dedicated to Radiohead’s crew after their concert was cancelled due to stage collapse, killing one)
6. Waitin’ for a Superman
7. Is David Bowie Dying??
8. See the Leaves
9. Laser Hands
10. Drug Chart
11. What Is the Light?
12. The Observer
13. Encore:
    Do You Realize??