The Vagaries Of Live Performance

Flaming Lips (Manchester Academy 1 – 16^th November 2009)
Laura Marling (Salford Sacred Trinity – 19^th November 2009)

Live music can be a wonderful experience; a thing of joy. It can also be a sober, reflective experience. Perhaps it is the range of emotions that seeing musicians perform can bring out which is one of the reasons why we – especially in the UK – are such avid gig-goers.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended two sold-out gigs within a few days of each other that couldn’t be more different in their execution. The Flaming Lips and Laura Marling are both critical darlings - although in different genres of music - and they are at different stages of their careers.

The Flaming Lips are well renowned for their live show, having honed it over the past ten years at festivals across the globe. Their antics range from the giant ball that front-man Wayne Coyne goes crowd-surfing in, from fake blood and close up cameras to a collection of people on the side of the stage dressed up in giant animal costumes. It is these actions that bring about a great expression of joy and fun between the band and the crowd and remains one of the fundamental things that bind the performance together.

From the moment the set opened with Race For The Prize and launching into songs from Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, the album which helped to break them in this country, the capacity crowd inside the Manchester Academy were with them for the journey and were jumping around in appreciation.

In contrast, seeing Mercury prize nominated Laura Marling perform solo to around 100 people sat cross-legged on the floor of a church in Salford makes for a different evening, but no less special.

There is something incredible about watching her perform completely solo, with just an acoustic guitar to accompany her haunting vocals. When everything is stripped back this much, it makes you realise just what a fantastic guitarist she is; delicate and simple but always inventive; from her folk-style fingerpicking to playing single bass strings on their own, she is a master of creating tension in her music and giving her voice the opportunity to resolve these tensions.

Having seen Marling play at much bigger venues than this over the past few years, it was refreshing to hear of her latest tour being a completely self-. Between Laura and her support act Pete Roe, they were driving up and down the country to gigs themselves, without any real entourage but a friend or two. They would then play tiny venues, without any great financial benefits presumably (given the number of people that they were playing to) and let these select people hear her new songs in a no-pressure environment.

It is almost hard to believe that a record company would allow such a tour to happen for one of their most up-and-coming artists, but it seems that Marling has already developed a sense of artistic control over all of her work. In Salford Sacred Trinity Church, her new songs shimmered around the incredible surroundings, with all suggestions being that her new album will be even better than her first.

Unlike Laura, the Flaming Lips neglected to play a lot of their newer material. Their recently released album Embryonic is a challenging, unconventional and high-concept double album which takes a number of listens to actively become involved with. It wasn’t surprising that they didn’t play a lot of songs from this album, mainly because it would’ve put a little bit of a downer on proceedings.

Whereas Laura Marling can perhaps get away with testing audience reaction of new material in small venues without any pressure, the Flaming Lips don’t have that luxury. Their live shows have audience expectations of joy, over-the-top antics and a healthy amount of the peace and love hippy philosophy.

Going to see the Flaming Lips is a fantastic experience and one of the few bands that I would recommend anyone that I knew to go and see, regardless of their taste in music. They have created this experience, as opposed to the normal formalities of a live show and it is a joy to behold. I do wonder how they manage to keep this level of joy so high up, especially when they seem to be making much darker, challenging music when they’re away from the stage.

As much as I love the Flaming Lips, I can’t help but want a slightly more authentic experience from them next time. They could do much worse than get advice from Laura Marling on that one.