So, we head out to Markham Park in west Broward county to catch the Langerado Music Festival featuring the Flaming Lips!!! As soon as we arrive and park in the massive open field with absolutely no distinguishing features or signs marking the lanes of parking, we encounter at least 6 dirty hippies who tried to sell us “doses” (LSD). Then, we came across a rather mellow fellow simply muttering (as if to himself), “valium, valium, valium.” The trifecta was a shirtless dirty ass hippie holding a 5 gallon paint bucket sayin “Pot brownies, Pot brownies.” I didn’t bother looking, but I could only imagine that the bucket was half full of just a big heap of brownie goo and you’d have to scoop it out with your hands to get some.
We entered the park at about 3:00 (the Lips went on at 5:30), so we moseyed around and sat in the shade until the band playing before the lips finished their set. As soon as they were done, the field of some several odd thousand people completely cleared and we walked straight to the front of the stage. Understand that it would be at least 1.5 hours untill any more music would come from that stage, so everyone split. We, however, took the opportunity to stake out the best fucking seat you could imagine for a Flaming Lips festival set.
I’m talking right up on the barricades before the stage. Remember those Michael Jackson videos from the Bad era that had the live show footage from all the eastern european concerts? Remember how they’d be spraying fire hoses on the crowd to cool them off (partly b/c of hte heat, partly b/c of Michael) and girls would be passing out and security guards would pass them over the rails to the medics? I’m talkin that close!
So, the Lips, as they are known to do, set up all their gear themselves, so we’re standing there watching them set up. At one point, Wayne was just staring blankly around the stage and into the crowd, waiting for his brain to tell him what to do next. At this point, he looked me right in the eyes and I made the closed lip smile/raise eyebrows move as if to signify, “well, here we are.” He did the exact same thing back to me and after a second, we both started laughing. It was pretty cool.
So, it’s getting closer and closer to show time. I see Wayne talking to the stage manager as can read his lips and interpret his gestures to realize he’s coming up with a plan to walk in his giant inflatable ball off the stage and into the crowd.
Finally, show time. The ball is being inflated and Wayne is getting in. He bounds off the stage and into the crowd. The band kicks in, playing background noise. It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. He walks about halfway to the back of the crowd and then comes back. Once he’s back on the stage, he gets out and the burst into “Race for the Prize.” Every single person in the crowd is jumping up and down and shouting.
Next, they covered Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which was actually quite awesome. Wayne repeatedly urged the crowd to sing along, even if they didn’t know the words.
Next was a new tune called Free Radicals. As for most new material with any band, it was enjoyable, but not what we hoped to hear.
They went on to play a silly ditty called “Cow Jam,” which featured Wayne on a children’s toy that made different animal sounds.
Next was “The Gash,” the anthematic rocker from The Soft Bulletin. Wayne donned his giant Hulk hands and got the whole crowd to wave their arms back and forth. I turned around and took a little movie of it on my digital camera because it was so f’in amazing to see.
Another new song followed that was called “Yeah Yeah Yeah Song.” It was pretty good, but the chorus was kinda simplistic and repetitive (see the title).
Yoshimi part 2 followed and it just rocked the shit off the port-o-lets. Wayne used this vocal break to shoot off multiple rounds of confetti streamers into the crowd. He would also throw confetti at the crowd and more hilariously at the other band members.
Let me take this time to remind you, if you didn’t know, that at least 30 people in animal costumes were dancing on each side of the stage throughout the set, including Santa Clause and a giant Sun.
The Wand, the band’s newest single, came next and was very good. Wayne explained that the song was about how everyone has the power to make changes. He went on a diatribe about how America is starting to move backwards with civil rights, womens rights, drug policy, etc. It was a fun little political piece for the set and helped make the song more meaningful.
Next was everyones favorite 1993 hit, She Don’t Use Jelly, which actually fucking rocks live. It was complete with a recorded intro from the John Stewart Show (ca: 1993) projected onto the giant screen behind the band.
The final two songs were Do You Realize, which was just unbelievable live and Black Sabbath’s War Pigs.
It was 13 songs and an hour and a half long, but way way too short.
Just being able to watch a concert from the very front row is an amazing experience, but to be able to watch your favorite band with your wife, brother, and two good friends who also happen to think of the Lips as their favorite band was just a total adrenaline rush.
After the set, Kliph (the drummer) threw a set list at the crowd, but it fell into the press area right before the stage (which we were prevented from getting to b/c of the barricade). Travis said twice, should I jump the barricade but he didn’t and some girl did and got the set list. Kliph also threw his sticks into the crowd, one of which hit my open palm, but bounced off and someone else got it (I”ve been to too many baseball games to know that the first person it hits never catches it).
As the stage crew was blowing all the confetti off the stage, I was standing around to see if any other set lists or guitar picks might blow off too. As I was scanning the ground in front of me, this shirtless, drunk, older guy comes up to me and says “hey Wally, what you lookin for.”
I had to ask him to come again, and he said “Hey Wally, What you Lookin for?” So, I told him I was looking for a set list or a pick. He then said “You want a set list, I’ll get you a set list.” So, he then proceeds to yell at least a dozen different female names at one of the female stage hands untill she finally looks at him. He then said “Can you give my brother here a set list?” Sure enough, she untapes one from the front monitor and throws it at me. I didn’t think twice before jumping the barricade this time to nab it. Then a whole group of kids came up to take pictures with the set list.
I thanked the drunken guy and asked him how he did that. He said “Don’t you know who I am?” I said “No.” He said, “I’m so and so.” And I said, “I’m sorry I don’t know who that is.” He said, “look me up on the internet, then you’ll know,” and gave me his card. I looked at the card and saw that he was in landscaping of tropical plants. Who knew!?
Amazingly, no one tried to steal the set list from me. We then waited to see if the lips would come out and talk, but only Kliph (the drummer and most recent addition) did. I have met Kliph before at a FLips show in South Carolina that my best friend Steve and I drove up for. We actually walked across the street from the venue with Kliph and treated him to whatever he wanted at the convenience store (it was a can of dinty moore beef stew). I talked to him for a little, but didn’t want to be like, hey, I was that guy that bought you stew.
So, they never came out, but it didn’t matter. Being that close to the stage was like being on the stage. We heard all the in between banter between band members, saw when they caught each other’s eyes after noticeable mistakes, and were just right up against the stage for them to see us responding to the show.
As we tried to find our car, my brother Travis kept repeating this inane garbage about looking for the curve of I-75 and going perpendicular to it. Let me explain that the parking lot was bordered on 2 sides by the on ramp to I-75, therefore, it covered at least 190 degrees of the visual field. Let me go on to explain that Travis has the worst sense of direction of anyone I know. His sense of direction is so bad that I swore I’d eat my hat (or buy him Gelato) if he led us back to the car. Lo and behold, he led us back to the car with his nonsensical directions. I then bought him Gelato.
As we were leaving, our friends Jason and Beth called and said they couldn’t find their car. We pulled over from the traffic outflow lane to try to rendezvous with them to help them look. As we finally met up at my car, we came to the shocking realization that I had pulled over right next to their car.
We then drove to downtown Hollywood to get the aforementioned Gelato. As we did, their car started smoking really bad and basically stopped running. Lo and fucking behold, there was a Firestone on the very corner they broke down in, and the workers were still there at 9 PM!!! We talked them into letting us leave the car for them to work on in the morning and hit the road for the Gelato.
Pictures will be up soon (I took 115).
