All Bonnaroo Saga posts: tag/Bonnaroo 07
If you’ve never seen the Flaming Lips live before, watch the above video to get an idea.After twenty minutes or so of The Police, I left to grab a decent spot for the Flaming Lips. I wasn’t the only one with this idea, and there were a couple thousand people in front of the stage when I arrived. It sounded like The Police ended sooner than they were supposed to, and there was a while where there was no music coming from anywhere. Since all the other stages shut down when a headliner is on the mainstage, there wasn’t anyone opposite The Police. And the stages weren’t supposed to start up until midnight. The band was ready long before then, and came out on stage to screw around and make sure everything was in place. When Wayne Coyne came out on stage and looked at the huge crowd already assembled he asked “Did anyone even see the Police?”
Soon they got tired of waiting around for the arbitrary midnight start time. Wayne told the crowd “Alright, so we’re not supposed to start until midnight, so if anyone asks, this is just a soundcheck.” They launched into War Pigs, complete with visuals on the big screen (a semi-circular projection screen) behind them. Full of energy, the crowd was getting into it, and then they finished. I guess they got in trouble, because Wayne came back out and said they’d have to wait until midnight to go on. Some time goes by, and stage hands (I guess) start throwing out little laser pointer keychains from the stage. Soon they were getting thrown from the soundboard as well, but I wasn’t quite close enough to get any. All in all, thousands of these keychains were passed out, and people lit up Which stage with them. The very top, mostly blank space and the name of the stage in huge letters, was swarming with little red dots. Wayne came out on stage, and told everyone that these little ‘cat toys’ were harmless, and they were planning a big stunt with them about 45 minutes into the show, but the batteries don’t last too long, so save the batteries!
More nothing. As we’re waiting, we can see the band just dicking around on stage waiting for midnight to roll around. The stage is still covered in little red dots. But then the smoke machine starts up, and some music starts playing. The massive circular lighting rig above the stage comes to life, shining lights everywhere, strobes and the whole lot. It took me a second to notice, and another second to be sure, but the lighting rig was descending. The entire lighting rig was getting closer and closer to the stage, until suddenly the top was revealed. It was a gigantic space ship! It stopped about ten feet from the stage, and a ladder was brought underneath the ship. The members of the band (except Wayne) descend to massive applause. Then the ship starts to pitch forward, revealing more of the top to us. And sitting on the very top of the space ship is Wayne Coyne in a giant plastic bubble. Think of it as a life-size hamster ball. People around me wonder aloud if he is going to roll down into the crowd (he’s known for crowd-surfing in the bubble) and I admit I was wondering that myself. But he isn’t that crazy, he steps down the side of the ship, still in the bubble, onto the waiting hands of his bandmates and stagehands. They help him onto the crowd and he rolls around on top of his fans for a few minutes as the space ship pitches in the other direction to reveal the bottom. On the bottom are more lights, mirrors, and other things that make a space ship work.
He gets back to the stage right as they start their first song, and the confetti starts to fly. The Flaming Lips like confetti, and I do too. There are two cannons on either side of the stage whose sole purpose is to shoot confetti a hundred feet in the air over the crowd. I’m not even counting the handheld cannons Wayne fired when he felt like it (generally when he wasn’t singing or playing). There was much confetti, which was an awesome sight from afar, but I imagine must be insane up close. Next time I see them, I’m going to have to try to be really close.
After a few songs, the ship starts to right itself, and ascend back up to the top of the stage. We can see the projection screen again, and they make full use of it, including projecting the image from a small camera mounted on Wayne’s microphone. More lights, color, confetti and music. Then came the laser stunt. The screen behind them told us it was time, and counted down from 10 to SHOOT WAYNE at which point everyone in the audience with a pointer aimed it at the lead singer. He was ready for them, with a massive mirror he held up, reflecting the beams in every direction. This would have been boring as hell had it not been for the smoke machine showing the path of every single beam. You can interpret that metaphorically however you would like, but I’m going to stick with the visual. It was an incredible effect, and I wouldn’t like any deeper meaning to cheapen the memory of that. As it was with most of the stunts they did that night, the crowd was stunned silent. Maybe that isn’t true. Maybe I was so mesmerized that I didn’t hear them. I was awestruck, and I can only think that everyone else was as well, because I don’t remember hearing them.
Near the end of the show, they did the leaf-blower-balloon thing shown in the video above. One hitch: the balloon popped too early, and the band wasn’t ready to cut the music, so the held the crescendo while Wayne got another balloon to attach to the leaf-blower and inflate again. This was taken pretty lightly by everyone, including Wayne who I noticed pointing an accusing finger at the band (for not cutting on time) with a smile on his face. And it is a pretty cool trick, we just got to see it twice. :)
They inflated a giant white balloon and sent it out into the crowd, who shined their lasers onto it as it bounced above the fans. There were probably fifty other balloons that had been bouncing around all show, but this one had lasers on it, which made it special. Wayne even commented “Man that’s cool.”
Soon after they left the stage, but not after shooting off all the confetti they had left. They unloaded all the handheld cannons and the two massive cannons must have fired for a solid minute. They left the stage, and the crowd exploded. And then a new thought entered my mind: what about the encore? The crowd was obviously not going to be happy unless the band came back on, but how could they possibly top that? That was the best live show I had ever seen, and the crowd wanted more. I imagined them backstage trying to scrap together different props in order to make a decent encore stunt. But they were more prepared than I was for an encore, because as they came back on stage and started to play, the ship started to descend. And one by one they climbed up the latter into the ship, Wayne waving goodbye to the crowd as he ascended last. And then, with as many lights as before, the ship went back up.
Once the ship was up, the house music came on. And what was the choice to follow such a show? Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World. Everyone who knew the lyrics (and let’s face it: who doesn’t?) sang along. That was a perfect choice after seeing a show like that.
The show was over, but damn. What a show. I haven’t ever seen a live show so enthralling or enchanting in my whole life. There was much more than what I’ve written, but words are so dry I couldn’t even begin to describe it and give it the justice it deserves. If a DVD of this show ever became available, I’d buy it. If the Bonnaroo 2007 DVD includes clips of this show, I’ll buy it. Nothing short of being there can ever convey that feeling. I can’t wait until my pictures are developed; I must have spent half a roll on that show alone.