Week of The Flaming Lips and The Black Keys

     I have been a concert addict since high school and I try to go see all of what people would call the best live bands. The Flaming Lips have been on everyone's list of legendary live bands forever and I have really wanted to see them since falling in love with their album The Soft Bulletin. I had personally witnessed the The Black Keys twice in concert at two previous Lollapalooza's and they are an amazing live act. So when The Black Keys announced a co tour with The Flaming Lips that was swinging through Kansas City, I was there. So last Sunday 04/28/13 at the Sprint center in Kansas City I finally witnessed a true spectical.

     This tour was a very special and different sort of thing. Fist off there was not a traditional opener, just two main headliners. Another change is that both of these bands are usually headlining in outside venues or at festivals. So seeing them at an inside venue was a new one, at least for me it was. I had never seen The Flaming Lips so I couldn't really comment on what to expect. I wasn't sure if they would play together or just keep to their own sets. As it turned out they stayed to traditional sets with The Flaming Lips opening for an hour and The Black Keys closing for an hour and a half.

     Do you believe the hype? That's where my head was when I was preparing for The Flaming Lips to come on stage Sunday night. When something gets talked up so much it sometimes ends with the hype and anticipation being way better than the actual thing insert Halo 4 joke here. So that was what I spent the time in the car on the way to the show thinking about. I have never met a single person who saw The Flaming Lips live that has walked away from it with anything other than pure amazement. After all they do a ton with their shows. Whether it was rolling around on the hands of the crowd in a giant hamster ball, using giant prop foam lazer hands to shine on the crowd, engulfing the audience in confetti cannons, or even just the crazy stage antics of front man Wayne Conye who is pictured above in Alien make up. The one thing that was slightly concerning going into this show was the theme of the new album and what effect it would have on their stage show. The normal expected stage show is more what is pictured below, but the new redesigned stage was made to terrify and bring a much darker and more intense emotion set to the shows.

      The Flaming Lips took the stage at exactly 7:30 on the dot, not about to waste any of their precious opener time. The Stage resembled a strange podium attached to a bunch of toilet paper ropes with a giant led screen behind it. The new stage was quite impressive especially when the opener "Look...The Sun Is Rising" came on. The screen lights up and vibrates the floor, the toilet paper looking cords began flashing brightly. The second song "The Terror" will probably become a live staple of this tour having been preformed on a lot of late night shows. During the song Wayne Conye brings out a baby doll that he used as a prop during parts of the show. Just as the video screens played dark terrifying subliminal messaging type scenes behind the band during the show. The third song was past lips favorite "The Wand". One of two songs that The Flaming Lips used to show their old happy live selves, bathing the audience in bright colors and flashing strobe lights. Following that they played "Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast"and "Silver Trembling Hands" before jumping back into another new song, "Try To Explain". "One More Robot", "Sympathy 3000-21", and a David Bowie cover of "Heroes" were next. The Last two songs were the highlight of the entire night. First the New song "Always There, In Our Hearts" was the most intense loud grinding rockish moment of the night. Blasting instruments over the flashing LED's and intense terrifying images being played in the background. The last song was the obvious closer "Do You Realize?" was a very happy end to a dark intense show. They blasted happy images on the screen and bathed the audience in bright light as the whole crowd sang along. After that song, as quickly as they had came on they were gone. Like living in a dream and suddenly waking up.
                                                    The Flaming Lips- The Terror Live

     Even though The Flaming Lips didn't use the typical lips show stoppers bubble boy, lazer hands, confetti cannons, etc... It was not a disappointing experience at all. It was just as amazing as everyone had said it would be. One of the few things in life that actually lives up to all the hype. The show is a true onslaught on all your senses. The way I described is like a movie with a soundtrack. Instead of watching a move your living it and the soundtrack is The Flaming Lips. It's something that's almost impossible to truly explain without seeing it. If you ever get the chance don't even think about it just go see The Flaming Lips. I really want to see them again in an outside venue, so they can do their more crazy shenanigans. That wasn't even the end The Black Keys were up next.
                                                         The Flaming Lips- Full Show

      For a headlining act The Black Keys wasted no time, and came on right at 9 pm. The Black Keys have come a long way since the first time I saw them back in 2007. So it was interesting to see just how much had changed since then. Turns out quite a lot. The had quite an extensive light show set up behind them, a backdrop that looked like it had car head lights attached to all sides of it. They Black Keys plus the 2 unofficial members took the stage and started quickly with "Howlin' For You" and "Next Girl" The crowd was electric and the band was in top form as always showing off their expert musicianship. This followed four new song from 2011's El Camino. After this the other two left the stage and Dan and Patrick played 3 older songs by themselves. This was one of the best parts of the show with Dan letting loose crazy over the top guitar and bass solos before being rejoined by the their keyboardist and bass player. The majority of the set list was Brothers and El Camino songs while only 6 from previous albums. Those old songs used were all hits though. After firing off tons of new songs they ended the first part with mega hits "Tighten Up" and Lonely Boy". After this they came back for an encore of "Everlasting Light" and "I Got Mine". The first of which had two disco balls come down from the ceiling and shine all over the room while Dan gave the most beautiful singing of the night. The last song "I Got Mine" is the best Black Keys live song ever, it just is. So it's no surprise that it was the best part of their show. The song was done with just Dan and Patrick on stage letting all of the energy they had left go and ending the night with a bang.
                                                         The Black Keys- Lonely Boy

     This review may come off sounding like I was disappointed with The Black Keys live show compared to The Flaming Lips, this isn't true at all. I think I am just spoiled, spoiled in the fact that I saw The Black Keys when it was just Patrick and Dan back in 2007 at Lollapalooza. It's not that they are worse now, it's just then they had something to prove playing lots of festivals for people who didn't know who they were. They had to win them over, they just felt more raw back them. A lot of the time during the show I just wished they would play more songs with just the two of them. I like them better that way, because they are different. Tons of bands play with four members, not a lot play with two. It made them who they were. They seem to have just gotten to comfortable with where they are now, they were more fun when they had to prove them selves every night. The best moments of their show were the ones were it was just the two of them, which they only did for four songs, or on "Little Black Submarines". Where they mixed it up and played most of the song acoustic, only to blast out the last verse. Let me end by saying this. The Black Keys were and still are one of the absolute best live bands around. To anyone who hadn't seen them like I did, I'm sure that this was an amazing experience for them. It was still a very good show for me. I just wish they would remember why people liked them as a two piece and maybe incorporate that more often into their set. Even playing some of the new songs as just the two of them. Just some constructive criticism, overall keep doing what your doing. Every album they put our rocks! Here is the set list from the show. http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-black-keys/2013/sprint-center-kansas-city-mo-53d81bf9.html
                                                      The Black Keys- I Got Mine Live