Los Angeles Screening Tuesday, November 11, 2008
7pm: Lift Off
8pm: Screening + Q&A With Wayne Coyne
10pm: Afterparty with DJ Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel/The Postal Service) plus cocktails by Belvedere Vodka

» The Flaming Lips @ The Petco Park Parking Lot, San Diego, 8/25/07
» The Flaming Lips Poolside @ The Palms Hotel And Casino, Las Vegas, NV, 9/16/07
» Ten Songs, Five Dozen Dancers, 18,000 Glowstick Hurlers
» Photo Op: Yoshimi Battles the Bank of America Plaza, 333 S. Hope

saw scott booker checking in @ the front desk and knew I was in the right place. Hit the pool and saw a small stage. Fast forward to the gig: they changed it up a bit: they BEGAN the set with “do you realize”, said they were used to always leaving the stage after that song, left the stage at which time captain america came out, did the ear-cupping thing and made us all scream for an encore for ten seconds at which time they came back out and played another hour-and-a-half or more, finally closing with “race for the prize” …

otherwise your textbook lips show but small, by a beautiful pool, of course loud as hell. loved it. i hadn’t heard any of the at war material live other than at the bowl, so really enjoyed that. and they pulled out an oldie – “mountain side” from priest driven ambulance which was spontaneously dubbed, in wayne’s words, “mountain wind because this is the fuggin’ windiest day I’ve ever seen in Las Vegas.” wayne did the thing with the bugle again. no hamster ball but there was really no room for it with all of the wade pools. might have been the most intimate full-band show I’ve seen in years – possibly since Zona Rosa 1999 which, incidentally, is a venue on the current tour.

they were playing fantastically awesome T.Rex as people entered. they also dedicated “vein of stars” to the one and only Marc Bolen who’d died 30 years ago to the day. loved the stravinsky firebird suite closing cadenza by which they walked onto the stage, and I heard steven work the same chord progression into some incidental music mid-set (likely a bed for one of the anti-war sentiments).

at one point, some guy (marine?) had enough of the anti-war bugle action and managed to walk right the hell onto the stage – which basically anybody could’ve done – and started screaming amidst all the confusion @ coyne, no bullshit, who listened patiently until the dude was escorted off by THE FLASH. Wayne proffered that it was apparently too loud in the guy’s hotel room, but take heart: the show was nearly over. we were told to decide amongst ourselves if we wanted to collectively lie and say everybody jumped into the pool and went apeshit, which nearly came to fruition more than once. best of all, it was incredibly easy to get right up to the front of the stage while they were rocking out and shooting confetti over my head (confetti was billowing straight the hell out onto flamingo road and very likely all over the gold coast across the street). Big wind and a perfect night.

All Kinds of Awesomeness

The term “awesome” has become rather banal these days. It’s used for things such as seeing Charo in line in front of you at Whole Foods or your new jeans or that Thai restaurant on La Brea. But last night, I saw something that was truly awesome.

No doubt you have heard that Van Halen is back and David Lee Roth is ready to unleash his crazy (yeah, originally I didn’t care either). Last night at the Forum (where the Lakers and Van Halen played in the 70’s and 80’s, incidentally), Van Halen held a final tour rehearsal for 300 of their closest family and friends, and I found myself invited. We were ushered in and seated in the pit, 2nd row center.

What I was treated to was some serious old-school-kick-ass-rock-n-roll-the-likes-of- which-I-have-never-seen. David Lee Roth is 53 and Eddie and Alex Van Halen are 52 and 54, respectively. There was nothing 50ish about these guys. They looked and sounded just like they did in 1984, albeit missing their rocker hair . Laser show, wardrobe changes, giant remote controlled blimps with Van Halen logos cruising overhead, drum and guitar solos, NO recorded voice tracks — this was shit I haven’t seen in a long time. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. It was one of the best shows I have ever seen, and I’m not even a Van Halen fan.

One note is that this truly isn’t a reunion tour since the former bassist, Michael Anthony, was replaced with Eddie and Valerie Bertinell’s 16-year-old son, Wolfgang. Wolfie was nervous as hell, but he held his own on bass. His voice really stood out (not in a good way) – they would be wise in turning down his vocals. But you know, the kid is 16 years old with acne! His voice probably hasn’t even finished changing.

Fantastic show.

[UPDATE: More VH photos now online! Check 'em out here.]

[UPDATE: As mentioned, more VH photos now online here.]

If for some reason you aren’t headed to the F*ck Yeah Fest this Saturday, you could do far worse than drop $30 on Amtrak, head to San Diego and catch my favorite band The Flaming Lips for free. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Z Trip, Galactic, many more also on the bill; no word at press time on whether or not any of the vendors will be offering gigantic juiced sausages for your enjoyment. This is a 21-and-up event; no tickets required.

Full concert details at FM 94/9 (It’s About The Music). One final bit of Lips news: The Lips’ first live concert DVD (featuring a bleeping/blinking UFO at the Oklahoma City Zoo) is available for purchase starting today. [Details]