Live Review: The Flaming Lips / Heartless Bastards – 02 Kentish Town Forum, London 02.06.22


Michael Hundertmark

With the never ending enthusiasm to create fresh and weird new sounds Wayne Coyne finally made it to play at the Kentish Town Forum complete with Giant Robots, blow-up rainbows and mechanical birds!

The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City. The band have recorded several albums and EPs Their Warner record signed album. The Soft Bulletin’ was the NME’s alum of the year in 1999!

Joining ‘The Flaming Lips’ for this short stint in the UK and rescheduled tour were ‘Heartless Bastards’. Cincinnati born singer ‘Erika Wennerstrom’ warmed the crowd up nicely with her soulful voice! The latest released single ‘A Beautiful Life’ draws the theme of self-acceptance and rejection of materialism and snips of life moments! Depth and texture are evident in the song ‘Revolution’ with the rest of the set sounding clean and varied. To date, the band have released 6 albums and had previously toured with ‘Wilco’

The Flaming Lips have built a reputation over the years with their wonderful and weird stage performances, featuring the likes of giant UFOs, inflatables resembling all kinds of creatures as well as even a crowd surfing in a giant hamster ball. 

There is no holding back for tonight’s show at the Kentish Town Forum with Wayne Coyne dancing with a giant pink Robot and firing streamers into the crowd, together with their musical inspired psych sounds! The Stage was a little over crowed as helpers try to steady the Robot to prevent it from tumbling into the crowds below, during the song, ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

Like a theatrical performance, Wayne Coyne leads the band from one psychedelic anthem to another wearing his smart suit with the audience being in a feel-good mood and the confetti canons kept firing. During the set, most of the songs were sung in the giant inflatable hamster ball!

A story started to unfold on stage, about how he acquired a mechanical remote-controlled bird that kept the audience cheering with laughter, but as it was launched, it barely made it across a couple of rows from the front before the bass notes of ‘My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion’ started to chime!

Singer Nell Smith was welcomed onto a stage as with the band’s keeping in with tradition’ to perform a Nick Cave cover ‘Red Right Hand’, but this being one of the more unusual choices to make in the evening’s exhilarating entrainment!

The highlight of the evening was ‘Waiting for a Superman’ with Coyne, like a conductor leading the audience along singing with joy. Wayne Coyne did earlier on promise did deliver the best show!  After the 4 song encore, probably every person left tonight’s  Kentish Town Forum show uplifted and it had been full of surprises and a heart full of joyous experiences and The Flaming Lips certainly did not disappoint! 

Flaming Lips 02 Kentish Town Set List:

Silver Trembling Hands

Do You Realize??

How??

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt.1

Mother I’ve Taken LSD

Waitin’ for a Superman

Always There, In Our Hearts

Dinosaurs on the Mountain

Red Right Hand (Nick Cave Cover)

Love Yer Brain

My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion

Moth in the Incubator

Encore:

Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear

All We Have is Now

Assassins of Youth

Race for the Prize

Previous Live Review: Hudson Taylor / Halli / Katie Phelan - 3Olympia, Dublin 04.06.2022
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