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Music

Flaming Lips

THE FLAMING LIPS at Yonge-Dundas Square on Saturday, June 16 Rating: NNNN


The Saturday of NXNE offered the biggest Toronto showgoer conflict in years: Radiohead at Downsview Park or the Flaming Lips‘ free NXNE headlining show at Yonge-Dundas Square.

Fate tragically answered that question for fans as the stage at Downsview collapsed before Radiohead’s scheduled concert, killing one person and injuring at least three others.

That disastrous subtext weighed heavy on the city square as the Flaming Lips hit the stage, but if there’s any band that could raise the spirits of the over 20,000 strong crowd, it’s them. Wishing “good karma” to the victims of the collapse and “the entire Radiohead family” Wayne Coyne and his group of Oklahoma City psych-rockers avowed their M.O.: affirming life in the face of inevitable mortality, communally feting simple existence by way of confetti, lasers and balloons.

That technicolour grandeur played especially well in Toronto’s biggest open stage (despite corporate-branded tents blocking sightlines), but the band didn’t forget the circumstances. The Lips dusted off their rarely-played Radiohead cover Knives Out and together with the strength-in-adversity piano ballad Waiting For Superman, lent some solemnity to their set.

The rest was pure celebration – a cosmic explosion of lights and colours, distorted Sabbath riffs and entry-level existentialism that seemed to reach every individual in the assorted crowd. Rarely has the bittersweet anthem Do You Realize?? held such gravity and felt so cathartic.

Read an interview with the band here, and watch a super cool video of the performance here.

@NOWTorontoMusic

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