The first afternoon of Brooklyn’s Great GoogaMooga 2013 started off riding a great vibe. As the varied crowd poured into the packed central Nethermeade of Prospect Park, the sun beamed. There was hardly a cloud in the sky. A beautiful early summer afternoon was just about to erupt into a perfect sunset. The Flaming Lips came on stage. Lead singer Wayne Coyne was dressed up like Sgt. Pepper’s alien bastard child, riding what seemed to be a series of glowing silver bubbles that left him at least 5-feet above his bandmates. Just as the show lurched into action with “Look … The Sun Is Rising” from this year’s The Terror, a pair of nearby, ageing hipsters raised their baby toward the heavens. Equiped with tiny earplugs and the nearly 6 months of time clocked thus far on Earth, the baby was giggling, enjoying herself as much as the rest of us.
Seemingly chatty, Coyne fed the mood further into a Summer Awakening mindset. Real bubbles began to drift up to him and his large plastic one. He cooed encouragement to the crowd, talking up the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and managing to get everyone waving in unison to the FedEx airplanes endlessly flying over the park. If only FedEx could have delivered a lozenge to poor Wayne.
As someone who has been eagerly anticipating the Lips live show for years, I was pretty disappointed with the sound quality of the vocals. While on record the songs of The Terror came across as intricate and well-designed, the material sounded muddy and lacking in definition when played live. As the second song in the set, the title track seemed to be beating the audience down with its waves of sound, while we baked in the hot sun and poor Coyne sweated in his insane blue latex. The droning nature of some of the songs definitely clashed with the crowd’s desire to get the party started, something I had heard these particular Lips were quite good at.
Coyne seemed to be having some serious vocal issues most of the afternoon. A few squeaks and missed notes later, and even bassist Michael Ivins was smirking. For portions of the show, the singer dangled uncomfortably with his glitter-encrusted toy bugle in one hand, attempting to wrangle his voice through the slow-paced set.
Not to say it was a musical massacre by any means. Steven Drozd’s contributions stood out in the mix, with his highly-affected guitar and vocals adding some of the best aspects of the show. Kliph Scurlock held down great beats, no surprise there. Even more, Sarah Barthel of Phantogram joined Coyne for the Lips’ new single “You Lust,” in which her voice seems to be featured as some sort of S&M femme fatale.
“Sarah said she’d only come out and sing … if I pulled her hair,” said Coyne, as Barthel emerged, nodding. The audience seemed both amused and perturbed as they proceeded to sing the whole song with Coyne pulling tightly on her dark locks.
Not long after, an amazing cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” woke me up, slapping me out of a slight keyboard drone-induced stupor. Coyne’s voice slid down nicely into the lower Bowie register, and the rest of the band killed their version of the classic to the audience’s delight.
Strangely enough, this cover of another artist seemed to resemble the closest thing I’d seen thus far resembling the “Flaming Lips Live Experience” that I’d been hearing about for the better part of a decade. After the sun began to go down, the insect hive of LED lights around Coyne began to be more prominent. Part of me wondered how many daytime sets they’ve even played over the past few years, and if that could be behind some of the lethargy.
The show came to an end with a very solid (and very necessary) rendition of “Do You Realize??” as the first and only encore song. Coyne was struggling at moments still, but they rose above and returned some of the warm vibes from the shows start.
As moronic security guards enthusiastically cleared out the front viewing area for no reason, pushing myself and the rest of the front crowd out toward the food stalls, I was a bit perplexed – but satisfied – with my first kiss on the Lips.
Nick Bush can be reached at nbush@thoughtpollution.com.
that’s lame. i’ve seen the lips when they’re on and they’re great. but they’re kind of a large cult act and don’t fare well at festival settings, at least from what I’ve seen.