The Flaming Lips - Race for the Noise (Pop)

The Flaming Lips had a blast at Noise Pop 2012 at Bimbo's in San Francisco last night, playing the band's awesome 1999 masterpiece "The Soft Bulletin" in its entirety, reports Rolling Stone. They write:

"Over the years, the Flaming Lips have released several different versions of The Soft Bulletin, with not all the songs making the cut on all the packages. While the band has performed the album perhaps more than a dozen times by Coyne's count, they've rarely played all the songs from all the editions. But they treated the crowd at Bimbo’s 365 Club on Tuesday to what might amount to the album's box set – including one of the only live performances of "Slow Motion" ever.



"As the album unfolded and the band expanded various parts to create something that flowed flawlessly – even victoriously – through all its emotional twists and turns, The Soft Bulletin revealed itself to be a genuinely perfect album, meant to be taken whole. It is, in some ways, the Flaming Lips’ own Dark Side of the Moon – that Pink Floyd album that the Lips also happen to sometimes cover live, in its entirety."

San Francisco Weekly was there too, and wrote...
"Last night's show never got better than those first few minutes of raining colored paper, balloons bouncing overhead, and the thundering optimism of The Soft Bulletin's first track. But it stayed great. Faced with the challenge of performing a beloved but deeply melancholic album on a happy occasion (at least for those who got tickets!), the Flaming Lips struck an ideal balance. They demanded a noisy celebration, but were frank -- maybe too frank for some -- about the fact that the evening's entertainment consisted of "songs born out of despair and sadness," as Coyne put it."

Lips' honcho Wayne Coyne posted this clip from last night of himself onstage and the crowd cheering behind him (or was it the orgasm sound?). He's a fun fucker, he is!