It may be a cold, wet, Manchester evening outside but inside the Apollo something strange is taking place. Balloons, confetti, a mass rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ and a 42 year old man covered in blood may at first sound like a child’s party gone wrong but not so tonight. Welcome to the world of The Flaming Lips.
For a band celebrating their 20th anniversary, 2003 has been a great year with critical acclaim, festival stealing performances and appearances on Top of the Pops with Justin Timberlake dress as a bass playing dolphin. While other bands with such vintage may look tired and predictable, the Lips sound as fresh as ever, due largely to Wayne Coyne’s exuberance as a front man.
Drawing mainly on tracks from ‘The Soft Bulletin’ and ‘Yoshimi’, opener ‘Race for the Prize’ is greeted with cheers normally reserved for encores and later we’re treated to such gems as ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’, Chemical Brothers collaboration ‘Golden Path’, ‘Do You Realise?’ and ‘Yoshimi’, led by a nun puppet. Closing with a touching ‘Waiting for Superman’, dedicated to Elliot Smith, the evening proves that while the Lips know how to put on a show, they also know how to make beautiful, uplifting, heartfelt music and I dare anyone not to fall in love with Coyne and his menagerie.
