It’s 2am and I’ve been out and about since 9am so you’ll have to forgive the typos, lies, and what have you.
So let’s set up the situation here. The Flaming Lips not-so-secret show at the Fox and Hound, 11pm.
I get there at 9;30 to make sure I get in. There’s no line for badges, and a real long line for the wristbands. Seems like they really slowed the wristband access in through the whole night while badgeholders got in without a problem.
I sit through 3 songs of Pele who blew. Then the Czars, who were good but not meant for large parking lots. Then the Flaming Lips come out. I’m pretty close, maybe 10 rows back.
Wayne starts showing off a lot of his familiar toys – Hulk Hands, shooting fog machines, weird keyboards that make frog noises. The first thing he says to the crowd is that he’s going to shoot something at us, but for us to be careful because the tent is really low and it’s probably going to bounce down and hit someone. He shot it – a bunch of streamers – and as far as I could tell, no one was harmed. The low, small tent, however, is going to play a major role in the story.
Wayne then starts talking about how great SXSW and Austin has been for the career of the Flaming Lips. He said that he wanted everyone to have a great night and to sing along as loud as we could. The band then began Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” while hundreds of gigantic balloons were thrown into the crowd.
If you’ve been to a Flaming Lips show recently you’ve probably seen balloons like this fly around in the crowd – the only difference here was that it was happening in a pretty small tent, considering the amount of people. It had this insane pinball/ping pong effect that was just plain brilliant. The crowd was singing, dancing, going nuts. It was halfway through the song that I realized, this is why I love music. This is why I do this website, all of my passions, this is what keeps me going.
From there they played some classics like “Yoshimi” as well as several new songs from the upcoming record. They ended with “Love Yer Brain”, telling us that it was the first and probably last time they’ve ever played it live. It was great.
As everyone started to walk out, we were surprised to see the band come out for an encore. They mentioned that they forgot that they brought electro-clash musician Peaches with them to do a duet. They then blazed through a great cover of “War Pigs.”
During this encore, another crazy thing happened. Since the show took place in a fenced up parking lot, there were a lot of people sitting, watching from the outside. Something happened and all of these people started to rush the stage, breaking into the show. It was great.
The Flaming Lips have always been a favorite band, but I think they just shot up in my top three faves, right behinf Wilco. What a great American band. I don’t know if it’s all brilliant marketing, but Wayne seems like one of the most down to earth rock stars I’ve ever seen – someone who I would actually like to have a conversation with. (unlike most musicians where i dont have anything to say to them).
I left that show thinking that I could leave SXSW happier than I’d ever been. Would anything get better than that hour with the Flaming Lips? I don’t know. But that’s the thing about SXSW – there’s magic happening all the time.
My friends Billy and Dan were with me seeing a solo show from Chris of the Wrens (more on that later), and to them that was a high of the day. There’s so many perfect musical moments, both huge and personal. I really love this festival, and I hope that there was some people in the crowd that found out about the show by reading this blog. That would really make it all worth it, knowing that you shared this with me.
Here’s a crappy photo I took with my camera phone, I might have a better one I’ll post tomorrow.
Check out Chip’s Day 1 recap.
Dammit, I was supposed to be there…oh well…thanks for the re-hash, I can now safely say I do actually live vicariously through DoneWaiting!
Wow–I was getting ready to write almost this exact post. I think the words that went through my head halfway through the song were “music nerd orgasm”.
Afterwards I went and caught Cut Chemist’s set at LZR, which was kick-ass.
That show was amazing. I got there at 7:15 without a wristband or badge, and ended up geting into the show for $30 bucks. Then I got to meet Wayne during the first band and he gave me a huge hug. I think all other future concerts are now ruined for me. By the way, who was the other special guest at 1 A.m.?
Whoever was supposed to come on at 1AM didn’t show up. They didn’t say who it was, except that it wasn’t the Beastie Boys.
I saw the following bands yesterday (no Flaming Lips…):
Gil Mantera’s Party Dream [what a great way to start off the day!] / What Made Milwaukee Famous / Fast Heart Mart / The Octopus Project / Southern Backtones / Johnny Goudie / God’s Temple of Family Deliverance / The Headlights / The M’s / Belle & Sebastian [2 songs, anyway] / The Presets / Wolfmother / Mogwai
Incredible.
Was going to see the Lips last night but got too hammered. Rule #1 of SXSW – DON’T get fucked up. It’ll ruin your night and your next day ughh.
Good rule.
I stopped at 7pm after maybe 4 or 5. Made the rest of the night alright — and this morning was great, even after only a few hours of sleep.
We’ll see how today goes. Those day parties make it too easy to get out of control.
I hear Andy Dick got arrested so he couldn’t make his show. Anyone spend any time in APD last night? Confirm
Andy Dick got arrested? Yay!
Is there going to be another lips show? I heard a rumor that there was going to be another. I didn’t make it last night…saw Of Montreal, Wolfmother, Go! Team and a few others… The Strange Boys from Dallas surprised me early on! very nice set at Velvet Spade.
There’s suppose to be another show at Eternal at 11pm according to this Flaming Lips mail list info I got.
i made sure not to see the lips, but i saw a million other bands, drank all day long, and then went to the atx party till 3:30am then to the 4 seasons with some sxsw people, then got home at 6am went to work just got off, now leavin in a sec to back out. debating on whether or not to see morrissey. prolly gonna be a bunch of hipster dipshits forming a line a mile long… dont know if its worth it.
woo. sxsw
unfortunately i missed 99.999% of the music at sxsw (i could only afford to go to the interactive part) but we saw Wayne several times at our hotel earlier this week!
The Lips were amazing as always. There were so many joints being passed around- it was beautiful. You did get one thing backwards though, Pela was great and The Czars were beyond terrible. Dot com.
Good to see the “made me realize why I like music again” angle trotted out for the 17 trillionth time. Is your high school paper reimbursing you for your expenses down there?
actually the advertising did, thanks to you giving me page views. thank you!
haha, good one mcgillicutty.
um, how was pela great? bland and boring instrumentation mixed with bland and boring lyrics. they are about as distinguishable as my left nut. i guarantee nothing will become of that band. the czars, however, were simply out of place. they have already become something because they have talent and what not.
and the flaming lips were fucking great as always.
Don’t worry Rob, it’s no marketing scam. Wayne Coyne really IS that nice and down to Earth.
you forgot to mention that there was another surprise guest on the bill and everyone thought it was the beasties. we had to stand thru another lame act and were told the last act canceled. everyone thought it was a joke and stayed and then the made it clear there was no other act. btw i bootleggedthe show. might put it on dime.
That other “lame act” that the poster above refers to was Midlake from Denton, TX, who happen to be gaining a very solid reputation for their music, and well-liked amongst their peers. They’re good enough to have played the ACL fest and this year’s Lollapalooza, so let’s keep that in perspective. As to why anyone was excited about seeing the geriatric Beasties when all they were gonna be able to do is just a “rap” set w/o their full-on instrumentation is beyond me….meanwhile, the potential to walk on down to La Zona Rosa & catch The Secret Machines beckoned…