The Flaming Lips brought their kaleidoscopic phantasmagoria to the Santa Barbara Bowl last night and closed out their main tour in style while giving off and getting LOVE from their adoring audience.  The Bowl was celebrating Dia De Los Muertos, and the Lips raised the dead this evening.

Australian psych-rockers Tame Impala (above) supplied a collusive opening to the concert. This young band mixes and muscles ’60s psychedelia and Mancunian (i.e. Stone Roses) motifs to produce a vibrant, pulsating, phase-shifting sound.  All are consummate players and can wring savory notes from their instruments (leader Kevin Parker and drummer Julien Barbagallo were particularly impressive).  While we are partial to lyric-based songs, Tame Impala’s instrumental numbers were set highlights. Hats off to the Aussies, who quickly won over and impressed the crowd and us. Song highlights included crowd-favorite Elephant (which morphed into-and-out-of Michael Jackson’s Thriller/Billie Jean) and Feels Like We Only Go Backwards.  Tame Impala closed out their set fittingly by bringing out Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne to sing the Lips‘ song Are You a Hypnotist? while backed by the band together with the Lips‘ multi-talented Steven Drozd on drums.  When all was said and done, Tame Impala had played for well over an hour, leaving the headliners only 75 minutes for their set.  Hence our small quibble:  while the Aussies were impressive, we could have stood for more time being allotted to the headliners–you know, like normal and as expected.  Tame Impala’s time will come.

After a break for more Dia De Los Muertos festivities in the beer garden, The Flaming Lips hit the stage with one of the best configured stages and light shows we’ve seen in our long concert history.  Backed by an ever-changing battery of light and screen combinations, leader Wayne Coyne was centered up on a mound of lights that in many ways resembled a pounding pixel pulpit. And from there Coyne and his luminary band mates made glorious sounds and gave off love from on high. Brandishing a dizzying array of confetti, orange balls, strobe lights, lasers and other effects the band kicked off their set by covering John Carpenter’s Halloween Theme.  The rest of the set featured an ever-ingratiating mix of new and old (naturally concentrating on songs off of their most recent album The Terror).  Steven Drozd, the band’s frighteningly-talented, multi-instrumentalist impressed throughout the night and particularly on vocals (both lead and harmony).  The band closed out their show with the one-two of discography-highlights, A Spoonful Weighs A Ton and Do You Realize? taking the concert to the very last second of the Bowl’s 10:00pm curfew.

Our only complaints were the brevity of the set and that Coyne’s pulpit limited his usual heart-warming interactions with the audience.  Nonetheless, it was a love-filled, magical and musical night.  And so:  do you realize that you have the most beautiful face?

Check out the rest of our photos below.  As you can see at bottom, there’s a bit of clean-up after a Flaming Lips show.  At very bottom, see the band’s setlist for the SB Bowl show.

The Setlist:

Halloween Theme
The W.A.N.D.
Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast
Silver Trembling Hands
Look…The Sun Is Rising
The Terror
Race for the Prize
Try to Explain
Butterfly, How Long It Takes to Die
Turning Violent
A Spoonful Weighs a Ton
Do You Realize??