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| The Flaming Lips @ Stern Grove (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
San Francisco rolled out the red carpet to The Flaming Lips for their headlining of Stern Grove Festival’s The Big Picnic on Sunday to wrap up its 86th season. Mayor London Breed was on hand to give a rousing welcome and issue a shout out to her “Tree People” up on the hill and present Wayne Coyne with a certificate declaring August 20th as “The Flaming Lips Day” in San Francisco for their long relationship with the city. Accepting the honor, Coyne took the microphone and said “It’s just the most beautiful day to be outside. I think we are so, so lucky. Since it’s Flaming Lips Day, what do we get to do special?” when Breed laughed, he provided the answer. “Whatever the F*#k we want!”
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| SF Mayor London Breed & The Flaming Lips Wayne Coyne @ Stern Grove (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The annual fundraiser brings in a substantial amount of donations for the large number of picnic tables that come at a pretty penny, but the vast majority of the capacity crowd of 10,000 fans paid nothing for the concert as is tradition at Stern Grove. And though it was a free concert in the middle of a beautiful sun-drenched day, The Flaming Lips brought their full show to the stage. 20-foot robot inflatables? Yes. Seemingly unlimited confetti cannons? Present throughout. Lasers and a giant backdrop video screen? Positioned on the stage. Giant tension balloons that sprayed confetti when inevitably bursting over the crowd? Of course! Well beyond a concert, Coyne and The Flaming Lips put on the most memorable show of this season and perhaps many others. A full sensory extravaganza.
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| The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne @ Stern Grove (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Coyne’s enthusiasm and embracing of the day were on full display for the entire show as he showed his appreciation to the city he has been coming to since 1984. The Oklahoma City native took the stage to Okie from Muskogee and then began the concert by taking advantage of his status to ring Stern Grove’s ceremonial bell before four giant inflatable robots ascended about 20 feet into the air above him in honor of the 20th anniversary of their album “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.” On this tour, the band is performing the album in its entirety to start out the concerts. Surrounded by his ensemble of wildly costumed musicians, Coyne’s charisma, charm and enthusiasm were unwavering. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!” he encouraged the audience again from the outset as confetti cannons unleashed their first volley as the band kicked into “Fight Test” and Coyne leapt repeatedly into the air as he sang.
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| Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips @ Stern Grove (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
As lyrics projected behind him on a large LED screen, Coyne went into “One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21” and then followed up with ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1” and “Pt. 2.” Along the way, he continually encouraged the audience “C’mon Tree People! You’ve got to help us out!” Coyne launched the first of the giant balloons into the crowd as steam and confetti cannons filled the air, lasers erupted from the stage and Coyne launched streamers from a handheld rifle. On a hot day with full sun, the crowd absolutely went berserk as the confetti (shaped like little robots) rained down upon the crowd.
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| The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne @ Stern Grove (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Coyne took the time to recognize several of the more enthusiastic members of the crowd. “We have some people in the front row holding up homemade signs that spell out ‘F8#k Yeah Flaming Lips’. I also want to point out how special it is that the real Santa Claus is here with us today” he added pointing to a man in a full Santa Claus outfit along the rail. “He only has another couple of weeks of touring with The Flaming Lips before he has to get back to making all those toys for the children who depend on him.” Indeed, the fantastic weather and “out there” nature of the band brought out the best of San Francisco’s wild and eclectic. A healthy smattering of audience members came dressed in outfits reflecting the album and band. The grove and the hill above were completely filled and most of the crowd stayed on their feet, swaying throughout the performance.
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| The Flaming Lips audience member @ Stern Grove (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
“Thank you for coming to the show today. It’s such an amazing place to be. To know this is a free event…Hopefully, this is the way the world is turning. Thank you for having us at your amazing free show among the giant trees. We love San Francisco. We’ve been playing this city since 1984.” With that, the band proceeded through the rest of the album with the giant pink robots being inflated and deflated for various songs. “Are You a Hypnotist”, Coyne stood in front of a giant mirrored disco ball that created a mixture of what looked like laser and electric voltage charges behind him. He introduced “It’s Summertime” with “This song is about being sad in the summertime. This song doesn’t change that, but it’s about that and sometimes singing songs about it and wearing flowers on your head can make things better. You can regrow. You can be a new human” With that, he donned a flower outfit to perform the song, finishing the song while playing a horn.
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| The Flaming Lips @ Stern Grove (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
“Do you Realize?” was performed beneath a giant inflatable rainbow after Coyne requested that everyone tell the people around them how much they love them and then demonstrated by having the conversation with several of his bandmates. “All We Have Now” was brought to a thundering close by the Lips drummers before the album’s final instrumental track of “Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia) brought the “Yoshimi” portion of the concert to a close underneath one final appearance from the inflatable pink robots.
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| Confetti, balloons, smoke and crowd at The Flaming Lips @ Stern Grove (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
From there, the band rifled through four of their hits before they ran up against the time restrictions. “She Don’t Use Jelly” was met with a huge audience reaction, while “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (with All Your Power)” found the audience singing along at its loudest as Coyne wore a pull-over Wonder Woman outfit. “A Spoonful Weighs A ton” from 1999’s “The Soft Bulletin” led into the final number – also from that album – “Race for the Prize.” Coyne brought out a giant inflatable mylar that said “F*#k Yeah Stern Grove” and carried it from side to side before launching it into the crowd where it was rapidly passed back through the audience and headed all the way up to the top of the hill. It was the perfect end to an unforgettable performance that perfectly fit San Francisco and wrapped up a wonderful, diverse season of the Stern Grove Festival.
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