Originally Published July 1, 2025

Q: When did you first discover The Flaming Lips?

CM: I discovered the Flaming Lips when I saw them live for the first time 1993.  I was 19 years old and had just come back from my freshman year of college in Idaho.  I was born and raised in Detroit, and had been home for a month or two when I went with my friend and his girlfriend to see Porno For Pyros at the Phoenix Plaza Amphitheater in Pontiac, Michigan. It was this outdoor music venue on the top of a parking garage. I remember it was a beautiful sunny Sunday evening.  I know it was a Sunday because there was a street preacher outside the venue literally standing on like an apple box he had brought, Bible in hand, yelling at us that we were all sinners and were going to hell.  I found it a little presumptuous on his part as I had grown up a devout Mormon, and had just returned from a religious school which is now known as BYU-Idaho. I was a very straight laced kid. Never did a drug in my life, never drank.  I was very much an anxious kid, and a rule follower, but I had gone to the first Lollapalooza two years prior in 1991 … and it just blew my head wide open.

While I may have been a rule follower, I felt I was always questioning conventions and looked for ways to show my rebellion against what I felt was hypocrisy and whatnot in the culture at large. Seeing the Butthole Surfers and Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction all in the same day just changed my life forever, and from that point on, I knew I was a live music devotee. Gibby Haynes brought a shotgun out and fired it over the crowd, would drink out of these whiskey bottles and throw them 30 feet in the air only to let them come crashing down on his head…it was so much fun.  Later that day, I looked over and saw him walking barefoot up and down the pavilion and I was in awe.  I remember as Jane’s Addiction were in their encore, my brother and friend wanted to leave to beat the traffic out of the parking lot, but I refused.  I was going to drink in every last moment. I remember a computer projection of a fractal lollipop kinda spiraling slowly while Summertime Rolls played.  It felt so magical.

I had tried for years to find my way to express who I felt I was, and that day, seeing so many unique freaks made me feel I had found my tribe.  

So when the Flaming Lips took the stage opening for Porno for Pyros in 93, I was again blown away by the fuzz.  They were promoting Transmissions, and I’m a sucker for the fuzz tones. And they had these perfect pop melodies. I remember She Don’t Use Jelly stood out to me for sure, but Turn it On, and Slow Nerve action also hit me hard. They blew Perry away that day.  Seeing Porno for Pyros after having seen Jane’s was such a let down, they only played for 45 minutes with no encore.  

But I swear the Lips played longer than they did … and louder … and better…

Pictures submitted by Christopher Matteson

Q: When was the first time you saw them? Location and venue etc… and what was your first impressions?

CM: I guess this was kinda answered in the first question, but what I can say is the very next day, I made my way to my favorite record store in Royal Oak, Michigan, Play it Again Records, run by my friend, Alan Kovan.  I walked in and said, “What do you know about the Flaming Lips.” And he was the right guy to ask. Alan and his team of Michael, Brett, and Scoob were the pushers of all things Shoegaze and Space Rock. Alan walked me over to the F section, and Handed me Priest Driven Ambulance and Transmissions. I was back a week later to pick up Hit to Death. I guess Alan knew Scott Booker, so he used to get some of those early silk screen prints from Wayne as well as the postcards the Lips used to send out.  I am sure I’ve got a good deal of hearing loss due to God Walks Among us Now and Slow Nerve Action being in heavy rotation on my Discman back then

Above and below, Lollapalooza, Detroit 1994.

Q: Meeting Ronald and Wayne in the early 90s, how did that shape your view of them as artists?

CM: So in 1994, Lollapalooza came through Detroit, and if I remember correctly, they played three days in a row there, and I think they came through a fourth time a week later. I was a poor 20 year old just working landscaping and didn’t have a lot of money, but I did go to the first two days in Detroit.  Alan had got a booth for Play It Again Records right next to the second stage.  I remember arriving early and while in line, I looked over and saw Wayne and Ronald tossing a baseball back and forth with mitts and everything.  I went the first day with my best friend, Becky, who I’d known since I was four years old. Alan had so many of those second stage bands over at his booth signing things, but to me, meeting Wayne and Ronald was just a dream come true.  I remember Ronald was shy, and didn’t say much but smiled and nodded as he signed my Lollapalooza newspaper called “Teeth.” When I came over to Wayne, I sat and talked with him for a second and then I went to shake his hand, and I had all these callouses from all the landscaping I had been doing that summer (best shape of my life), and he recoiled and was like “what the hell do you do for a living?” I mentioned I was a landscaper, and he commented, “Well, you definitely work a lot harder than me.” To which I jokingly asked him to write a note to my boss to give me a break.  “He grabbed one of the Play it Again flyers and wrote on the back, “Take it easy on Chris, he looks tired, Thanks, Wayne.”  I think I just realized how kind and friendly they were. Real human beings. It was such a surreal day, Becky and I even shared a picnic table with Richard Ashcroft of the Verve (also barefoot) while I think Luscious Jackson or Will Oldham and Palace Music were playing the second stage.

