the flaming lips/beck
saturday, november 30, 2002 • benaroya hall, seattle wa • review by janice


review: WOW WOW WOW! What an amazing and beautiful concert this was! : O First off, it was held at the Benaroya Hall which is an amazing symphony hall. It was so completely posh! We parked in the heated parking garage, rode the elevators up, they were serving wine and other fancy liquors in the lobby area, and we were greeted by smiling uniformed ushers all the way! Like I said, posh!

FLAMING LIPS: Before the Lips' set started, frontman Wayne Coyne walked out on stage to look around and admire the Hall. Mike and I, being huge dorks, waved wildly at him, and the charming thing is, Wayne waved wildly back at us! *HEE!*

They had this great set-up with giant disco balls, an adorable pop-art rug on the stage, and enormous colorful balloons everywhere. And then the band came out, with the guys wearing cute animal costumes, and Wayne in his white suit. (Mike and I were saying, Wayne must have a ton of these! Especially with all the blood he pours on himself...) And then an entourage of people wearing animal costumes came out and stood on the sides of the stage! : O WOW! I read about this in Jane Magazine, 'cause one of their writers dressed up as a bunny at one of their shows. I was kinda bummed, 'cause I would've loved to have dressed up and danced on stage with the band! If you're reading this, and the Lips are coming to your town, apparently, what you gotta do is get to the venue early and hang out by the backstage door.

But anyway, the band opened with "Race For The Prize" and I swear, there's something about going to Lips' shows that just makes me so teary-eyed! It's just so joyful, and the band has so much heart! They just genuinely want people to have a good time, and they really give every show their all! It's so touching and so beautiful, and it just makes me weepy!

Wayne's voice sounded a bit strained, but he was still belting out the hits. The kids with animal suits on stood and waved flashlights around, creating a sorta disco-ball-effect! Very cute! And the big balloons were launched into the audience, so everyone batted them around to each other, with audience members being nice enough to volley them up into the balconies so the people up there could play along! So nice! At one point, Wayne asked if there were any birthday boys or girls in the audience, and lo and behold, there were two. So Wayne led us all, and we sang "Happy Birthday" to them! But before he started, he stopped to pour fake blood on himself, adding, "Happy Birthday with blood..." Yay!!!

And then, the band kicked into their single "Do You Realize?" and the kids in costumes jumped off the stage and ran down the aisles giving hugs to people in the audience! YAY! Luckily, Mike and I were right on the aisle, so Mike sweetly traded places with me so I could get hugs!!! I got a hug from a frog and a tiger!!! It made my night!!! : D (However, I could've done without the topless-dancer they were projecting on the video screen throughout the song!)

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the huge video screen the band played in front of! It showed some of their videos (like "She Don't Use Jelly") and other weird random video clips (those topless dancers, a weird Japanese schoolgirl shooting spree scene), and the best thing of all...the clip of Valerie (Tiffani-Amber Theissen) introducing the band from their guest spot on Beverly Hills 90210!!! My fabulous friend (and fellow 90210-geek) Noël saw the Lips play down in Georgia and they showed the clip there, too! HOORAY!!!!! : )

Sadly, their set was short, since they were just the opening band and all, but Wayne explained that they would come back out on stage and play as Beck's backing band, so yay to that! And then they were gone, but you know what's cool? Even though they're rock stars, and even though they were playing this huge symphony hall with tons of techies, the guys stuck around and helped strike their own set! : O How's that for humble and sweet? I love these guys!!!

BECK: Beck started his set with just himself, sitting on a stool, with an acoustic guitar. He opened with a few of the pretty quiet numbers off his new album "Sea Change", which I have to confess, while I love and have listened to it to death, I'm still a little unfamiliar with song titles! Sorry about that! But when he played "The Golden Age", he started out quietly with just himself, and then as the song kicks up, the stage was backlit, and there were the Lips, wearing normal suits instead of bunny ones, playing along. It was breathtaking!

Admittedly, I was kinda curious how this show would go since the new songs are so different from his old stuff, but really, it just sounded like some kooky crazy mix tape! He would go from his quiet ballads into the techno-licious "Nicotine & Gravy" (with Beck providing some seriously cool robot-dance moves!!!). The set even included old classics like "Devil's Haircut" and even "Loser"!

Another thing: Beck's voice sounded sooo ridiculously low live! : O Maybe it's just the shock of seeing this tiny white boy, and then he opens his mouth and WHOA! It's hard to believe such a deep, low voice can come outta such a scrawny fella. He's like the new Rick Astley.

Then Wayne and Beck did a duet together, and it was so cute! He and Wayne have such wonderful chemistry together! You can tell they really must be great friends! So, Wayne explained that they did Austin City Limits recently, and needed a good song for a duet. And at first, Wayne thought they could play Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" but Wayne would sing "I got you, Beck" and Beck would sing, "I got you, Wayne". AWWWWW!!! Beck even ad-libbed a few lyrics singing, "You've got balloons/And people in costumes..." before trailing off, unable to think of any more rhymes. Wayne concluded, "So that was a bad idea" but Beck added, "But I do really got you, Wayne." HEE! CUTE!

So then Wayne thought they could do Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias "To All The Girls I Loved Before" but then decided they didn't have enough chest hair, with Wayne unbuttoning his shirt, and even trying to unbutton Beck's, with Beck saying, "No, I'm pretty hairy!" and flashing a little chest! HEE! But finally, they decided on the Velvet Underground song "Who Loves the Sun". It was sweet and wonderfully done!

If I weren't such a huge Flaming Lips fan, I could see how Beck fans might've gotten annoyed at Wayne. Wayne is just soo outgoing and gregarious, and kept (unintentionally, I'm sure) stealing the spotlight from Beck!

But Beck easily held is own, in his quiet way. At one point, he came out wearing this glow-in-the-dark suit and did a few dance moves, but then the lights came back up and it was over! I was bummed! Why have this expensive suit and take time out to run offstage and put it on if you're only going to dance in it for a minute?

The show ended pretty quickly, without any chance for another encore 'cause they turned up the house lights fast. But it was such a great show!