The Flaming Lips & Sonic Youth at the Minnesota State Fair
Source: morecowbell.net
The Great Minnesota Get Together was turned on it’s head last night at the State Fair Grandstands…
When i first saw the date on The Flaming lips website 4 months ago, it seemed to be a pretty surreal and almost absurd booking, only to be made even more crazy with the addition of Sonic Youth and later the Magic Numbers.
The show lived up to all the hype that i’d built it up inside my head the last few months and then some.
My day started off yesterday by catching Wayne Coyne being interviewed by Mary Lucia live on 89.3 The Current. The interview was quite long (and i believe got cut off the air due to Wayne accidently dropping an F-bomb), but it was a great interview.
Wayne being interviewed by Mary Lucia on 89.3 The Current
Listen to the (almost) full audio interview here
http://www.youtube.com/p/3CE8838129251FE0
I’ll admit that there were a few times i was fearing the show might be cancelled, but but the rain may have dampened our clothes, but certainly not our moods. Thanks to the great stage crew & state fair staff, the show went off almost without a hitch. The one small hitch being The Magic Numbers having their set cancelled to push up Sonic Youth’s set time. Wayne really felt bad about it though and let the Magic Numbers (3/4’s anyway) play 2 songs acoustically after about 3 songs during the Lips set. I hope the crowd enjoyed it as much as i did. They rock out a lot more on electric and with their full band, but it gave them a taste of their great melodies & vocal harmonies at least.
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth’s set opened with “Teenage Riot”, which i joked to a few people around me before their set would be a perfect opener “Everybody’s talkin’ bout the stormy weather…”, so i freaked out a bit when the opening notes of it came through the speakers. Their set was very heavy on their latest record, Rather Ripped, but the new songs sounded really tight live. It definitely wasn’t my favorite set i’ve seen them do, but still a very solid set playing to a crowd of mostly first time Flaming Lips concertgoers.
Kim Gordon’s Sexy Swagger
Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo’s Guitar Fight
Thurston playing “Eric’s Trip”
More photos of Sonic Youth’s set here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg7GWJC1vGA
The Flaming Lips
Honestly, you could burn up the pages of a thesaurus trying to find all the right words to describe the Flaming Lips live experience, but it can’t really be fully explained, you just have to see it for yourself. So i’ll save the hyperbole and adjectives and just say that they put on a show for the ages at the State Fair Grandstand. The State Fair Gopher Mascots even got into the action by dancing with the Aliens & Santas on stage towards the end of the show, proving Wayne held his promise what he said during the 89.3 Interview when he invited the “Minnesota Weasel” to dance with them on stage. I’ll end on this… if you ever need a life affirming event to pick you up or just a reminder of how great life truly can be, get yourself to a Flaming Lips show ASAP.
http://www.youtube.com/v/PgdLRYGK32M
Wayne shooting his many streamer guns
During She Don’t Use Jelly
Wayne being inflated in his bubble by Captain America & Superman 
Wayne floating in his bubble
More photos of The Flaming Lips set here
http://www.youtube.com/p/A67E7B2D3F50163E
(audio is super bassy so turn down your volume, still fun to watch 
)
