The Flaming Lips performed a concert with the band and fans encased in plastic bubbles
Written by laserteam on October 19, 2020
(CNN) – It’s unclear whether The Flaming Lips are using jelly — or vaseline, for that matter — at their concerts these days. The rock band is, however, trying plastic bubbles.
The rock musicians from Oklahoma City are literally blowing up in 2020, using inflatable human-sized bubbles to defend themselves and fans against Covid-19 while finding a way to play live.
Performing at The Criterion in their hometown on Monday evening, The Flaming Lips placed themselves — and all attending fans — inside individual plastic spheres. The concert — which was part live show, part music video shoot — was born out of a sketch doodled by Wayne Coyne during the pandemic’s early days, the frontman told CNN.
Coyne and the band first unveiled the concept during a May visit to “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
That inspired them to keep going.”We do a couple of songs with about 30 people in the bubbles. And we start to think, ‘Well, you know, just from doing that, we start to get an idea that we could actually do it, you know, and it could actually happen,'” Coyne revealed.
The “space bubbles” have long been a part of The Flaming Lips stage shows, so Coyne and company were familiar with a series of inflatable orbs. After setting the specs, the band ordered 100 bubbles from China, and this unique music event – one first drawn up on Coyne’s sketchpad — was ready to pop.
