Wednesday 26/04/06 The Flaming Lips, The Go! Team @ The Apollo, Manchester

Tonight is a full on flaming lips paradox, an unparralled party riddled with political and serious undertones, a celebration of the eccentric mind of Lips leader Wayne Coyne and his life commentary, a celebration of people (apparently – says Coyne), in fact it’s just one bloody great celebration – if only Coyne would stop babbling shit and get on with the show.

But first to foot the Apollo stage is the ample groovy shtick of The Go! Team who are, of course, pretty smart live. Tonight things sound slick and less brash than they sometimes do on record -  Ninja and Chi’s vocals are still piercingly sharp but are used and not overused to great effect, finding comfortable ground between Salt’n’pepper and a six year old playground rapper. But, and yes there are always but’s, ‘Lady Flash’ (arguably, The Go !Team’s signature tune) is unexpectedly dull, its funky shudder lost in a tinny tape deck sound which is a damn pest for the ‘Team and a slightly disappointing end to what was otherwise inspired.

We want a party, we want The Flaming Lips and yes we want a room full of balloons to bat and bounce around the Apollo, we want jelly, we want ice cream but most of all we want fun! As the balloons begin to fall we realise our luck is in, tonight everyone is 6 years old and loving it. There’s one ****in massive balloon with Wayne Coyne in it, and he’s having the time of his life rolling on all the faces of his fans in a glorious shield. It’s as fantastical and dreamy as it sounds, and the brilliant opening gambit of ‘Race For The Prize’, new stomper ‘Free Radicals’, and the beautifully trippy ‘Yoshimi’ do little to snap us out of the dreamscape.

But soon balloons start to pop and some shit tracks rear up, an instrumental, the drab Mercury Rev of ‘Vein of Stars’ and some incessant babbling / preaching from Coyne lull the buoyant mood. Wayne seems a little out of sorts, a Jackson of the hippy world, he embraces his inner child in an extravagant yet flippant way, it’s a serious style of fun that seems to battle against his inner social dialogue, something tonight he struggles to articulate. Be it through the apparent battle between the Aliens of Scientology and the Santa’s of Christianity that are our onstage lighting, his fascination with Flaming lips fan’s or his disgust with George Bush, Coyne’s inability to articulate becomes frustrating and inevitably bores the pants off the Apollo. New single ‘The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song’ raises the pulse once more like the devil’s voice it transcribes, and does justice to the genius The Lips are capable of. Closing with a rousing ‘Do You Realize?’ and a glorious Black Sabbath cover, The lips leave a fully satisfied Apollo.

Without the balloons without the party poppers, the Santa’s and the aliens it would still be the greatest hippy show on the road, one giant celebration of the fantastical world the lips live in… boy are we glad we were there.

Photos by: Shirlaine Forrest

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