Guest Post & photo by Stuart Lewis

Almost six years to the day after one of the greatest gigs we had ever seen, my good friend David I returned to the Glasgow Academy to see the band that gave us such a great night – the Flaming Lips.

A lot has happened in six years, of course. We now have three kids between the two of us – clearly the lights of our respective lives, but also a major factor in restricting the amount of bands we now get to see together.

And we’ve also lost touch with Wayne Coyne. It was hugely disappointing to find that, following a slightly stalker-ish encounter with the grey haired, cream-suited messiah on that night six years ago, that not only had he forgotten to put us on the guestlist, but didn’t even phone in advance to say that he’d be in town. Pah.

No matter – we were happy to put our differences with famous imagined friends aside to enjoy our seventh (yes, seventh – did I use the word stalker-ish above?) Flaming Lips live experience.

David reckons the new album is something of a classic; I have to admit that I find the improv-jam nature of some of it rather hard work, but with the Flaming Lips, it’s never just about the songs is it?

From the moment the band emerged from a giant flashing vagina onto a stage that looked like the set of Blake’s 7, it was pure theatre all the way. After Wayne’s now traditional foray into the crowd in his ‘space bubble’ – he was at pains to point out that it’s most definitely NOT a hamster ball – it was straight into Race for the Prize, one of the most uplifting pop songs ever written. If there were any doubters that they could once again pull off a stunning show they would surely have been won over by its opening drumbeats.

At this point I have to declare that I was among those doubters. Having seen them play the Usher Hall on the …Mystics tour in 2006 I was a little disheartened that their set had varied little from all the times we’d seen them tour Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. It was also the same schtick between numbers, the same quirky bits and between-song videos. I was anxious that we wouldn’t simply get more of the same.

So it was refreshing to find that things had been shaken up considerably. Yes, there were still costumed fans dancing at the side of the stage. One side looked like the Wampa from the Empire Strikes Back, the other appeared to be scantily clad – and disturbingly attractive – sheep.

After the sheer euphoria of Race… they crashed straight into newie Silver Trembling Hands, and it was absolutely stunning. The rumbling bass and driving percussion made it sound like something Black Sabbath or Hawkwind would have been proud of, and each of the other new album tracks got a similarly thunderous treatment.

Balloons bounced joyously around the crowd, cannons blasted glitter and streamers into the crowd at regular intervals and 2,000 people jumped around like kids on fizzy juice. And when the band rolled out the crowd pleasers like the Yeah Yeah Yeah Song and Yoshimi, they were received like the second coming. Other …Mystics tracks, especially The W.A.N.D. also fitted in seamlessly with the bass-y growl of the new songs.

Even a few seemingly random curveballs like Pompeii am Götterdämmerung went down a treat amidst the flashing lights and burst balloons and the night was rounded off with the spectacular double whammy of She Don’t Use Jelly and Do You Realize. The latter provoked a delightful stop-start singalong that the band seemed to enjoy as much as the crowd, and the Flaming Lips left the Academy stage to rapturous applause once again.

Having seen the Cave Singers the night before, and been craving bourbon immediately afterwards, after this night I felt like overdosing on Sunny D and LSD. But unfortunately I had work in the morning. Damn.

Also by Mr Lewis:

Frightened Rabbit live in Edinburgh, 18th August 2009

Guest post by Stuart Lewis

It’s ironic that in the year we’re meant to be celebrate the anniversary of Burns’ birth that there was a real sense of homecoming about Frightened Rabbit’s appearance at Edinburgh’s Queens Hall. Certainly as Scott Hutchison looked out at the crowd who are singing every word of first encore Poke – a song which he himself had stopping singing and playing at least thirty seconds previously, you couldn’t help but feel that this was their moment; the culmination of months touring ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ to a growing fanbase, on the back of some serious critical acclaim. It’s a beautiful moment and the disbelieving grin on the singer’s face says it all.

It didn’t start quite so well – opening duo The Modern Leper and Fast Blood seemed rather muted, almost as if the size of the venue might get the better of the band and their sound. Thankfully, a storming Old Old Fashioned saw the band really hit their stride. Billy Kennedy and Andy Monaghan, starting to make use of the space available to them, prowled the stage while Scott belted out salty lyrics, surely far too rude for the average age of this mystifyingly young crowd.

Earlier on, Meursault, one of the few bands who can get away with using both a laptop and mandolin on stage, had delivered a well received short set, which suggests they could be destined for bigger things. The same could be said about opening act The Moth and the Mirror, who gave us a brisk half of hour of driving folk, reminiscent of My Latest Novel.

But tonight was all about Frightened Rabbit. With both crowd and band now fully warmed up, the Queens Hall was shaken to its foundations by a set culled mostly from Midnight Organ Fight, but with a few newies thrown in. Scott’s mumbled announcement that new material will be out in November was naturally met with a huge roar, although none of the three songs played were a massive departure in style. You have to feel, however, that the band are on something of a roll and if the next album is as good as how these songs sounded live, they could be ready to step up to the next level.

The magical Poke moment is just the start of an encore that rounds off a spectacular night. After I Feel Better seems to have brought the night to a close, they return to the stage a second time for a bruising Keep Yourself Warm with the crowd still singing along. By the end it looks as if drummer Grant is ready to collapse in a heap, but he has enough energy to stagger off after his bandmates to enjoy a backstage libation. After this performance it was the very least they deserved.

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