Its been seven years since psychedelic pop rock band The Flaming Lips graced Richmond with their presence. But this weekend, they will make their way back to the River City promoting their latest album, Oczy Mlody (and I’m here to tell you it is all kinds of glorious).
Originally formed back in 1983 in Norman, OK by Wayne Coyne on guitar, his brother Mark on lead vocals, Michael Ivins on bass, and Dave Kotska on drums, The Flaming Lips make their debut at Oklahoma City’s Blue Note Lounge and later that same year recorded their only release with Mark on lead vocals, The Flaming Lips. The band has since then gone on to critical and commercial acclaim around the world.
Arguably most well known for their 2002 release, Yoshimii Battles the Pink Robots and the single from the record, “Do You Realize”, which brought them fully into the mainstream. Not only did they earn a Grammy Award in 2003 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance (thanks to the track “Approaching Pavonis Mons by Baloon (Utopia Planitia)”), but Aaron Sorkin worked with the band to produce a successful Broadway musical based off of the album.
In January 2017, the fourteenth album from the band was released titled, Oczy Mlody. Oczy Mlody continues the band’s trademark psychedelic pop style, but finds a way to mellow out with more somber and slow ballad ventures such as “Sunrise (Eyes of the Young)”, and the single “How??”. The album also features pop star Miley Cyrus on “We a Family”.
Flaming Lips made a venture to Richmond previously in 2011, check out what we thought of that performance here, and as always you can expect a Flaming Lips show to deliver solid tunes, of course, but also a visual spectacle to be witnessed as well. There is no doubt that this show will be the drunk unicorns on a raging acid trip of mermaid bartenders in the sky that we have all missed and dreamt of since they last visited us.
The Flaming Lips will be performing at The National on Sat., March 10 at 8 pm. Tickets are $45 for general admission, which you can snag here.
Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond
