Wayne Coyne loves his bubbles. Anybody who’s seen the Flaming Lips perform live in the last several years—or his new music video for the Kacey Musgraves-featuring “Flowers Of Neptune 6"—have seen the singer serenade from within an inflatable bubble. Now, what with the state of our poisoned world, Coyne’s gone and shrouded both his band and his audience in similar vessels.
In what’s got to be the most responsible live music performance since COVID-19 reared its head, the Flaming Lips swung by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to perform “Race To The Prize,” a beloved cut from 1999's The Soft Bulletin, a favorite album of ours that was recently released as a live album featuring the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
Check out the performance below and, in lieu of your own bubble, do your neighbors a favor and keep wearing a mask out there.
8 Comments
Saw him walking over the crowd at All Good ‘03 in one of them.
‘Twas a rock & roll creation…
Don’t know if it’s the lockdown blues, missing gigs in general or this specific song, but watching this makes me emotional. Thanks for posting x
I saw the Flaming Lips in concert once and I was hanging toward the back of the pit next to a podium. It was a fantastic show and at one point Wayne gets into his inflatable ball and rolls out into the audience. He goes directly over me and stops on the podium. It was transcendental. The drugs helped, too.
If this puts an end to the rock dick tradition of guitarists playing while leaning against one another back-to-back, I’m all for it. You’re not Joe Perry. Knock it off.
I suppose the rising levels of carbon dioxide only enhance the experience.
It kinda looks like he’s lip-syncing?