I wasn’t expecting my first Flaming Lips concert

to change my life.

By Simone Briand

Though I loved the Lips’ music, I figured seeing them live would be a pleasant distraction for a couple of hours, then fade and blur with other shows I’d seen.

Instead, that night last June in Kansas City I was struck by a lightning bolt — a mind-blowing deluge of groovy elements — and it wasn’t just the pink robots, the confetti snows, the ginormous balloons soaring through the air….or the trippy aural delights that made me feel like I had traveled to Planet Happy. There was a vibe being transmitted that was warm and inclusive. The band wasn’t there to play AT us. They were creating what felt to me like a love fest. It’s as if everyone in the room was wrapped in the clear, plastic bubble that encased Wayne as he sang “Spoonful weighs a ton.”

Wayne invited us into the bubble at every turn, exhorting us to “keep screaming, keep screaming, keep screaming! Come on come on come on…you gotta keep going… keep going….” I appreciated him not letting up because I understood that he was like a wizard who needed to alchemize our energy. He was trying to get a whole auditorium to reach lift-off, so we could break free of our tight little earth suits and soar with the balloons. I certainly did.

I left that concert like I’d stepped off a carnival ride, knowing I needed to do that again. Immediately scoured the concert listings for anything I could reasonably travel to, and so dragged my jazz musician husband to the Outlandia Festival in Omaha in August where the Lips headlined. It was another fantastic, psychedelic immersion of sight, sound and grooviness.

But it still wasn’t enough. So going to Oklahoma City for the two-day Summer Freakout several weeks later was a no-brainer. In preparation for the 5 hour trip, I made a Yoshimi and pink robot car ornament. This time my 25 year-old daughter went with me, but since she couldn’t stay for the second night I had told her, no worries, I’d skip it and we’d drive back the morning after the concert. She got to see the Yoshimi album show on night one and we had a great time, then headed back as planned the next morning. We’d gotten an early start so when I dropped her off at her place it was only around noon. Which got me thinking…hmmm… I could totally just drive back to Oklahoma City and catch the second night. There was still plenty of time. So that’s what I did. After pulling off on a side street and hastily booking a hotel room online, I turned my car around and headed right back down I-35 to OKC, my Yoshimi car ornament swaying back and forth. I had reserved seats at the Zoo and my seat mates cheered when they saw me return for night two. Then we all cheered –and kept screaming —as the Lips played the Soft Bulletin. Even after driving for more than 10 hours I wasn’t the least bit tired.

On the contrary, I was newly inspired. While the summer of Lips concerts came to an end, my freakout did not. As I further explored the music, creativity, weirdness, art and magic of the Lips, I was moved to start my own fan blog. I spent countless hours learning to set up a simple WordPress site, but it was a labor of love. My blog — FlamingLipsLove.com — is a space for sharing all the things I dig about the Lips.

I may be late to the party, but it only took a few minutes last June for me to realize what I’d been missing. That night even before all the robots were fully inflated I knew, “suddenly everything has changed.”