Yoshimi, They Don't Believe Me

Last night was pretty kickass.

I went to the FREE Flaming Lips concert sponsored by UF. Caitlin and I went to G-ville earlier that day and ate @ Chutnees with her parents. (Awesome food btw - everyone in the area should go try it). Then we went to an Indian market, and I bought henna and she bought rose-flavored yogurt shake. (Yum, flowery). Then we just hung out at the mall for awhile. (After having an encounter with some rather enthusiastic salesmen [well, boys] at Best Buy)

Anyways, we got there @ 4:30, and thinking it would be like last year, I was hoping to get a parking space right by the field. No such luck, so we had to park on Frat Row, but that was ok. We got to the field and I said "Ok, so we need to look for people we know", and Cailtin looks up and goes, "How about them?". It just so happened that Daniel, Timmy, Mary, and Silas were walking right in front of us at that moment. We decided to station ourselves right in front of the sound board so people couldn't push us, and settled in.

5 o'clock was when it was supposed to start, but they were still doing sound checks then. (Cool note - the band is very hands on, and did the sound checks themselves, even playing a full song for us) 6 the first band played - Star Death and White Dwarf (or something like that). They were ok - much better on the instrumental only songs. Later we found out that's Wayne's (lead singer of Flaming Lips for those not in the know) nephew and his band. Cute. The Rapture came on next, and though I had only heard one of their songs before, I really liked their set.

About 8:30 Flaming Lips finally came on. They opened with Firebird Suite, and Wayne got into this giant inflatable ball and walked out over the crowd. There was this giant screen behind the band showing all sorts of bizarre clips, and confetti shot out of cannons. There was was also a flock of santas and a horde of aliens that stayed onstage and just danced to every song. The singer also had this weird cane thing that shot out paper ribbons and confetti onto the crowd. It was a pretty incredible show - there were people dressed up (last count, like 5 fairies, a turtle, a robot, 2 hands, a nun, Animal, and Captain Hook/Morgan). At one point in time Wayne got out a nun puppet and was leading the crowd in singing the chorus of "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" with it. I was also pelted in the back of the head several times with glowsticks, but I picked them up and threw them up to the front of the crowd. By the end I was freezing and my feet hurt, but it was an amazing experience and everyone should try to go to one of their shows.

I've decided that the singer could totally be a cult leader. Every time he came onstage (even when not performing) people went nuts. He also talked about self-empowerment, love, (oh - and a good bit of W bashing) and he just has the charisma to do it. There were a ton of people there too. House of Blues holds about 2,000, and I'm pretty sure there were more than that - I'd say about 3,000. Next weekend is going to seem so dull by comparison.

Uninspired

I am feeling rather uninspired. I can't really think of anything to write about - I think the Blog Supergroup has spoiled me. I only have to think up a topic once every 5 weeks! So - if there are any loyal readers (or any readers at all) who have an idea for something they'd like to see written leave a comment and I'll see what I can do. It can be comedy or whatever your heart desires - I need the challenge.