There’s a fine line between magic and forced fun, and TheFlaming Lips sometimes crossed it after they earned a reputation for theirfestival performances last decade and their music began taking a back seat totheir prop-laden spectacle. The band wasn’t helped any by 2006’s At War with the Mystics, a cloyinglyperky album that indulged the flower-power excesses of their concerts, pushingthe Lips further into the realm of self-parody.
Judging by the band’s performance at the Riverside TheaterThursday night, though, the Lips’ latest album, Embryonic, a feel-bad frenzy of nasty jams and gloomy riffs, mightbe the best thing to happen to the Lips’ live show since singer Wayne Coyne’shuman-sized hamster ball. The new material lent a welcome undercurrent ofmenace to the band’s show without killing the party. The hippies in the crowd,some wearing Santa Claus hats and magicians costumes, still had ampleopportunity to fly their freak flag, and those who came for the spectacle gottheir money’s worth, too: The band stuffed a stadium-sized light and videodisplay into a intimate theater.
The group quickly weeded out epileptics from the audience asthey transformed the Riversideinto a massive strobe light, showering the crowd with confetti, streamers andoversized balloons while Coyne rolled over the audience in his plastic bubble.If anything, the show peaked a bit early, loosing some of its momentum once theballoons landed, but the band held the crowd’s attention throughout, even asCoyne’s chatty song intros grew increasingly meandering. Stripped-down takes of“She Don’t Use Jelly” and “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” invited eagersing-alongs, yet the band sounded most engaged during pummeling Embryonic freak-outs like “See theLeaves.” Though majestic visuals and zany props abounded throughout thenightlate in the show, Coyne donned a pair of gigantic monster hands that shotgreen lasers from their palmsfor the first time in ages, The Flaming Lipsseemed more excited playing music than playing with their toys.