Later, when the Lips played, I was right against the rail.  I remember there was a little person roadie with a pink mohawk.  I don’t know if he was with the Lips camp, or part of the venue, but I think I remember him working the bubble machine.

The next day, I came with my friend Nathan and I smuggled in a disposable camera to get some hidden shots of the band,  They didn’t do a signing that day, but I did get to meet Kim and Kelley Deal over by the second stage when they came over to do a song with Guided By Voices, Kim was just by herself not getting noticed and I talked to her for a minute or two, she signed my T-shirt and let me get a pic before pawning me off to Kelley.  I took a few pictures of the Lips on stage, but one of the security guards tried to snag the camera away from me during Guided By Voices, so I was trying to keep it out of sight and didn’t get the best shots.  It was a lot different than nowadays where everyone’s camera is out.

(Hit To Death promo flat signed by the band)

Q: What is your favorite piece from your Lips collection and why?

CM: This is a hard question. I love so many of the things that I have. In 2011, I had a heart attack at 37.  It was minor and the doctor assured me that I hadn’t done damage to my heart, but I did feel my mortality and I was quite depressed for a good year or so after that, feeling like I was a cautionary tale.  I had finished up a very stressful Masters program to become a Marriage and Family Therapist, and it just took a toll on me, I guess.  In 2012, I just decided, I want to have everything the Lips have released.  So I kinda went on this quest… Discogs, eBay, etc.  I went far and wide to start collecting the things I was missing. I wanted to be the guy who had it all.  Sadly, though, through the old Lips board, I learned there were some real avid collectors out there who have amazing collections. Having four children I’ve had to balance out what I can get my hands on. There are still posters and items and whatnot from the “Made By Freaks With Love” category I’d love to have … but I don’t think it’s in the cards I’ll ever amass what people like Alan, and Kyle, and Joe have collection wise. I never got my hands on the talking Frog, or the Chocolate Skull with the first EP, or the Blood Fwends records or 24 hour Skull. I was just getting out of school with a full family, and no money and student loans I’ll never pay off.

When I was living in Puerto Rico from 98-2000, my parents threw out all the old Spin, NME’s, Melody Maker, Alternative Press, Raygun, and Rolling Stone magazines I had in my bedroom closet, including the Lollapalooza magazine Ronald had signed.  It just crushed me to come home and find that gone.  In 2013, I was able to find a signed promo flat of Hit to Death Signed by the entire band from that era.

That means a lot to me.

I’d say I also love that I’ve got almost an entire set of all the Christmas postcards they’ve sent out over the years.  In 2002, the Lips had a call on their website for people to become part of the “Hellfire Ltd. Street Team.” And I responded to that, so Derek Brown became the guy who would send me promo materials to take around to local record stores.  After that, I’d get signed CDs and 7” singles from the band, and I was on their Christmas Card mailing list. In a crazy “small world” incident, I was trying to round out the Christmas Card collection, I saw a person in England who was selling some early ones.  I won the eBay auction for them, and when they arrived, they were postcards addressed to my friend, Alan at Play it Again Records.  He used to go to England and trade things and whatnot for stuff that he’d then bring back to the states to sell in the store.  Such a crazy small world.

(I’m still missing a few elusive cards to make my set complete. Including one that I should have got, but got only half of it in a plastic bag from the post office with a note telling me the other half had been damaged in transit when a mail truck had crashed or something like that.)

(Lips Postcard collection)

Q: What has been your best memory from seeing the band and why?

CM: There are a few. I have to say, I don’t have the numbers of shows under my belt like Dean, or Alan, or Amy for sure.  I’ve only seen them 22 times over the past 32 years.  Again, having a 4 kids, doesn’t allow me to get out as much as I’d like to travel to see bands. I’m glad for the shows I got to see with Ronald in 93, 94 (2x), 95, and 96 all in Detroit … those Christmas lights shows at St. Andrews Hall were beautiful.  I stood on the balcony right over Michael for those, and I sat transfixed looking at Ronald’s pedalboard and racks of equipment.

