Eden sessions : Flaming Lips

The Eden project is a wonderful place.
Biodomes containing tropical rainforests. Statues made out of recycled waste. Giant bees.
All very trippy and very fitting for Wayne Coyne et al.
In fact this is probably the best marriage of performer and venue.
And Coyne certainly seemed to agree.
Yeah, the Lips didn't play all of their wellknown songs. No "The Test" or "Waiting for a Superman".
But I really didn't care.
It was the first time I'd seen them and as first support act OK Go had warned, my brain burst out of its brain socket.
We managed to find ourselves against the barrier and, erm, I did kind of get carried away with punching giant balloons back into the crowd.
All the dancing  Dorothys were excited, as were the security guards, one of whom was giddily talking about what was to happen.
Also, most crucially, the Lips were so thrilled to be there. Wayne Coyne had clearly fallen for the place (and rightly so because Eden is magical and inspiring).

This was an absolute coup for the Eden project. I remember being a teenager in Plymouth and, INXS and Oasis aside, we didn't get big acts. In 1997 the biggest was The Lighthouse Family and, well, that's wrong and a quick Google suggests things haven't changed too much.
So I felt a bit sad for the region's indie kids that Morrisey was making his Plymouth debut that night.

A brief bit on the supports. We saw a surprise (to us) appearance by Badly Drawn Boy (saw but didn't hear as his sound check took forever and OK Go were about to go onto the main stage). One of the nice things about the sessions is that even Eden visitors without concert tickets can watch the performances that aren't on the main stage (and there were a lot of acts on the two non-main stages), as it acted as tasters for not only the acts concerned but also the sessions as a whole.
And OK Go were fantastic. I'd loved their videos (if unfamiliar, try this, this and this and we'll see you when emerge from your YouTube black hole) and I wondered how they were going to be live.
Their version of White Knuckles was brilliant and the handbell edition of Return is stunning, both moving and entertaining.

All told, it was a fantastic evening.
And you MUST see this image of Wayne and the bubble and the bubbles