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Occasionally in DC, something totally awesome happens on the mall. Most of the time it's Hari Krishna and Zendik tards doing everything they can to disillusion even my most ambitious efforts to tell myself DC is place for creatives, but every once in a while the gods smile upon us residents of the District reminding us of all the ways in which we are actually living in the Capitol of the free world.
Earth Day being yesterday, I for one was obliged to hear stories courtesy of my mother about the first Earth Day in 1970, when her participation in a performance art piece at the University of Maryland netted her some serious hippy street cred (go mom!). And although Earth Day on the Mall was indeed peppered with aging hippies telling us about their lifelong environmental odysseys, you throw in a headlining band like the Flaming Lips, and well, you've got yourself a party.
Kids, young, in between, and pushing thirty showed up in droves for an awareness raising Green Apple Festival that likely had an eyebrow-raising carbon footprint, all I'm saying, I couldn't find any recycling bins. And before someone starts ranting about recycling, I'm just saying, awareness, you'd think would maintain at least a facade of renewability.
Anyways, I captured some images, because that's what I do, I give you images to gander at while you should be working. So gander, Washington, gander.
This little man was taking off for Mars, we had a fairly extensive convo about his lack of a helmet, he didn't seeem to think it was going to be necessary. Damn though, seriously, this kid's on to something, anyone who wants to start going out on a regular basis in a NASA flight suit, I guarantee you'll be well received by a lot of foks.
These people were really enjoying Moe... I was mostly enjoying watching them enjoying themselves. Some serious dance moves.
Best. T-shirt. EVAR.
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And then came the Flaming Lips. He walked the crowd in the giant clear inflatable beach ball, which just about made my month, see below.
As usual, their performance was over the top, biggest diappointment being the extremely low key rendition of Yoshimi they've taken to performing.
It was unclear whether Wayne Coyne was joking, but midway through the set he compelled the audience to pick up all the confetti off the ground he had shot into the crowd. According to the frontman, he was going to jail unless we did so. Seemed a little odd, but as he told us, he had agreed not to shoot confetti, and despite that agreement he said he had gone ahead with the confetti because he was certain the crowd was ready to live up to its ideals. Something like that.
Anyways, it was thrilling. I want my own giant transparent beach ball. (The second guitar on Coyne's double-necked electric guitar was a guitar hero guitar I'm pretty sure... )
Okay, that's it.
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Previously in I Heart DC:
- 2/10: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use
- 2/9: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use
- 2/8: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use
- 2/8: Perfect Date Outfits + Outings
- 2/7: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use
- 2/6: DC News You Can Maybe Use:
- 2/2: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use:
- 2/1: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use:
- 1/31: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use
- 1/30: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use
God loves a cheerful giver.
The pictures make it seem like it was way more sunny than it actually was. Odd.
Man, look at all that grass they killed and trampled. Care for the Earth my ass...
Yes dakota, photos are wiggity wack.
nice shots, lips killed it
michael, why do you always have to be such a mr. pissy-pants? everyone knows that there isn't grass on the Mall anyway.
i didn't go, but after seeing these pictures, i wish i had.
I hate crowds but these do make me wish I went. Dakota Fine for the kill. And win.
It was a good ol' time. There was a lot of people wearing t-shirts that wished they wore a hoodie.
I loved when Wayne Coyne told everybody to pick up his confetti litter.
Amanda, we all know you can't read so it's no surprise you don't get sarcasm either.
This is so Woodstock like. 1968, the craziness, the mud... Still things were much different back then. We had ideals.
The chick in pink comedy costume (while her friend wearing emerald green) has very wholesome looks.
I can't name a single Flaming Lips song. How does that make me better than everyone else? Because I admit it.
Michael - rent or instant watch the documentary The Fearless Freaks from Netflix. I think you'll have an appreciation for the band afterwards, even if you still don't like the music. Ps. I'm sure you remember She Don't Use Jelly from the early 90's...
i want to have wayne coyne's babies.
and I want a bj from lily allen
i wish i was cool enough to get banned
even though i missed Bill Nye the Science Guy swing dancing at Freedom Plaza for DCLX.org, this was totally worth checking out, thanks for the heads up BYT
Wayne's suit was awesome, friend there before me was wise to advise me to bring a sweater and blankets to keep warm and the Lips cover of Borderline was Wall of Sound nice
just wish we knew what song Prince didn't let them cover that they originally wanted
and how everyone else gets to cover Prince without him objecting e.g. Sinead, Shiny Toy Guns, etc.
Michael, it's true. fml.
Cale you're right. I do know that song. I hate it. I don't hate the Flaming Lips. I just don't know any of their music, and I don't quite understand how everyone else does, or is it that everyone just thinks they do, or should?
