An hour after MCR played the Voodoo Festival, The Flaming Lips took the main stage. Initially, Sara was thinking that we'd leave after MCR's set, but I convinced her to hang around and see The Flaming Lips. I have one of their albums, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots", that I was quite into for awhile.

And fortunately, I can say this without any hyperbole - that was the best damn idea that I've had all weekend, because The Flaming Lips were AWESOME.

I don't think that I have ever seen a more spectacular rock concert. Ever. It started with the lead singer, Wayne Coyne, crawling into an inflated bubble, and then going for a nice crowd-surf:

And did I mention that Wayne was helped into the bubble by Captain America and the Flash? And did I mention the dozen woman dancers dressed as aliens who were on stage right? And the dozen male dancers dressed as Santa Claus on stage left?

And the giant inflatable Santa, Alien, and Moon Men at the back of the stage:

And the giant inflatable balloons, that came from the side of the stage, and bounced around the audience for the entire show? And the massive confetti cannons, that filled the entire air around the stage with two different colors of confetti?

Oh, and there was music, too. Really good music -- they played a few songs that I recognized off of "Yoshimi", and a bunch of stuff that I didn't recognize (note to self: pick up their new album, "War of the Mystics", pronto). I think I've been getting a little bit jaded with the whole going to concerts thing -- everything that I've seen lately has just left me with a sense of "going through the motions". The band mentions the town in which I'm in. The crowd produces the approprite response. Etc.

Well, I'm glad I saw the Flaming Lips. Because I have never seen a show like that (have I said that already?), and it has really invigorated me. There is still room for innovation, and new things, in the realm of concerts. I saw that The Flaming Lips has been named "One of the 50 bands you need to see before you die". And after seeing them for myself, I couldn't agree more.

-Andy.