The Deal: Alt-rock vets return to the Queen City for the first time in more than 10 years.
The Good: Every bit of it – from the strong opening set by Raleigh’s Birds of Avalon to the final notes of the encore, “She Don’t Use Jelly.” In a scaled-down version of their festival show – no UFO, LED screen instead of video, smaller balloons – The Flaming Lips blew the roof off the joint with what has to be the best live show… anywhere. Laser pointers, tons of confetti, smoke machines, martians, Santas, Captain America … the list goes on. “We weren’t sure if we should bring everything into such a small place,” singer Wayne Coyne told the crowd, “but we’re glad we did.” The band didn’t hold back for what they called “the last show of the tour.” (They are playing The Echo Project on Oct. 12.) The patient audience waited while the band tried to reboot the speaker system – apparently the 24,000 watts of power did some damage – before the encore that featured only Coyne and Steven Drozd on piano for “Jelly.” The hits were all there – “Yoshimi,” “The W.A.N.D.,” “Yeah Yeah Yeah Song.” A setlist and more photos can be found at qcvibes.com.
The Bad: Even though they blew out half the speakers and had to cut their encore short, I can’t complain about a single thing.
The Verdict: Top of the list for must-see live concerts.
This article appears in Oct 10-16, 2007.
