The Flaming Lips live @ Electric Picnic 09

There’s not a much better festival closer than The Flaming Lips is there? Confetti, Giant balloons fired out of a balloon gun, lasers, an oval screen, trippy visuals, Wayne Coyne, his blowup ball, a smoke machine in a megaphone -other bands must look at them and feel very inadequate on the live front. To top it off, the finishing song was a highlight, ‘Do You Realise?’ – which to me, marries the positivity and negativity of life together more poignantly in a lyric than many songwriters much more feted than Coyne can.

There were songs from forthcoming album Embryonic which sounded much more washed-out than more recent poppier stuff. Definitely a “freak-out vibe” as was suggested earlier in the year.

Here’s Mr Coyne in his bubble:

Here’s the confetti and balloon madness in two parts during ‘Race For The Prize’:

Here are the impressive lazers towards the end:

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