The roadies are setting up the stage but there's a man interfering. A man in a white suit, beard and platform shoes. Is it a member of Supertramp timewarped to the 21^st century? No - the crowd cheer for it is Wayne Coyne, singer and mainman of the Flaming Lips checking that all preparations are correct for their forthcoming elaborate show. However, sometimes you can prepare too much for a party to the detriment of the main attraction...

The problem with this Flaming Lips gig is that it's got to the point where there's too much emphasis on creating a party atmosphere to the detriment of the music. The balloons let off around the arena were fine at the start but once they were burst, did we really need any more of them? Also, the videos accompanying every song mostly didn't really complement the music and were a distraction - if used sparingly they would have been much more effective. Coyne could do a lot worse than looking at the films accompanying support act Alfie which complemented their quirky music far better than those used by the headliners. The overuse of lights and special visual effects was also a distraction - In The Morning Of The Magicians, one of their most beautiful songs was spoilt by the band being invisible behind a thick sea of dry ice!

Flaming Lips create, superb, beautiful music which easily stands up on itself without these extra gimmicks. The highlights of the gig for me included The Spark That Bled (probably due to the lack of distractions!), the genuinely uplifting Do You Realize? and a bizarre but moving closing cover of White Christmas. Apart from this nod to Yuletide, the set mostly consisted of songs from their excellent last two albums, the breakthrough Soft Bulletin (1999) and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (2002) along with a couple of older songs and their recent collaborative single with the Chemical Brothers.

Of the musicians, Steven Drozd on guitar and keyboards was excellent throughout the gig but why oh why couldn't the Lips hire a couple of extra musicians rather than using extensive backing tapes behind the four piece band.

All in all a goodish but frustrating evening - frustrating because it could have been brilliant. Flaming Lips have made some of the best music of the last five years and it's a shame that Wayne Coyne's noble ambitions for each gig to be a party have gone way too far. He needs to cut the gimmicks and the extensive onstage chat (political ranting at gigs is naff unless you are totally committed to the cause like Billy Bragg) and focus on his bands fantastic music. I look forward to hopefully seeing the Lips again in the future with the music being the focal point...and all of it being played by the people on stage!

26.12.03