The trio has the unique sound and ability to put on a show that brings the audience into something that resembles a mix between New Year’s Eve at Times Square and a locker room celebration after winning the Super Bowl (so we in Philly are told).

The Lips have created a sonic and elaborate experience full of absurdity stretching to the outer limits of our universe but at the same time are so absurd and beautifully weird that the music also speaks to the mundane, simple moments of the everyday…even if they are singing about ninja’s taking on robot armies....Kafka would have loved these guys.

In every interview I read concerning their new album “At War with the Mystics,” Wayne Coyne was at asked how the title of the album signifies the Iraq War and this administration. Just the question alone signals how far the band has come in the last twenty years. Where ten years ago the critical world looked at the Lips as weird and loud, the Flaming Lips have reached such a height of absurdity, such elaborate weirdness that the critical world now has to assume that the music has to be a direct byproduct of the current world we live in.

You only have to look at two of the covers The Lips have been playing to understand the full dynamic of moving from the goofy and beautifully weird all the way back to the all too familiar reality. First there is “Bohemian Rhapsody” which they have been covering since recording the song for a Queen Tribute album. Performed among big balloons and fist pumps, the band fully take on the overzealousness and dramatics of Freddy Mercury and Queen. It is a completely surreal moment full of color and the was most fun I’ve had since Wayne’s World.

Then there is Black Sabbath's "War Pigs." which came as the encore after Coyne had assured the crowd not to worry because if there was a small riot they would have to come back out again. Only the Lips can move from asking “is this the real life/ is this just fantasy/ caught in a landslide…” all the way to “Generals gathered in their masses/ Just like witches at black masses.” The truth is that the Flaming Lips are both real life and fantasy. After another week of Katyusha rockets and air assualts they also remind us that sometimes the guys dressed in animal costumes playing with oversized balloons are the least of the absurd characters in this world.

Previous Philly Dispatch: Radiohead @ Tower Theatre, Upper Darby, PA 6.2.06

Tags: Flaming Lips, Philadelphia, Penn's Landing, Southern Comfort, Iraq