Gig review: The Flaming Lips + The Beta Band at The Piece Hall, Halifax
The Oklahoma City neo-psych merchants and reunited Fife avant-garde heroes serve up a double bill of kooky-kitsch earthbound pleasures that offers Halifax rich rewards.
Has mortal contemplation ever sounded so joyously affirmative? It is the cross that The Flaming Lips have borne for four decades now, purveyors of Technicolor neo-psych rock and sly noise pop long since enshrined as a cult festival mainstay across all quarters of the globe.
Their live appeal, beyond the acid shamanism of frontman Wayne Coyne, draws on a heady marriage of aural experimentation and visual pantomime; a kooky-kitsch feast for the senses, earthbound pleasures for the eyes and ears catapulted into the soul of space itself.
This return to British shores for a summertime jaunt comes with a mix-and-match assortment of co-headliner dates alongside reunited Scottish stalwarts The Beta Band, trading their bill-topper duties on a show-by-show basis. It rewards The Piece Hall with the best combination then – that of the steady build, as the Fife-formed collective tease their vintage folktronica and instrumental soundscapes up as a fitting appetizer to the main event.
Nearly 30 years on from The Three EPs, Steve Mason and company sparked a frenetic rush for comeback tickets last autumn. Billed for a 90-minute show beneath cloudless skies, they cut loose before their slot is up, but leave very few stones unturned through a discography feted by avant-garde completionists for much of the modern century.
Drone-tinged opener Inner Meet Me still packs plenty of potency after all this time; The House Song flits and shuffles its way to a furtive climax. Dry the Rain meanwhile is furnished with a Britpop-acapella coda, singalong high in the air; hands braced on their hips, it leaves the group genuinely moved for a lovely moment.
Such restraint is not shared by Coyne though, who leads off with the hymnal synth-cosmos of It Overtakes Me and proceeds to tee up an hour-and-a-half of neon-lurid bangers, spinning off the sun-kissed Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1 to The Spark That Bled’s skittering wooziness and onwards.
A relentless run on Chemical Brothers collaboration The Golden Path ramps up to an LCD Soundsystem-level dance-riot; a bruisingly faithful rendition of the Black Sabbath staple War Pigs late on is delirious fun, amid the milkshake-hued inflatable aliens and mega-balloons.
“This has been a wonderful night, Halifax” the Oklahoma City native hollers in-between Do You Realize?? and an excellent Race for the Prize. That seems without question.