The Flaming Lips – Alexandra Palace, London 01/07/11

- Photo credit: Paul Bridgewater

Alexandra Palace’s cavernous main hall is so awash with confetti you can barely see the stage. Behind this wall of swirling coloured paper, Wayne Coyne and The Flaming Lips are in full swing, blasting out their wonderful 1999 album The Soft Bulletin in full for this one-off performance. On a fully movable stage containing, amongst other things, a pair of confetti cannons, two timpani and a giant projection curtain, the veteran American psychedeliacs are showing no signs of waning enthusiasm more than two decades after their formation.

The Flaming Lips’ live show, any previous attendees will surely attest, is unlike any other. A spectacle, an event, an experience; a Lips gig is all these things and many more. Even though Coyne, an irrepressibly energetic frontman with an enthralling stage presence – his band twice the age of many other groups on the circuit, they’ve retained a youthful exuberance on stage. Add this to a finely-honed psychedelic rock sound and enough bells and whistles to sink the Titanic, and the result is a joyous sensory bombardment of a show.

The Soft Bulletin itself marked the musical emergence of the group, combining otherworldly synth sounds with thudding drums and memorably spacey lyrics to unique effect. Hearing it played live reminds us that not only can the Lips put on a tremendous live performance, they’re also fantastic musicians, whether pounding through the bassy ‘Race For The Prize’ or soaring into the anthemic climax of ‘The Spark That Bled’.

The latter’s simple refrain of “I stood up and I said yeah!” is the highlight of the evening: belted out by band and crowd alike, it’s a euphoric moment of unfettered elation that represents exactly what a Lips show is all about.

For behind the volleys of streamers, the piercing lights and trippy projections is a band who can unite and uplift an audience at will. From ‘Slow Motion’ to ‘Waitin’ For A Superman’, the energy of the gig never dips, Coyne like a preacher standing in front of his massed congregation as they soak up every syllable.

The Soft Bulletin is just 45 minutes on record; here it is almost two hours, but no-one seems to notice. There’s even time for the Lips to emerge for a one song encore, playing the incomparable ‘Do You Realize???’, a masterpiece mixing poignancy with ebullience. They lift the show’s vitality one last time, and erase any doubt that they’re one of the best live bands it’s possible to see.