Flaming Lips - Riot Fest Saturday (Sept 6/14)

The Flaming Lips show had been built up to nothing short of epic in the years since I'd failed to pay attention to them at Sarstock (at this very same venue) during which I'd discovered Yoshimi at the very least. Noticing the massive tanks of compressed gas on the stage earlier in the day I finally got to see them put to work as the confetti began to fly, and not just to the front of the stage but at least fifty meters out into the the air where it rained on and on and down and down for minutes onto the entire crowd who had squished in for the spectacle. Included was a two-person dancing rainbow, a couple magical mushrooms and all sorts of other eye candy in the way of streamers and lights. They stuck around for the opening and the naturally acoustic Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (Pt 1) during which Wayne Coyne had to roll the karate chop back. "I find this really sets the tone for the show and that just isn't going to cut it. 'The name is Yoshimi. She's a black belt in karate.'" He did not stop there as he was the cheerleader the whole time, pumping up the crowd and reminding us that we get back what we put in. Unleashed were 'Fuck Yeah Riot Fest' balloons that bopped over the crowd but only the H survived.

After the mushrooms and rainbow went offstage they were replaced by a couple caterpillars mid metamorphosis to butterflies, and a shining sun - plus a couple of alien blow ups (It doesn't have to make sense.) Wayne reemerged in an anatomic "body"suit that was then covered in silver tin foil streamers before his famous party trick - the hamster ball. Inside this huge ball he crossed atop the crowd and nearly came to my position halfway back, a showman the entire time. Following this was an odd bit on a raised platform where he was coddling a fake child with video projections of running women and the strings of lights still all over the stage. It gave a moment to notice the six-piece band, including a standing and a seated drummer, who were playing through all the nonsense of the show.

Their signature song for damn good reason is Do You Realize? and it was live rendition rung out in all of its epic glory, with Wayne unnecessarily asking us to help him belt it out. This could easily have brought this bold spectacle to a close but the cover of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds felt like an bonus shot, as Wayne was back up on the raised platform and each time the chorus came around the ridiculous strobe lights would strobe and the confetti overtook the sky yet again. Woo - a whirlwind. "Incredible" was the word that was falling off everyone's lips.

The Cure - Riot Fest Toronto (Sep 6)

The Cure were the headliners on Saturday night which made sense to a degree, considering how many "throwback" bands were playing. I've never personally taken much notice but so many bands made mention of this set that I figured the least I could do was stick around and check it out. The five of them - electric guitar, bass, keys, drum plus Robert Smith on guitar - are still hard hitting and have some fine guitar work. Much of the set was lost on me, especially from the back, but I did recognize and enjoy Just Like Heaven and Love Song, of course. I was waiting for Friday I'm In Love however they had nearly a 2 hour timeslot and they just couldn't maintain my attention for that long and I split an hour in.

Death From Above 1979 - Riot Fest (Sep 6)

Sure I'd just seen them with only 200 hardcore fans a few nights prior but that didn't mean I was going to miss another chance to check out their show. After all they disbanded for nearly a decade so you gotta take it when you still can! The stage set-up, the clothes and the band (yep, still no guitarist) was all very similar but the setting was thousands of extremely excited fans as dusk fell on the first afternoon of Riot Fest Toronto. Once more they opened with a 'classic', Turn It Out, from their only album released to that point, as Physical World, from which they would pull much of the rest of the list wouldn't drop until Tuesday. Again they followed up with Frankenstein and Virgins but from their things diverged from the previous show to some degree with different Woman/Machine tossed in (including You're a Woman, I'm a Machine) and playing every single new cut. This included Gemini which Sebastien dedicated to his wife for their anniversary, saying "this is very un-rock and roll", which it really was. Besides that the set did rock, adding Go Home, Get Down (but not Black History Month or Pull Out). The crowd felt like they'd been waiting for this show for years, rightly so, and were giving it their all up front - Romantic Rights dropped right as someone yelled for it and the sea of people soared with it. The backing tracks triggered by the electronic drumset were a little more pronounced as Sebastian messed around with them a bit. Once again the set closer was the title track and album closer, Physical World, and it fits really well with that final burst at the end to lay it all out. Right On.