The Flaming Lips Make Triumphant (If Long Overdue) Return

When Steve Drozd told ChartAttack a few weeks ago that The Flaming Lips hadn't headlined a Toronto show since 1995, it seemed impossible. How did the band manage to miss the city on every headlining tour for more than a decade? Lead singer Wayne Coyne claimed during the band's Tuesday night show that it was merely a fluke. The real story of their 85-minute set at the Phoenix, however, was about how the band didn't waste a single second making up for lost time, giving the lucky 1,000 or so diehard fans who made it into the building more than their money's worth.

Before the Lips' travelling circus hit the stage, Australian buzz-band Wolfmother played a six-song set showcasing tracks from their upcoming self-titled debut. The Aussies played with fair technical competence and the tracks sounded a lot more powerful live than on disc, but there were a few problems. First, the lead singer sounds so much like Ozzy Osbourne that it would be shocking if he didn't have a tattoo of the Black Sabbath singer's face on his back. Second, he looks like Carrot Top with a Mars Volta afro, which is creepy to say the least. Finally, if they're going to try to sell music this derivative, they probably should rock out a little more. I'm talking stage thrashing, beer bottle smashing and positively insane banter. Without any of that going on, it's a little hard to sit through some of Wolfmother's seven-minute opuses.

Shortly thereafter, The Flaming Lips appeared. They didn't play music, though. No, the band simply walked out and started plugging in and tuning their own instruments. Coyne frequently raised his fist to the crowd, eliciting cheers from the room. The funny thing was that with the band standing there, it seemed like they were trying to demystify themselves. The fact is, nobody could have predicted what the Lips had in store.

After an instrumental opener accompanied by a video presentation that told us the band were about the change our lives, they launched into "Race For The Prize" and the madness began. On stage left, a pack of aliens emerged; from the right, a handful of Santas — all of them bearing high-power flashlights. With them came billows of smoke and about 50 large latex balloons that joyfully bounced throughout the room.

Much as it was a delight to hear the classic Soft Bulletin opener, what followed was even more insane. With Coyne as choirmaster, the Lips ran through an entirely faithful rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." It's a stunt only they could have pulled off with sincerity and good humour, and judging by the fact that everyone in the building screamed the lyrics at the top of their lungs, it was a huge success.

Tuesday was the release date for the band's long-awaited new record, At War With The Mystics. The LP was represented by its three best tracks, "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song," "Free Radicals" and "The W.A.N.D.," the latter receiving some of the biggest applause of the night. Throughout, the band used clever intros from their oddball pop culture history — a clip of Jon Stewart introducing the band on his less successful late night talk show and, even more hilariously, an intro from Tiffani Amber Thiessen taken from an episode of Beverly Hills 90210.

But the biggest cheers came from the two hits from the Lips' 2002 commercial breakout, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. The entire room was in full singalong mode once again for the title track from that record, while main set closer "Do You Realize???" left a smile on every face in the room. Even as great as the unearthed early Lips' encore track "Love Yer Brain" and show closer "War Pigs" were, they couldn't top Yoshimi's emotional high point.

Coyne repeatedly professed that the band were overwhelmed by the reception in Toronto and that they'd be back soon to accommodate the thousands who would have loved to have been there but couldn't make it in. As the band departed and songs from The Wizard Of Oz filtered over the PA, concert-goers covered in confetti streamed for the exits, happily dazed from a sensory overload unlike any other.