{"id":856,"date":"2011-05-27T02:14:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T02:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=856"},"modified":"2026-06-27T02:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T02:17:08","slug":"flaming-lips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=856","title":{"rendered":"Flaming Lips"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>May 2011, Tabernacle, Atlanta, Ga.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been to plenty of shows \u2014 my first concert was in 1982 \u2014 so I\u2019ve been witness to many memorable musical moments. But I\u2019ve never seen a beginning and end to a show as dynamic as what I witnessed in Atlanta that night.<\/p>\n<p>The Flaming Lips is a band that was on my to-see list for many years \u2014 legendary for its interesting and crowd-pleasing shows, the Lips make great music as well. Wayne Coyne is as eclectic a front man as you will find, and with bandmates Michael Ivans and Steven Drozd the trio has sent out a catalog of music unparalleled in its inventiveness. One of its most-celebrated albums is 1999\u2019s <em>The Soft Bulletin<\/em>, and on this night the Lips went about playing it beginning to end in a way that took my breath away.<\/p>\n<p>The stage was dotted with funky instruments \u2014 gongs and drums and synths and guitars \u2014 in front of a massive light contraption that filled the room with the colors and shapes. Wayne came out and gave a little speech about what was about to happen \u2014 noting it was only the second time the band had <em>played Soft Bulletin<\/em> in this way, warning people to be wary of the strobe lights, and asking everyone be loud. \u201cWe haven\u2019t done this a lot,\u201d he said, \u201cI don\u2019t know what the fuck is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The lights dimmed, only to have the board light up the room and a door smack dab in the middle of the display open up for the band to walk out of. As Ivans and Drozd joined others out of the magic-light door, Coyne was busy blowing up a clear plastic balloon around him in order to walk across the crowd. As the band churned into a righteous groove, Coyne rolled into the audience. I\u2019ve heard about it, but it was an amazing event to see, and makes you understand why people love this band: Coyne is willing to put himself out there for his fans. Even when he was back on stage, sans bubble, he was one with the crowd all night. How can you not love this band?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRace For The Prize\u201d then kicked in, accompanied by thousands of bits of confetti, large colorful balloons, and Coyne sending out streamers into the crowd with a little pump. And oh yeah, the song was wonderful, such a perfect song to start a party. Song by song the band carefully went through the album, with Coyne adding a narrative with the songs when necessary. \u201cWaitin\u2019 For A Superman\u201d was done a capella (the first time we\u2019ve done that, Coyne noted), and proved the night\u2019s top moment. Coyne stood square center stage with his fist in the air singing line by line, joined by a crowd mesmerized by the moment. The applause following the song was loud and lasting.<\/p>\n<p>After a short recess after playing <em>Soft Bulletin<\/em>, the band returned for a four-song encore, ending with an acoustic version of \u201cYoshimi\u201d and a riotous, anthemic singing of \u201cDo You Realize?\u201d joined by more confetti and a brilliant light show. It was a long day, the band didn\u2019t finish until a little before 1 a.m., but I never felt more energized.<\/p>\n<p>Consider me a Flaming Lips fan for life.<\/p>\n<p>This I realize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 2011, Tabernacle, Atlanta, Ga. I\u2019ve been to plenty of shows \u2014 my first concert was in 1982 \u2014 so I\u2019ve been witness to many memorable musical moments. But I\u2019ve never seen a beginning and end to a show as dynamic as what I witnessed in Atlanta that night. The Flaming Lips is a band [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":858,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions\/858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}