Flaming Lips play to sold-out crowd

Anyone familiar with The Flaming Lips knows the band abandoned the concept of ordinary at its conception. And they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Nothing — from the band’s entrance, when front man Wayne Coyne emerged in his patented transparent “space bubble” while the rest of the band walked out from a giant strobe light vagina, to their stage presence itself — even remotely qualified as typical during the band’s Thursday performance.

The IU Auditorium was at capacity for the Union Board’s annual Little 500.

Coyne, the ever-present ringmaster of the band’s psychedelic circus, even supervised the preshow sound checks, constantly bantering with the audience.

“I would suggest that we make this the best party of the rest of the summer,” Coyne said, minutes before launching into “Worm Mountain,” to the audience’s delight.

The Flaming Lips, known for their extravagant performances, held nothing back from Bloomington. Confetti and air cannons exploded. Strobe lights burst in fits of color.
Dancers in orange suits swayed with the band on both sides of the stage as the group’s stagehands launched multicolored balloons into the audience.

Coyne himself acted as more of an extension of the performance than a front man, swinging at roving balloons with his microphone stand like a baseball player. Even when notable gimmicks malfunctioned, the band kept the audience’s imaginations at their whim.

“If I ever get the chance to walk on your heads, I’ll gladly do it,” Coyne said after failing
to follow through on a promise to walk on top of the audience in his bubble.

The Flaming Lips emerged in the early 1990s as one of rock’s boldest and most extravagant groups. Adored by critics and audiences alike, the band gained fame with 1999’s “The Soft Bulletin” and 2002’s “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.”

The Flaming Lips recently covered and released Pink Floyd’s iconic album, “The Dark Side of the Moon,” in its entirety. Stardeath and White Dwarfs, comprised of former Flaming Lips crew members and helmed by Coyne’s nephew, opened for the band.

Graduate student Kate McConville, a self-professed “big fan” at her first Flaming Lips show, said the band’s musical and theatrical legacy made seeing the them a high priority.

“I had heard that, theatrically, there’s a lot going on at a Flaming Lips show,” she said. “They’ve been making music for what, 20 years?”

Dylan Carroll saw the group perform at Bonnaroo in 2007. When he heard the band was performing in Bloomington, he said he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see them again.

“It’s the Flaming Lips, man!” he said. “Their show at Bonnaroo was so epic. It was so unexpected. It was awesome.”