The Flaming Lips bring show full of colour, vibrance and light to MTELUS

What show can have mechanical unicorns, 20 ft blow up robots, giant laser-shooting hands and one of the coolest lighting rigs in the business? The Flaming Lips have incorporated all these and more into a one-of-a-kind concert. Led by Wayne Coyne, the band produces the show as a full-on artistic performance.

Opening up for The Flaming Lips could be seen as an intimidating slot, but Le Butcherettes provided their own creative performance. The Guadalajara garage punk band came out with various outfits on, rather juxtaposed with the music that they were playing. In their eleventh year as a band, the group has opened for the likes of Deftones, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Drummer Alejandra Robles Luna was one of the standouts in the band, as she beat the drumkit into oblivion during the short set.

Beginning with the dreamlike fantasy of Race for the Prize, confetti, balloons, smoke cannons, and thousands of lights lit up the entire crowd. The performance is a well-oiled machine, after each song props are removed and the next are set up. One second there were 20 giant balloons on stage, and then a 20ft blow-up robot was behind Wayne Coyne, dwarfing him in size.

Over the next hour and a half, there were several times where you would think to yourself “Is this actually happening?” and yes, it did. From Wayne rolling around in a hamster ball during a cover of Space Oddity by David Bowie to riding on the back of a lit-up unicorn, there was always something new to see. The band also debuted Oczy Mlody for the first time live in concert.

While the band has been around since 1983, they continue to find new and creative ways to play their music. During a pause in the action, Coyne stated that a Flaming Lips concert is one full of positivity and is designed to make people happy. The audience couldn’t agree more, many dressing up in similar costumes and producing as Coyne called it “screams of joy” throughout the show. It’s a performance that you won’t see anywhere else, which makes it a must to catch The Flaming Lips at least once if you get the chance.