Party at the Park

Sky-high shooting confetti, oversize balloons in every color of the rainbow, alien costumes, smoking megaphones, moving pictures of dancing naked women with rounds of glowing fire in between their thighs, and a HUGE ball big enough to hold lead singer of the Flaming Lips, while he surfs the entire crowd? Yeah, that happened this past Saturday at Centennial Park’s first “Party in the Park”.

Its been awhile since a ticket event was held in the park but I over heard a fan say.,

“This is well worth the 15 bucks I paid to get in here, I feel like they undercharged me.”

Opening acts for the show included a lineup of awesome bands: Ponderosa, Dawes, AWOLNATION and Young the Giant. Each artist amped the crowd up progressively.

The crowd was full of diverse fans laying out in the grassy knolls and sipping beer. A perfectly sunny day continued into a beautiful sunset when Wayne Coyne and his band entered the stage through a hidden door in the humungous digital video screen. Crowd participation was high as confetti rained on them and everyone waited for their chance to hit the bouncing colorful balloons. Many of the balloons were full of confetti which Wayne popped with his guitar a few times all over the stage. I loved hearing the many voices sing the cute lyrics to “She Don’t Use Jelly”. The song “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” made me feel like I was in one of my favorite movies, “Almost Famous”.  I was a “band-aid” for a moment lost in the music. Seeing a young girl drop to her knees in tears after meeting Wayne Coyne made me smile. I love when music touches someone’s soul in that way. Before the show he was nice enough to greet fans next to the stage and happily took pictures with big hugs.

Live music is always heart warming to me but when combined with a mind-blowing performance where you never know what to expect and every one of your 5 senses is rocked, it becomes orgasmic. This was my first time attending a Flaming Lips show and all I can think is when will they be back in Atlanta?!