9 Reasons Flaming Lips Blew Our Minds at Beale Street Music Festival

Flaming Lips at Beale Street Music Fest 2013

There are few spectacles more fascinating, illuminating and trance-inducing than a Flaming Lips concert. Blending the elaborate, grand scale of a pop superstar's stage show with the warped, cosmic minds of the Oklahoma psych rock group, the Lips brought their mental and sensory mindf-ck to the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis. Here's nine reasons why the band mesmerized us in Memphis.

John Durgee for Fuse

Because Their Intro Was in Spanish

Why did a man introduce the band in a foreign language? You don't ask, "Why?" at a Flaming Lips concert. You just acquiesce.

John Durgee for Fuse

Because They Did the "Premature Confetti Drop"

When a band gets big/audacious/grandiose enough, they will drop confetti on the crowd. This will, invariably, happen at the end of a set; the final, climactic release after an hour of musical foreplay. The Lips dropped the first confetti bomb during second song "The Terror." It set the bar high for the rest of the show. This bar would be beaten repeatedly.

John Durgee for Fuse

Because Giant Eyeballs Are Terrifying and Fascinating

At various points throughout the set, the background screen, which normally showed psychedelic, trippy images, flashed a giant eyeball that surveyed the crowd like a pissed-off prison guard watching the ward. It was an eerie effect that doubtless freaked out a portion of the chemically aided fans, but entranced just about everyone else.

John Durgee for Fuse

Because Wayne's Podium Is Insane

Manic street preacher he is, Wayne's pulpit looked like an H.R. Giger design on a kilo of coke. Hundreds of white coils draped the podium like tentacles, creating both a beautiful and grotesque effect.

John Durgee for Fuse

Because Wayne Carries a Baby

We first saw Wayne's "baby," a doll cradled by the singer for the first quarter of the set, at South by Southwest in March and we haven't seen it leave his side since. Tonight, Wayne wrapped his love child in the podium ropes and embellished it with LED lights. When a fan asked Wayne the baby's name before the start of the show, he said he hasn't come up with one yet. This is a Twitter contest waiting to happen, guys.

John Durgee for Fuse

Because They Cover David Bowie's "Heroes"

Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown." Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush." Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." The entire 'Dark Side of the Moon' album. The Lips have had their share of classic rock covers, yet it's their take on David Bowie's "Heroes" that was a set highlight tonight. The original is Bowie at his most soaring; the Lips version ups that, with Wayne in full messianic mode. The Lips have covered Bowie's "Life on Mars" and "Under Pressure" in the past, but this trumps all.

John Durgee for Fuse

Because Wayne's Stage Banter Is Mostly About Aliens and Drugs

"We were all collectively so high that we stopped the mighty Mississippi river from overtaking us," Wayne says, recalling the group's last time in Memphis. "Tonight, we are going to command it to overtake us." Okay! Later that night, he will spot a "silver girl" in the first row and weave an elaborate story about how she landed from outer space that afternoon to see Phoenix and had never heard of the Flaming Lips. "But she liked my blue jacket," continues Wayne. "If you scream loud enough, it might make Flaming Lips worthy of her admiration. And when she goes back to wherever she lives In the universe, that's gonna be a cool thing."

John Durgee for Fuse

The Flaming Lips In Concert - Indianapolis, IN

Because When He Tries to Be Normal, Wayne Is Even Weirder

Given all his talk about outer space, celestial beings and the collective unconscious, it's jarring to hear Wayne say prosaic platitudes like, "We love you, guys" and "It's great to be here." It's like hearing an alien who watched footage of typical rock stars and then mimicked what he learned.

Joey Foley

Because There Is No Better Singalong Than "Do You Realize??"

The group closed with 'The Terror' track "Always There...In Our Hearts," but the penultimate song "Do You Realize??," the first single from 2002's 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,' caused a crowd-wide singalong. Wayne is your cult leader for three-and-a-half minutes, leading the masses through the song's Carpe Diem theme and slow, operatic sound. You get the sense if Wayne asked the crowd to all hold hands while singing, everyone would've gladly obliged.

John Durgee for Fuse

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Beale Street

9 Reasons Flaming Lips Blew Our Minds at Beale Street Music Festival