OZ Beat: Music That Matters

Flaming Lips/ The White Stripes

The Aragon Ballroom is exactly that--a ballroom meant for orchestras, not electric music. I've been hanging there for 30 years and this show made me affectionate toward the space for the first time in a long time. Both the Lips and Stripes had done intensive soundchecks and from the minute the Lips took to the stage--it was obvious this was going to be a special night. The Lips did their usual trippy show with a good choice of material and all the psychedelics that one would expect. Then, they literally passed the baton to Jack White. I've seen the Stripes both brilliant and going through the motions in the past.

Flaming Lips/ White Stripes send me to 2004

i missed Blanche altogether, but after vying for position in the center of the Aragon, Flaming Lips gathered onstage starting off the show with "Fight Test," one of my favorite songs off the new CD. the stage filled with colors and lights to either side of the stage, a giant movie screen backdrop with a naked woman shimmy dancing, surrounded by 20-foot macy's parade balloon figures: happy faced sun, planets, topless females wearing assorted animal heads (the pink panther, a white tiger, etc) and a huge glittery waving alien to tie it all together.