Flaming Lips are....

Fun, fabulous, entertaining, exhausting, deafening and well worth the trip!

So we haven't really had rain in 3 months, but the skies decided to open up about an hour before the show. This storm was kickin' butt and takin' names - I saw water shooting fountain style out of one of the manhole covers downtown! One of the opening acts (Magic Numbers...blah) was cancelled due to the weather, but Sonic Youth came on at 9:00PM followed by the Flaming Lips at around 10:15PM. The universe may have conspired against us, but the Flaming Lips fans ultimately won...

My sister had two tickets and invited me to join her for the show. I wouldn't classify myself as a *huge* Flaming Lips fan, but I saw them at a Lalapolooza stage in 1994 and have rather enjoyed their recent CDs. I really, really, really enjoyed the show and would love to see them again. I sang my heart out on some of my favorite songs and, in a rare moment for me, didn't give a rip what anyone around me thought of it :)

So the show starts with the lead singer surfing the crowd in a big, inflatable hamster ball....

There were TONS of streamers and confetti, an inflatable dolphin could be seen rockin' out for most of the show and a pink plastic pony made an appearance in the crowd toward the end. A boxing nun sang about a robot-defeating Yoshimi and 5 foot tall foam hands punctuated a faboo protest song. On the right side of the stage we had the dancing santas, and on the left we had the dancing aliens and elves (local folks who won contests on the Current from what I hear). The crowd was a little lethargic after the long weather delays, but the band did an awesome job loving what they do on stage and drawing people in to the fun. Towards the end two state fair gopher mascots got up and boogied down to "Do You Realize?"

It's now past 3 AM and I've made it home from my great big state fair Flaming Lips adventure. Time to go fall over in bed. Good thing I get to sleep in tomorrow!