The Flaming Lips, Edinburgh review: 'a technicolour extravaganza'

The Flaming Lips, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ★★★★

Every Flaming Lips gig is an occasion but this show was a particular celebration of the Oklahoma alchemists’ 2002 quasi-concept album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. This joyful, thoughtful collection has inspired a stage musical, though it was hard to imagine a more vivid theatrical performance than the one delivered by the band themselves.

“Three minutes until showtime,” announced a disembodied voice which sounded a lot like frontman Wayne Coyne. Just enough time to play a Cocteau Twins track, emit some excited whoops and inflate some giant pink robots, which were manually swayed during the first song Flight Test.

Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips | Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

What followed was a rapturous technicolour extravaganza, with rainbow spectrum lasers, pink robot-shaped confetti showers, a dazzling disco ball and an inflatable rainbow. Also, existential pondering on In the Morning of the Magicians, lysergic odes to sentient AI on (One More Robot) and exultant pop paeans to active love (Do You Realize??). And that was just the first half.

The post-intermission jukebox choice of The Proclaimers' I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) heralded a second set of fan favourites, kicking off with singalong She Don't Use Jelly, profound in its dorkiness.

Playtime props included a petal headdress to rival Peter Gabriel for cosmic country track Flowers of Neptune 6, the time-honoured human hamster ball during sci-fi miniature A Spoonful Weighs a Ton, a Wonder Woman costume for the bittersweet Waitin’ For Superman, dancing sun and aliens during The Golden Path, inflatable eyeballs and lips for a turbo-charged take on The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song and many more confetti showers.

The wide-eyed Riding to Work in the Year 2025 was the world's best commute and there were no props required for their gorgeous cover of Daniel Johnston's True Love Will Find You in the End and their ultimate high, Race for the Prize.