5:17pm Friday 20th November 2009
By Andrew Greaves
MONDAY night in the eternally-rainy city may not seem like the ideal setting for The Flaming Lips’ effect-laden show.
But it’s difficult to imagine anything but sunshine as giant balloons, confetti canons and ticker-tape rockets work their magic around the hugely improved Manchester Academy.
More than 2,000 disciples of the Church of Wayne Coyne crammed in Manchester’s mecca of live music to enjoy a show which only the Lips could come close to pulling off.
If there is another band in the world which puts so much into what is essentially a large club show, I have yet to hear of them. Support band Stardeath and White Dwarfs may be fronted by Coyne’s nephew, but being related to a musical genius can only get you so far in life.
Thankfully, the sizeable crowd which turned up early to watch SAWD were not left disappointed, as the young upstarts rattled through a set of songs which gave a strong hint they could very well be the heirs to the Lips crown.
Highlight was the stunning cover of Madonna’s Borderline, which was given a full Jesus and Mary Chain makeover.
The watching Coyne then came onstage to perform his own soundcheck before warning the crowd at the front that he was about to return in his “space ball” — essentially a large hamster ball.
And return he did, floating over the upstretched arms of his followers as the confetti canons boomed and the rest of his gang screeched up an instrumental intro.
What followed was one of the world’s finest bands on their finest form.
The softer moments — Vein Of Stars, Flight Test and the peerless Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots — were sung back word-for-word by an enthusiastic Academy crowd, while the night’s heavier offerings were delivered with a real vigour by Coyne and his apostles which belies their advancing years.
Equal parts witty and challenging, Coyne is the high priest of surrealist psychedelica and it is no coincidence that the Flaming Lips are still packing them in after 20 years in the industry.
On this form, there is still no band in the world to touch them . . . and doesn’t Manchester just know it!
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/trade_directory/