Philip Fibiger

I’m going to have to revise my ‘top 10 concerts list,’ after last saturday night at the Hollywood Palladium. Insert The Flaming Lips at #3, and push everybody down. Sorry Kristin, the Throwing Muses show was great, but this is how it’s gotta be.

Liz Phair was the opening act, and it was a little weird. She was playing with a bassist and a guy with an acoustic guitar. Her guitar was turned down pretty low, and there wasn’t much fuzz. Her voice sounded great, and it was definitely on display due to the worthless instrumentation. Most of the songs really needed a drummer, and she could have done to really crank up her guitar. She could have rocked, but didn’t.

Wayne Coyne came onstage wearing a sharp white suit, and the rest of the band was wearing animal costumes. They were joined by maybe 15 people wearing animal costumes, some people dressed like jesus and santa claus, all dancing on the sides of the stage. The band played through most of Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots and The Soft Bulletin, playing almost ninety minutes straight through. There was an impressive set of props for the evening, including the singing nun puppet, giant hulk hands waving your hands in the air or throwing your fist up triumphantly, and enormous amounts of confetti. There was a near-unending supply of large and gigantic balloons that came from around the stage, for the audience to play with.

The audience was really into it, and Wayne led us in a heartfelt sing-along to Yoshimi, as well as a rousing rendition of She Don’t Use Jelly. I guess part of what made the show so amazing was that the band seemed to be genuinely having a great time on stage. The giant video screen alternated between videos that were triggered in a syncronized manner by the drummer, and a fish-eye camera with some crazy effects that was attached to Wayne’s microphone.

It was an all-ages show, so it started and ended early. At 10:45 we left the Palladium exhausted and completely happy.