WILMINGTON — The Flaming Lips brought their brand of wild and wonderful to Greenfield Lake Amphitheater for the first time Tuesday night.
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“And Greenfield Lake could barely contain the awesomeness,” MoonFrog Media photographer Tom Dorgan said, who captured scenes for Port City Daily.
A sold-out crowd engaged with the interactive show — complete with bouncy balls launched into the audience and then popped onstage — as frontman Wayne Coyne and his band played for more than two hours. It included songs from their 16 studio albums, including “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” played in its entirety.
The show’s date, July 16, was a special one, on the anniversary of “Yoshimi”‘s release 22 years ago, nonetheless.
“For those of you who don’t know what you’ve walked into, these are the robots,” he said, pointing to 20-foot inflatables cowering over the band and flanking the outskirts of the stage.
The band — also consisting of Steven Drozd (bass, guitars, keyboards, drums, vocals), Derek Brown (guitars, keyboards, percussion), Matt Duckworth Kirksey (keyboards, percussion, drums) and Nicholas Ley (drums, percussion) — travels with its own LED wall of lights, often highlighting words from The Flaming Lips’ catalog. And its roadies may be some of the hardest working crew in show business, ushering in prop after prop, song after song — from disco balls, to flower and Wonder Woman costumes for Coyne, some even wearing dancing eyeball inflatables during Yeah Yeah Yeah Song.”
To put it simply: Words won’t do justice to a show as engaging and fun as The Flaming Lips; it’s one to be experienced. And the fellas didn’t disappoint, Coyne often gushing over playing in a quaint venue as GLA, “next to the alligators.”
“My sons would be so jealous right now,” he said about his 5-year-old and 2-year-old, currently obsessed with reptiles.
Dorgan touted the concert “easily a best-of-year contender.” PCD will go one step further (breaking our no reviews rule): It’s likely the best concert Wilmington has ever experienced.
Below are Dorgan’s photos and the setlist.
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