Monday night The Flaming Lips kicked off their 2022 North American tour with a sold out show at The Pageant.

Before the band took the stage front man Wayne Coyne came out with a mechanical bird and talked to the crowd how when they were planning this tour he had a different mechanical bird that he was going to pull out during a song that has bird noises in it but could not find it and went on the internet and found this one. He said it was not as good as the one he lost but that this one might be able to fly and he launched it into the crowd and pulled out a large flashlight that he followed the bird with as it flew over the fans heads and eventually back on stage. Coyne also he told the audience how grateful he was that they were there and that everyone in the venue was there to have fun. He also said he was optimistic in that we have hopefully rounded the bend in the pandemic but that they treat every show as it could be the last one as you never know what could happen.

As the rest of the band made its way onto the stage an stage hand helped Coyne get into one of his now iconic bubbles and started the night with ‘My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion’. A flaming Lips show is not just for the ears but also for the eyes. Between giant inflatables like a huge rainbow during the second song of the night ‘Do You Realize??’, to a giant pink robot during ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1’, also one of the few times Coyne was not in a bubble during the show, loads of confetti, bubbles, and lights galore.

Looking over set lists for last years tour and the few shows that have transpired since Monday nights show I have noticed that the band likes to pull out an older song that they have not played live in a while and tonight’s song was ‘Moth in the Incubator’ off 1993’s ‘Transmissions from the Satellite Heart’, this would also be the album that introduced me to the Flaming Lips as it had the single ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’ on it.