The Flaming Lips @ Malkin Bowl -- 09/26/10

Sometimes you see things. And in your head you build and you build, and it becomes something much more than it was. For me, this was the first time I saw The Flaming Lips back in 2007. It was one of the greatest live experiences I had ever, er, experienced. The minute I found out they were coming back, I knew I had to go; that nothing was going to stop me. But I was kind of worried that I had hyped it up in my head so much that nothing could compare, or that I would see it and it wouldn't live up to this standard I had placed in my head. Well, skip to the end: it lived up to it. And then some.
Before I go on, though, I have to ask what the hell happened to Malkin Bowl??? It used to be a large patch of pretty nice grass, but that night it was pretty much a big mud pit.

First up was Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. I got there just in time to hear them starting, and I was glad I made it to catch them. With a weird psychedelic sound that was part of Montreal, part classic rock, part acid trip, they rocked through a set of a little over 45 minutes. Near the end, they were joined by the Flaming Lips drummer, for a few songs of dual drum kits going.Though there was not much, if any, crowd interaction, just song leading into song, and the odd comment or song title between the two. It was definitely an interesting set, and I would be interested to see them live again.

As they came to an end, the crew quickly worked to set up one of the most elaborate stages I've seen. But before the band even hit the stage, Wayne Coyne came out with a quick disclaimer, warning of the intense flashing light and telling us they took a chance setting up at the front of the stage, but it was set up so that if it did start to rain, they could quickly move everything back with little delay. Luckily, the rain held off for the show, so there was no need.
A few minutes later, it was time for The Flaming Lips. The show itself started with a woman on the big screen and the members being, er, birthed, coming out of a door in the screen. Wayne then stepped into his Space Bubble and ran/crawled through the crowd, before coming back to kick off the show with "Worm Mountain", with the confetti guns blasting and giant balloons being strewn throughout the crowd. There were also the usual dancers on both sides of the stage as well as other hijinks throughout the set, but good theatrics does not a great show make. Musically, they are unparalleled; you can tell they have been around for years and still absolutely love what they're doing. The focus was on the new album, with a usual assortment of their bigger hits, and every song was fantastic. From the absolute intensity of "Evil" to the fun singing along of "She Don't Use Jelly" everything sounded just perfect in the beautiful venue. There was crowd participation with "I Can Be A Frog", with everyone acting out the animal/thing mentioned in the chorus, followed by "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots" which had damn near every single person in the packed bowl singing along.
Other shenanigans included someone in a bear suit running out during "Silver Trembling Hands" and Coyne got on its shoulders to sing; Coyne putting on the giant hands -- which shot lasers out of the palms into the giant disco balls, and also into the crowd; and for "Sagittarius Silver Announcement" all the lights being turned off for the song to be performed in complete darkness.
After they "ended" the set, the came back for just one more: "Do You Realize??" which, again, saw the entire park singing along, as well as more massive blasts of confetti. It's hard to describe in text, but it was an incredibly uplifting experience that I doubt will ever be matched by another band.
They ended promptly at 10, which was the curfew for the park, but people were still clamouring for more, to the point where Wayne had to come out and tell the remaining people, on his bullhorn, that they were not able to do any more, due to the curfew, apologizing and thanking everyone profusely for coming. It was a nice touch, to show that he wasn't ignoring the cheers, but literally was not able to play more.

There was a few songs that I wish they had played... "Race for the Prize" and "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" being two examples, but they were more than enough amazing moments in the show to "make up" for it. It's hard to put into words the feeling that you get after seeing The Flaming Lips play live... you feel happy and uplifted and like you can take on the world. Very few other bands have had even close to the effect that The Flaming Lips have on me, and I will go to my death bed insisting that everyone see them at least once live. Fan of them or not, there is no other live show like it.