In 2002, Derek hooked my wife Rachel and I up at the Phoenix Plaza Amphitheater where I had seen them for the first time 9 years prior.  Chris Chandler got us and took us back to Wayne.  He walked us around and introduced us to De La Soul, Modest Mouse and Cake.  He let us sit in the tent on the side of the stage while they performed. It was just Rachel and I and the band Cake just hanging there.  I remember they had asked us if we wanted to dress up as animals, but then said they were gonna save some costumes for the White Stripes. I don’t think I saw them, so I don’t know if they were there then.  But Wayne was so nice and kind and I remember helping fill up confetti balloons before the show and all.  

That was a great night.

In 2011, about two months before my heart attack, they played the Great Saltaire in SLC. Derek brought my friend James and I backstage and we sat for a few hours with Wayne cleaning corrosion off of old batteries that were inside of forgotten laser pointers that they’d found in their warehouse. They planned to resurrect them to hand out to audience members to use that night. We spent almost 12 hours hanging out there from like 1 or 2 in the afternoon til 1 or 2 in the morning. A bunch of my friends had the chance to dress up in Wizard of Oz costumes and dance on stage.  I tried to get my fat ass in one of the costumes at the time, but it didn’t work, so I opted to just get front and center on the rail and filmed my friends up there. So that’s twice now I had the chance to possibly go on stage, but I just wanted to be in front experiencing it. I think the hard thing for me is that I feel like I pride myself on being an intelligent, easy going person, and then sometimes I just don’t know what to say being around someone I respect immensely and I just come off saying something stupid or not knowing what to say at all. But it was still probably my favorite concert experience.  A local band called Spirit Master just kinda walked in and asked if they could open, and Wayne let them go on before Le Butcherettes, they filmed all of it and made a mini doc on Vimeo you can go see simply titled, “Spirit Master open for the Flaming Lips.” You can see me and my friend James fastidiously cleaning laser pointers at the table. lol.

More recently what means most to me about the live experience is the feeling of family and community. I can’t begin to say how much I’ve grown to love the other fans.  Brad, Alan and Kelli, Amy, Kampy, Kyle and Lara, Wes and Kray, James, Joe, Jude and Rachel, William and Jeana, Dean, Rachel, Keith and Colette, Tom and Morgan, Beth, Brian … I know I’m forgetting some important people.  They’re all these brilliant exploding constellations of color and psychedelia…and then there’s me.  I think I may pride myself on being the most normal (read boring) fan when it comes to my concert going getup. Maybe that should be my schtick, there’s Chris with his gray shirt amongst all the unicorns, and fairies, and elves and whatnot. But going to Oklahoma last Labor Day for those Zoo shows was so wonderful. I’ve learned how warm and loving this community has been.  I’ve had a few rough years leaving the Mormon church, and that vacuum of community has more than been filled up by the people of this community.

Wayne reaches out to Chris in Ogden Utah in 2023.

Q: Do you have a favorite song, lyric or piece of music?

CM: Wayne just gets the existential stuff better than any lyricist I can think of out there.  The ephemeral nature of our existence is something that has always troubled me.  I remember as a little kid trying to think about not existing and it just scared the ever loving crap out of me.  And growing up Mormon, they speak of the eternal nature of the soul, and I remember as a 5 or 6 year old just being so distraught not just of death, but then trying to wrap my head around the idea of dying, and then existing forever and not being able to comprehend something that has no end. I still have to distract myself when my head starts going there.  But I am a sucker for the way some songs just drill home the absolute beauty of enjoying the here and now.  I love Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell, All We Have is Now, It’s Summertime…those three with Do You Realize?? off of Yoshimi have meant so much to me seeing them a number of times on this Yoshimi anniversary run over the past two or three years.  Brings tears of joy to my eyes.  But man … Gold in the Mountain of our Madness, it’s like a near perfect song to me.  But I could go on and on.  The Impluse off of Embryonic is perfection.  Some of the stuff on Kings Mouth, especially those last two songs hit me.  You can’t ask me this question…because my brain reaches out in every direction. I want to give credit where it’s due to each of the albums.  There’s something amazing on each of them. To me it all translates to pure joy.  Because when you take in all of it, the totality of all the ups and downs, it encapsulates the entirety of the human experience and how can you not see that as absolute beauty and joy?  As a therapist, I’m trying to continually help people in the pit of despair find ways to embrace all of it and recognize the beauty of it all.  You cannot understand happiness unless you’ve experienced sadness or hurt. I come home some days with the weight of all the sadness and conflict I see on a daily basis. And these songs, they absolutely bring me happiness and I share them with my clients all the time.

