Barcelona – The first night of Primavera Sound was a mixed bag of eclectic music that featured the likes of Big Boi, Of Montreal, Grinderman, Girl Talk and Interpol. With such a wide variety of music, it was no surprise that the most eclectic of them all, The Flaming Lips would be the headliners for the evening. The Flaming Lips live show has been well documented, everyone knows about the space ball walk, the massive confetti guns, the gigantic laser hands and the throng of dancers that are placed on each side of the stage during the show. These things are now expected staples for a Flaming Lips show – everyone knows it’ll happen and everyone expects it to happen. Having said that and having seen them live not even a year ago, I still left the Interpol show early to grab myself a good spot for the Flaming Lips show at Primavera Sound. While those things are no longer a surprise to me, they are still undeniably awesome.
Before the show started, rumors were swirling about what type of show that Oklahoma band would play – they were due to play their album The Soft Bulletin in July so a bunch of us had hypothesize that they would get a preview of that show. We were wrong. Regardless, their was a collective buzz in the air as Wayne Coyne took the stage before the show to announce that the show would feature heavy strobe lights and that if you were uncomfortable, you could simply look away.
The show started shortly after 2 am with the now legendary space ball walk. It’s an old Lips trick that has started off every show for the better part of the decade but remains enthralling every time. To see the look on a fan’s face when they see this for the first time is absolutely priceless. The spirit of the crowd was taken even higher when the opening notes from She Don’t Use Jelly were played, setting everyone at the San Miguel stage into a sing along frenzy. Much of the show played out much like their show in Toronto last year and still, it was great. I could always sing along to an acoustic version of Yoshimi and scream out to the Yeah Yeah Yeah song. Wayne Coyne once again had the crowd in the palm of his hands.
The highlight of the set was the inclusion of Race for the Prize during the encore, a song that had been left off their show last year. It was clearly a highlight for everyone at the show as well, as the crowd went mad at the opening sequence of the track and started singing along to the song well after it was over. The hour and a half set ended as expected with the always emotionally overwhelming Do You Realize, a song and performance that can warm all the cold hearts in the world with it’s sheer magnificence and power. I could see this song in concert a hundred times and still spaz out when the opening beats of the song are played with the massive lights and confetti cannons blasting. It’s truly one of the great concert moments you could ever have, which its only fitting because whether the tricks are new or old, a Flaming Lips show will always be amazing and this Primavera set was no exception.
Set List
The Fear
Worm Mountain
She Don’t Use Jelly
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1
See the Leaves
Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung
What Is the Light?
Race for the Prize
Do You Realize??
