Do You Realize? The Flaming Lips at Rivers Edge Fest

“and instead of saying all of your goodbyes

let them know you realize that life goes fast
it's hard to make the good things last
you realize the sun doesn't go down
it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round”

My husband scored free tickets to Day 2 of the first (potentially) annual Rivers Edge Music Fest this past weekend. The Flaming Lips were playing. I had never seen them live. So we went. And it was beautiful.

First, I’ve always liked the Flaming Lips since they first hit the big scene with “She Don’t Use Jelly” in 1993. Their 1999 album, The Soft Bulletin, holds a soft place in my heart as the first album the husband and I bought together. We picked it up New Year’s Eve 1999 and listened to it on repeat while we prepped his apartment for a party later that night.  Their song “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1” is definitely in my top 25 songs of all time.

But I’ve never been a HUGE Flaming Lips fan. Like, I don’t anticipate the release of their albums. I haven’t purchased a new release of theirs since 2006’s At War with the Mystics.

But I do like them and had heard all about the beautiful circus of a live show they put on.

And it was beautiful.

We got there just as local act Polica were finishing their set on the same stage. They got done and everyone sort of walked away and so I just sidled up front with super ease. Once the crowd filled back in and shifted, I was about 10 rows back, but still super close.

It was a most perfect summer day. Hot – but not humid – the sky a perfect blue. Just gorgeous.

The stage was set up with confetti cannons, a translucent orange drum set, a paint splattered keyboard covered in – what appeared to be – tinfoil. Backstage, you could see a net filled with balloons.

As they entered the stage, they were followed on each side by a group of gals in candy striper uniforms. They spent the set jumping and dancing on the sides of the stage. I loved that they were never discussed or explained.

The show kicked off with “Race for the Prize” and confetti and balloons and jumping and just all around happiness. It was so automatically euphoric. They then went right into “She Don’t Use Jelly” and encouraged everyone to sing along  - and we did.

The majority of the whole set was just a big colorful sing along of love and happiness. There was a lag in the middle when they performed – what I believe were – much newer, heavier, darker songs that just didn’t quite fit with the beautiful summer day.

But, the encore song was “Do You Realize”. Once again, always liked this song, but never paid much attention to it or really gave the lyrics much thought.

I cried.

When they came back out and started it, I was just happy they played something else that I knew. And then, Wayne Coyne got really into. And they quieted down the ending and it was just him singing those last lines I posted up top there over and over again and they just sort of got stuck in my brain and suddenly they hit me and it was pretty much the most amazing lyrical moment ever. They just stuck me.

And I cried. So very relieved to have my sun glasses on so no one saw.

I just keep saying it was a beautiful show, because that’s the only way I can think to describe it. The weather was just phenomenal. The music fantastic. The stage and the show were so vibrant with colors. The balloons and confetti floating through the blue sky…

…a gorgeous sight.

And the message Wayne Coyne and the music kept repeating was all about love and making the most out of life and the moments you are in.

I just love shows that resonate with me well after they are over.

Well done, Flaming Lips.

 

Also, I’ve decided my favorite thing is being outside at a concert and clapping and singing along with a large group of people. There is nothing better.

 The ground post show.

New Song! "Beg, Borrow, or Steal"

Today I kind of just feel like putting this song out there for the world to hear. So here it is. This a song off the upcoming album, Sea Salt - and it's the whole thing this time. I hope you like it! And if you do, please share with your friends!

 Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Niki Becker

Lyric Of The Day

"someday, we'll float
take life as it comes"

-from "We Float" by PJ Harvey

Stone Arch Bridge Festival

Sunday I performed at the Stone Arch Bridge Festival. It was my second year as a performer and, once again, it was so much fun.

The weather was supposed to be beautiful, but it ended up not cooperating. Luckily, my stage was located under the Central Avenue Bridge with plenty of cover from the rain that came out of nowhere for myself and the people listening.

It’s just so nice to play somewhere that is outside, during the day, as a part of something bigger, where family who can’t usually make it to see me at a bar during the week can come hang out.

There was a group of kids that danced in front of the stage the whole time.