Franz Ferdinand @ Malkin Bowl -- 09/06/09

Well, it was bound to happen. Almost every time I've seen a show at Malkin Bowl it has threatened to rain, and every time I have used my vast powers to make sure it doesn't. Until last night. It had been raining on and off all day, and when we finally got to the park, it was still lightly drizzling and ended up raining to varying degrees the whole show. Though it was a warm rain, luckily, so it wasn't unpleasant or cold or uncomfortable, just a little wet. (It's still good, it's still good).

The opening back, Defektors (the 'k' makes them edgy), hit the stage around 7, and they were... well, let's just say their song was not horrible, but the decision to play it over and over for their whole set -- which, mercifully, only lasted about 25 minutes -- was questionable. They mumbled through the introductions, claiming each iteration of the song had a different name, and stood around kinda awkward while playing, with little to no stage presence. It's not like they were terrible by any means, but I have already forgotten their set and all their songs.

I am pretty sure that the show was accelerated a little, due to the rain (which was a light drizzle at that point), as it was 8 when Franz Ferdinand came out and launched right into No You Girls. They paused after the first song to say hellos and Alex Kapranos thanked us all for waiting in the rain, informing us how awesome we are. Of course, since he mentioned it, as soon as they started the next song, Dark Of The Matinée, it started absolutely pouring. This stopped no one, however, from enjoying the show as Franz's insane energy kept everyone moving. A few times, mostly during the instrumental bits and solos, Alex and/or Nick would even venture out into the front part of the stage, uncovered and soaking wet, to play a little in the rain. They played a pretty good mix of songs from all three albums, with an obvious focus on the newest. A lot of the older songs, though, had a few changes or updates thrown in, mostly just some extra flourishes, or a solo here or there. Nothing to make the songs unrecognizable, but just so they don't go "stale".
After a few more songs -- Bite Hard being notable, as it is incredible live -- Alex introduced everyone while leading into This Fire, an amusing song to hear in the pouring rain, especially with everyone shouting the chorus. What You Came For was followed by their first and probably still biggest hit, Take Me Out (a sly jab, perhaps?) which had everyone singing/yelling along to the chorus. The main set ended with the combination of the last songs from the first two albums. 40', which had an amazing instrumental interlude and Alex doing a call & answer with the crowd for the La La La-La's, and Outsiders, which is always incredible to see this song live, as it ends with all four members of the band going batshit insane on the drumkit.
As the rain finally eased up, they came back out for the encore, keeping up the insane energy with a few older songs. They capped off the whole night with Lucid Dreams, which was the song I had most hoped they would play. The song itself was more like the single version than the album version, which had me a little anxious, but those fears were quashed when they did indeed go into the second half of the song, from the album version. Stretched out to about 10 minutes, the synthy-dance-funk-o-tron ending, which sounds more like Death From Above 1979-lite or Holy Fuck than anything Franz has done before, was mind blowing and a near perfect way to end the show. As the sing came to a close, each member departed the stage one by one, starting with Alex, then Nick (leaving a synthy-loop going), then Bob, leaving drummer Paul all alone (with said loop) to go insane on the drums and bring the song to an epic finale. They came out one final time to the very front of the stage for a bow and that was that. At 9:30, no less!

Each time I have seen them live, they just keep getting more and more mindblowingly awesome. Maybe they venues have been getting progressively better (Colloseum to Commodore to Malkin Bowl) and maybe it's cos last time they played was before the new album, but even despite the weather, it was one amazing show. The only way it could have been better is if they had played Katherine Kiss Me, but since that is a very mellow and almost acoustic-y song, I can understand why they didn't... but it still would have made for a really cool closing song, like a kind of dénouement after the insanity of Lucid Dreams.



The setlist was as follows:
No You Girls, Dark of the Matinée, Walk Away, Bite Hard, Tell Her Tonight, Do You Wanna?, This Fire, What You Came For, Take Me Out, Ulysses, 40', Outsiders.
(encore) Michael, Turn It On, Darts of Pleasure, Lucid Dreams.