So, on Friday night I used one of our wedding gifts (tickets from FNAC to a concert of our choosing) to invite AssRay to the Flaming Lips concert at the Bataclan. Honestly, my knowledge of the Flaming Lips is limited to the memorable NewMusicBox moment when we played Zaireeka, the album that requires you to play 4 CDs simultaneously, and getting The Soft Bulletin out of the library about a year ago. I definitely enjoyed both of these experiences and, hey, why not use those free concert tickets to go to a venue 2 minutes from my house?

I have never been to a true Rock Spectacle before. But this was like something out of Spinal Tap...but instead of midgets running around on stage there were about 30 people dressed as either a) Santa Clauses, or b) aliens dancing on either side of the band. Wayne Coyne, who sort of reminds me of Bad Santa Billy Bob Thornton in his look and Oklahoma drawl, was equipped with all kinds of toys: confetti shooters, streamer cannons, dozens of giant green balloons that were immediately released upon the audience when the first chord sounded out. Later we learned that the Santa Clauses were supposed to represent 'Christianity' and the aliens were meant to represent 'Scientology'. It was up to us to cheer for the one we liked best. This thoroughly confused the audience of geeks and stoners.

But I think what connected with me most about the show was just how happy everyone in the audience was and how happy the musicians were on stage. There was no attitude, no phoniness. Just genuine smiles and pure joy. I don't know if I've felt such a positive collective vibe since...well, since back in the day. And it is truly a beautiful thing to know that people are still good, even when looking at the world through no glasses at all.


AssRay picked up their new album At War with the Mystics, which I highly recommend.