Do You Realize That You Have the Most Beautiful Face?

Just got back from the first day of the 80-35 music fest in downtown Des Moines. Of course, I really went to see The Flaming Lips - finally - and they did not disappoint! The crowd, I'm sorry to report, was hit or miss. There could've been a few thousand more people and there were definitely some idiots who knew none of the music and were more interested in getting high and screaming "Freebird" (yes, it really happened) rather than enjoy the stellar show the Lips put on. But, they were ultimately inconsequential because of how fun the band was.

The show could've been a half hour longer, otherwise it was complete - bubble in on the crowd, tons of confetti, dancing Teletubbies, the bullhorn, groovy videos, and naked painted girls. Yep, all-in-all, what you'd want in a Flaming Lips show! They set the tone perfectly for me at the start with Race for the Prize, one of my favorites. They lost some for awhile as they played some more obscure and spacey tunes, but then they hit the crowd-pleasing highlights like Yoshimi, Fight Test, Yeah Yeah Yeah (complete with political commentary), taps (4th of July after all), She Don't Use Jelly, and a stellar encore with Do You Realize.

It was a beautiful, picture-perfect night in Des Moines, and I'm quite grateful I spent it with some good friends and The Flaming Lips.

UPDATE: Des Moines Register has many more, uh, better pictures than my one cell phone shot.