Flaming Lips Played Their First Show To An Audience In Bubbles
For many years now, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne has been using a giant plastic “space bubble” as part of the band’s live shows. As the pandemic started, an idea hatched: Could the Flaming Lips play live shows if everyone wore bubbles like that? During a couple of recent Fallon and Colbert performances, the band played before an audience, with both band members and crowds enclosed in their own bubbles. Last week, Coyne said that the band was planning on playing actual live shows, with everyone in bubbles. Last night, they played one.
Last night, the Flaming Lips played a show at the Criterion, a venue in their Oklahoma City hometown. According to Brooklyn Vegan, this show was intended both as a test for the space-bubble live-show concept and as a music video shoot. Setlists.fm points out that the band only played two songs at the show: “Brother Eye” and “Assassins Of Youth,” two of the tracks from the band’s new album American Head. They ran through each song twice.
In a video posted on Instagram, we can see that Coyne was right there in the crowd, where everyone had those bubbles on. It’s quite a visual. Does it look like a fun experience? I honestly have no idea. Below, watch Coyne’s video and check out a few photos from the show.