When I was living in Puerto Rico, I was a Mormon missionary.  People don’t understand what an isolating experience that is. You’re assigned to anywhere in the world for two years, you go out…and back when I did it, you only contacted your family by phone twice a year.  The rest of the time, you’re “dedicated to the work,” and you only write your family one letter a week.  My friend Nancy, from LA sent me a copy of the Soft Bulletin. So it was kinda like contraband, because you’re supposed to give up all worldly media and what not.  That album was such a lifeline to me.  I remember I was living in this small town called Añasco on the west coast of the island and it was early November when the Leonid meteor shower happens.  I sat on the balcony of this dingy roach infested apartment above this house, sweating my butt off in the middle of the night, feeling so homesick and lonely, missing my family so much…just looking at the sky for meteors.  I’ve got my headphones on, listening to “Feeing Yourself Disintegrate,” when this huge fireball just lights up the sky directly above me.  Sparks trailing off of it. One of the most beautiful meteor sightings I’ve ever seen.  And I remember just thinking how that thing had traveled infinitely through space, and I saw the minute it collided with our atmosphere right above my head while listening to that song…I know it probably sounds really woo woo and whatnot, but it really made me feel the wonder for the infinite in a much more empirical and scientific way than anything spiritual, but in that moment it became a somewhat transcendent, spiritual moment to me.

Q: Do you have a favorite album or period of the Lips’ history? If so, what and why?

CM: Whenever I listen to Transmissions or Providing Needles for Your Balloons, it transports me to being 19-20 years old.  I’ve got a special spot in my heart for them and Clouds…they were my entry point.  I think Embryonic is an album I can listen from start to finish and never wanna skip anything. It’s probably the one I’ve been listening to a lot lately.  It may be my favorite.  But I guess I can say that about a lot of their albums. They each mark kinda milestones of my life.  They’re kinda, to me, that band I found on my own I feel, and I have loved how I remember sitting backstage at the Saltaire Wayne mentioning something about how every few years the fanbase changes and their sound changes, and it makes me think about the different lives I’ve lived.  I was a graphic design major originally, then I was a broadcasting major and I worked as a DJ in college radio and at a nightclub for a while when in school in Idaho.  Then I was the guy with the white tie and nametag walking around the mountains of this small Caribbean island.  Then I was married and in school with a small family, and Now I’ve been a good 15 years into practicing as a mental health practitioner – originally working with people in rehab and now with couples and individuals.  And my kids are almost all adults at this point. And I see how as I’ve gone through all these different stages, I’ve seen not only the Lips, but other bands I respect and love navigate personnel changes, or stylistic changes.  And now being 51, I just see how fluid life is and how it’s long and wonderful and I love that music has been an anchor that soothes all the bumps and bruises along the way.

Q: What are you looking forward to the most when you see the band next?

CM: I see live music as a grounding, mindful exercise.  I love being in the present.  In a sea of humanity.  Everyone being there in that moment all having a shared, transcendent, communal experience.  And I think the Lips do one of the best jobs making it a joyous one.  I look forward to seeing all my friends. I look forward to hugs from people. And gathering more confetti (Why? I don’t know, I’ve got so much of that stuff.) When Rachel and I went to the show in 2002, we had recently found out we were pregnant with our first daughter.  This last year, she designed stickers at my request merging some of the Yoshimi and Soft Bulletin design elements I was able to hand out to people at the Zoo shows.

Q: What has the music and the group meant to you?

CM: I’ve probably been speaking in hyperbole with all of these questions, but really they’ve kinda meant everything to me.  I have my life, friends, my family and my career and I’ve been really blessed with so much.  It’s been a hard few years for me with what life throws at you.  Some of these songs, I don’t think I will ever tire of.  Additionally, I’ve been able to meet most all the band over the years, and they’re all the sweetest people.  I think the only Lips I haven’t met are Jonathan and Mark.  (Well, I guess AJ as well.) I’ve tried my best to round out my collection with all their individual projects as well others they’ve collaborated with.  I love Stardeath and White Dwarfs, I love Colourmusic, I love Derek’s band with his wife – Crocodile, Spaceface, New Fumes, The Brothers Griiin, Linear Downfall (Who also constitute the Electric Wurms), B|_ank, I have a number of other things from the guys they’ve released on Bandcamp or other places.  Everyone of these guys are amazing musicians and songwriters in their own right.

I just want to say how nice Derek has been to me over the years since I answered that request on the website back in 2002 for Hellfire Ltd.  For years I’d get packages of CDs from him and Scott Booker.  I think Derek referred to them as Booker’s tastemaker recommendations. Its where I learned of Colormusic and Star Death…I think Nick or Matt told me they’d slip their own CDs in them when packaging those things, lol.

Chris and Nell Missoula MT 2023

Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?

CM: Hmmm…I’ve probably talked too much.  I guess I can say I once made this little video montage of my kids a long time ago when they were little to “When you Smile.” I used to watch that over and over, it would always bring tears to my eyes. I can’t find it…grrr…old hard drives.

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