And all the dogs. I love dogs! I never get to play for dogs!

It was blast. 

A couple of videos below.

Setlist for the Stone Arch Bridge Festival 6/17/12

-Cohabitate

-Float

-Good to Know

-Ramble Song (first time played with the band in front of people!)

-Beg, Borrow, or Steal

-Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry cover)

-Here

-Adore

(In my excitement, I totally skipped over a song on the setlist. Oops!)

Let's Talk About The Beatles

Everyone likes The Beatles. You have to. It’s almost an obligation. But this thread on Fark.com shed some light on what I’ve been feeling a bit lately and that is: Holy shit I am sick of The Beatles.

I originally started listening to The Beatles in high school and fell for them. Hard. My friends and I would play the double disc blue greatest hits front to back when we would be partaking in things high school kids partake in on weekend nights. We’d usually end up standing in a circle singing loudly and enthusiastically to every single lyric, holding our fists to our chests or waving our hands in the air when the feeling called for it. We felt those songs, man.

These evenings led me to check out the rest of their catalogue and I soon had my CD shelf filled with every album The Beatles ever made, including special greatest hits and those anthology albums. I. Loved. Them. I secretly wished they were a new band existing in my time so I could see them and swoon after a young John Lennon or George Harrison for real. 

 

Post-high school, my obsession faded and they just became a band I liked. I would listen to them when they came on the radio. Occasionally I’d toss a song onto a mix CD. And every once in a while, I might throw a whole album on and listen. But those days became fewer and further between.

Fast forward to these last few years and if someone were to ask me if I was a fan of The Beatles, I’d probably scowl. I don’t know what happened or when or why, but something in me switched and it’s almost to the point that hearing a song by The Beatles makes me want to scream. I start to twitch. My shoulders hunch up and grow tense. If my iPod dares play them, I want to run and switch the song as quickly as possible.

So, why?

Is it the overkill? Did I just listen to them too much at one point? Does the world just force them down everyone’s throat a little too much to the point that they make me want to gag?

Okay, so I really shouldn’t generalize so much. There are still a select few of their songs that I really don’t mind listening to still and that I might even enjoy. “Long, Long, Long” could be considered one of my favorite songs of the moment, but come on, it’s basically a solo George Harrison song on a Beatles’ album. “Strawberry Fields Forever” is still fabulous, though it’s not something I would just throw on anymore. And some of the super oldies like “Love Me Do” and “Ticket to Ride” are still good for the occasional sing along. And, I do believe I found myself singing along to “Come Together” in the car the other day.

But that’s about all that’s coming to me at the moment.

I still enjoy a lot of their post-Beatles’ work and was crazy thrilled to get to run across Abbey Road last spring when I went to London.

But that’s about where The Beatles and I draw the line these days.

I’ve heard this from other people, too – that they just can’t quite stomach The Beatles anymore. I wonder if this is something that comes with age, or if it’s just a fluke. The Beatles were, originally, a teen pop band. A boy band sensation in the likes of New Kids on the Block or N’Sync. Except they played their own instruments and wrote (most of) their own songs. It seems natural that they would have that certain something that would draw a teenage girl in. They grew out of that and into a much more mature, adult sound that grew with me in my teens as I found myself experimenting and deep in thoughts  of where do I fit that most teenagers find themselves thinking. And then, I guess, that went away.

Which is kind of sad.

Maybe.

Music is still a ridiculously huge part of my life, which is obvious if you read this blog. I would call myself obsessed. It is the driving force of everything I do. It gets me up in the morning.

So, it’s not like I still don’t try to find meaning in things and that I don’t turn to music for some sort of guidance.

But, it almost feels like, with The Beatles, that since they were one of the first, there is a particular naiveté to their words that is somewhat hard to stomach as an adult and that now they have become, to me, purely nostalgic. A reminder of some really good times and well, music I know all the words to, which makes for a good sing along when the mood strikes me.

And I understand their place in history, their importance. I know they were part of a musical revolution that changed the way a lot of things were done. I know they used inventive recording techniques that had never been done before. I know their cultural impact. And I appreciate it.

I just don’t know if The Beatles and I are friends anymore.