The Flaming Lips invited fans to Kamps – a local bar in their hometown Oklahoma City – for a free April 9th performance that was half concert, half video shoot. They played “Look…The Sun Is Rising,” “Try To Explain,” David Bowie’s “‘Heroes’,” and “The Terror” – multiple times each – resulting in four “live” videos (this on the heals of rumors they would follow their then still unreleased new LP The Terror with a live version of the same record – who knows, it might still happen). While we wait for that live album, we can now watch all four Kamps performances at youtube/flaminglips (or below).
“Try to Explain” was released first – on April 15th with a “Live in Germany?” tease designed to obscure it’s true origins. Almost a month later, Bowie’s German period classic was uploaded today, completing the set.
As for the Lips regular concerts, their first string of dates with The Black Keys lasted late April through last week – both bands’ first tours of 2013 (more dates to come this summer). A few of the setlists are below, plus links to reviews and photos. As can be seen in the below setlist photo by Jake Ingalls (who now plays with the band nightly), the Lips are playing ten or more songs per night with songs from The Terror featured among others from each of their major releases of the ’00s (especially Yoshimi)
… and the Bowie cover thrown in for good measure…
April 28th – Sprint Center, Kansas City, MO
Photos here and here
Setlist:
Look…The Sun Is Rising
The Terror
The W.A.N.D.
Try to Explain
“Heroes” (David Bowie cover)
Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast
Silver Trembling Hands
One More Robot/ Sympathy 3000-21
Always There, In Our Hearts
Do You Realize??
April 29th – Egyptian Room at the Murat Centre, Indianapolis, IN
Setlist:
Look…The Sun Is Rising
The Terror
The W.A.N.D.
Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast
Silver Trembling Hands
Try to Explain
You Lust
One More Robot/ Sympathy 3000-21
Are You a Hypnotist??
“Heroes”
Butterfly, How Long It Takes to Die
Turning Violent
Always There, In Our Hearts
Do You Realize???
All We Have Is Now
April 30th – Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Photos, preview (Steven Drozd on playing with The Black Keys, “I see it as the two opposite ends of the spectrum of what people are doing with music in 2013. They’re like all tube amplifiers and vintage gear and very reverent to the past, and, us, we’re making music with iPads and whatever“), review (“While such silliness was missed Tuesday, it did seem to hone Coyne’s focus, especially his vocals, which sounded better than on those previous tours. The band’s 58-minute set was intense prog-rock”), and recap (Steven Drozd “It was the Black Keys’ crowd, but I was surprised by how open-minded the crowd did receive us. We didn’t get booed”).
May 2nd – Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood, Atlanta
Photos at Stereogum and accessatlanta.com
This week the Lips hit the New York metro area – Jimmy Fallon’s “Band Bench” week on Wednesday, The Wellmont Theatre (with Julianna Barwick opening) on Thursday and Brooklyn’s Great GoogaMooga (with Yeah Yeah Yeahs and many more) on Friday. After that they are off to the UK….
Among the Lips’ 30th anniversary celebrations is a special concert to broadcast on BBC on Thursday, May 23 at 6.00 pm. The hour-long gig at Maida Vale – arranged specially for Lamacq, and an audience of only a couple hundred lucky fans – will be preceded by an interview. Wayne will also present his “very own 6 Music Playlist attempting to cover the band’s 30 years in just 60 minutes” the following Sunday (May 26th). Additionally, listen for a BBC “Now Playing” Lips special on May 19th.
Steven Drozd explained the BBC concert to MTV, “We’re supposed to do 10 songs of 30 years of the Flaming Lips for the BBC.”
But what about fans not in the UK?
“Now that you mention it,” Steven told MTV, “it seems like we should do something here (in the US). I could see Wayne coming up with some sort of retrospective show…maybe we could expand that and make it a full-on show sometime this year.”
Hopefully the band will play some of the oldies they’ve been preparing for the BBC while in New York. Stay tuned…
The Future Heart 
Nice to see them indulge in one of the greats of Bowie’s creating…
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