Has to be, because that song fucking sucks. It was terrible then (when I was young and happy) and it is now. Maybe they have a lot better songs though.
I hope so.
Great photos, Dakota!
Everyone else does actually know them for a number of reasons. They had a (well deserved) cult following and then Jelly brought them into the mainstream spotlight for a bit. So there was that, but it is obviously not their best work. Then they put out the critically acclaimed 1999 album The Soft Bulletin. It often gets mentioned in the same sentence as MBV's Loveless and OK Computer as one of the best albums of the 90's. It is quite spectacular and I think even you could not deny it's beauty. So that is a reason a lot of people know them. Also in 2002 they put out Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and once again were one of the catalysts for bringing "indie" music to the masses along with Interpol. That album is also amazing, but you probably won't like it, except for possibly a couple tracks like the one referenced in the feature header. They also have a solid reputation for putting on crazy live shows with lots of audience participation and generally being one of the genuinely weirdest semi-mainstream bands around.
They aren't any sort of flavor of the month. They are important. They are respected. They write great songs and put on entertaining shows.
Seriously, watch that movie.
there are very few things I like more than the "calm, collected, perfectly founded Cale style explanation"
we should patent that or something.
Well that explains it.
In 1999 I was only listening to Sisqo's "Unleash the Dragon"
I never denied any of what you stated. I merely asked aloud why I hadn't heard of them. Now I know. Blame Sisqo.
That song still sucks and you run like a girl.
....a guitar hero neck with a freaking kaoss pad on the body. with a twelve-string as the other neck.
maybe if i had such awesome ideas, i could be in a band that only needed me playing music half the time, too, freeing me up to play with big clear bubbles and confetti guns and giant hands the rest of the time. damn.
Great write up and photos. Cale, nice explanation. Micheal, stop wasting everyone's time.
they are a big reason for why i love music as much as i do. they are from oklahoma - and for a time from 1992-1994 they played live shows there almost once a month. as a result, i have probably seen them 35-40 times. this also makes me an early-era fan. i really stopped listening to them after the soft bulliten (which is indeed amazing).
keep in mind their first album came out in 1986 - on it is one of my favorite flaming lips songs called "jesus shootin' heroin." holy shit. michael, you might have even heard it. i played it at every single champagne socialism.
at that time (early 90s) they were a really big deal for us (speaking for all oklahoma indie weirdos) because most bands would pass us by, heading straight for dallas. we had very little opportunity to be exposed to anything that wasn't top 40 or country. i mean, my first concert in high school was color me badd (also from oklahoma...good god)....if that gives you any indication.
at the same time, they were instrumental in bringing bands to oklahoma who i wouldn't have ever otherwise been exposed to - i saw stereolab, medicine, spiritualized, long fin kille and the apples in stereo because of them.
as ridiculous as this probably sounds, it is almost as if the flaming lips opened a door to this other, otherwise unknown world. so, i credit them (and my boyfriend who played 'loveless' on his '82 cutlass tape deck for me) for my music awakening.
another little piece of trivia - mercury rev's jonathan donahue (hot) played guitar for the flaming lips back in the late 80s.
VR - don't neglect Yoshimi and the way underrated At War With the Mystics.
They have a live DVD of some Oklahom concert too, but I haven't seen it yet. And their movie, Christmas on Mars, finally came out. I picked it up but also haven't watched it yet, keep forgetting cause the case is CD-sized.
One thing that is pretty unique about the Flaming Lips is that throughout there career they've continually picked up new young fans.
When Wayne mentioned that he was 48, it not only provided an inspirational role model for aging, but it couldn't be ignored that the average age of the audience was probably around half of his.
Think about the Rolling Stones after they'd been around for 23 years. Sometime in the mid-80's they were probably in their 40's 50's and their audience was probably roughly the same age. I think the difference is that the Stones basically just stuck with the same blues rock sound forever, Lips have continuously been updating their sound and they've also been at the cutting edge. Most other bands still haven't harnessed the use of electronics in rock the way Lips did on Yoshimi. I guess there is a comparison to be made here with Radiohead who have also updated their sound and attracted new young fans throughout their career, but they haven't been around as long.
I'd like to see all bands do this. I don't see why bands shouldn't be putting out their best records at 80. I mean, Beethoven's 9th was probably his best and composed at his oldest. Perhaps the difference is that most appealing rock musicians really aren't composers, but rather transmitters of some young unabashed energy and so it's basically depleted by their 3rd or 4th albums... the Lips, really starting with Soft Bulletin, transitioned over to being more like orchestral composers with really elaborate arrangements.
I realize this will sound pervy, but I totally want to hang out with that kid in the first photo. He looks like he's got his shit together.
also, what the fuck happened to chevy chase? wasn't he supposed to MC? i want answers!!
i love Wayne. heavy.
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