The Flaming Lips - Birmingham Academy 24/4/06

Setlist:

Race For The Prize
Free Radicals
Yoshimi pt. 1
Yoshimi pt. 2
Vein Of Stars
The Yeah Yeah Song
In The Morning Of The Magicians
The WAND
Cow/Duck Jam
She Don't Use Jelly
Do You Realize??

Encore

Feeling Yourself Disintergrate
War Pigs


My 9th Lips gig, and the 3rd at the Brum Academy. I've been moving heaven and earth to see them ever since Glastonbury 2000. This one was being broadcast almost live on BBC Radio 1. The Flaming Lips star has been rising over the years I've been watching them, and the academy is small compared to the other venues on this tour. The question for me was would they be able to at least maintain their standard even though they are touring what is, in my opinion, a pretty poor new album.

The wait for them too come on stage was far too long - the intro tracks went on for well over 5 minutes with no-one on stage. There were two possible reasons for this - the fact that it was being broadcast on the radio, and the size of the venue. Wayne couldn't make his usual entrance rolling over the crowd inside a big plastic ball as the venue is too small to accomodate it.

When they finally did come on stage, instead of getting on with it, they gave us a quick chat about the live broadcast and said they would be pausing regularly through the set to give the audience a break. The idea was that those bits would be edited out of the broadcast, and the gig would sound even better on the radio.

1. Race for the prize - The usual opener - it seemed lacklustre compared to other playings. They had played with the video for it and not for the better. The song simply seemed slow, an accusation that could be levelled at a number throughout the set (The WAND and She Don't Use Jelly).

2. Free Radicals - This is an awful song and doesn't deserve a place in anyone's set. Steven's guitar playing got a good showing as it would throughout, but live this turd of a song does not improve.

3. Yoshimi Part One - It was played exactly the same as they played it throughout the Yoshimi tour - with the singalong with the nun hand puppet at the end. Frankly it's got stale. The nun should be given a rest for a while as it was used on the Soft Bulletin tour for a different song as well. However, if you've never seen it before, it would be great.

4. Yosimi Part Two - Pointless. At first I thought they were using it as a replacement for Lightning Strikes The Postman (they weren't). It's the weakest song on the Yoshimi record by far, and I couldn't understand why it was in the set.

5. Vein Of Stars - A nothing song. Inoffensive but nothing special. They have much better chillout songs in their catalogue, but seeing as it's from the new album, they played this one.

6. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song - They said at the end of it that it's the first time the song has really rocked live, and it is my favourite from At War With The Mystics, but it just wasn't as great as I thought it could've been.

7. In The Morning Of The Magicians - THIS was more like it. A song I have learned to love by hearing it played live. It has a strange effect on me - whenever I hear it live, I become capable of the clearest thinking possible, and as most times I've seen them I've had something pretty heavy on my mind, it's a song that has helped me out over the years. Fabulous.

8. The WAND - This was the replacement for Lightning Strikes The Postman in the live show. Multiple stobe lights flashing through clouds of smoke and the vocals delivered through a megaphone - LSTP was a joyous assault on the senses. This wasn't. Nothing wrong with having it in the set (it's a fine song), but they needed to come up with a new idea for it instead of changing the song but keeping the effects.

9. Cow/Duck Jam - A fan had made a strange farmyard noises machine for them, and this was them having fun with the cow and duck noises. They always do something like this, and I'm quite happy to see it there. At least they've stopped singing 'Happy Birthday' to people in the crowd.

10. She Don't Use Jelly - It's great and will always remain great.

11. Do You Realise?? - Like the opening, the closing seemed lacklustre in the performance. They just don't seem as happy when playing it as they used too.

12. Feeling Yourself Disintergrate - YES OH YES OH YES OH YES. Highlight of the evening by a country mile. They said they hadn't played it live for 4 years, and it's possibly the best song they've ever written. It got a rather muted reaction from the crowd.

13. War Pigs - A great closer that was very true to the original. If Black Sabbath tour again and need a drummer, Kliph is tailor made for the position.


Altogether, it was the worst Lips performance I've seen. The breaking up of the show because of the radio broadcast did some real damage to the gig itself. In my opinion, the band's priority should be those actually there, but it clearly wasn't. Secondly, they're not touring a particularly great record, so there were bound to be some duffers in the set. The emphasis had changed as well - Steven Drozd who started out as their drummer is actually an amazingly skilled musican, and on this tour he is spending a lot more time on guitar than he is on keyboards. There have been
some changes to the video backdrops they play as well. Race For The Prize suffered for it as they had kept the basis of the original video, but you could only tell if you concentrated very hard. Yoshimi part one also suffered from a video change, but that was a while ago. Anyone who's seen the Battle Royale version would say it's miles better than the one they use now.

At best, I'd say they are currently treading water, at worst they are on the downward slide. I am so happy to have seen a great band at their peak over the last 6 years, and if you're new to the whole thing, I'm sure the gig would have been much better, but I think it's time for me to move on. It may not be my last Flaming Lips show, but I'm going to leave it a while before I think about seeing them again.