The Flaming Lips announce a new live show in London for the summer of 2021, following previous tour cancellations due to Covid-19 concerns. Kentish Town’s 02 Forum announced on Twitter today that this midwestern rock-band will be back in the UK to perform songs off their latest album American Head on July 23rd, 2021.
London listeners will be particularly delighted by news of the live summer show considering all scheduled UK and Ireland tour dates were cancelled in 2020. The loss and lack of their famous live performances led The Flaming Lips to early release new music for the fans, through UK’s Bella Union, on September 11, 2020.
.@theflaminglips are back to tour their impressively beautiful album ‘American Head’. Pushing the boundaries for more than three decades, there’s nothing quite like a #flaminglips show. They’re here on Fri 23 Jul 2021.
On O2? Priority Tickets on sale 10am Wed 14 Oct #o2priority pic.twitter.com/3b0xfbEZqO
— O2 Forum (@O2ForumKTown) October 12, 2020
The new album, titled American Head, has received positive reaction from fans and critics and this is in no doubt because of their return to American rock roots through songs that express nostalgia for the pre-pandemic American dream and moreover for the longing of better days.
While this is The Flaming Lips’ sixteenth studio album, their experimental music and connection to modernity is more prominent then ever and continues to arouse excitement in all generations. The Flaming Lips made their mark on younger generations more recently in the last decade when this quasi-rock band played with Miley Cyrus in 2015 for the co-collaborated album Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz. Collaboration with Cyrus at the height of her popularity kept The Flaming Lips relevant, just as releasing the wistful utopian album American Head is fitting now for isolated listeners wishing for the return to pre-covid life.
Considering the relevance of their new studio album, as it pertains to Covid-19, frontman Wayne Coyne is eager to perform this album live in the coming year despite continued world-wide safety concerns. Coyne recently discussed his views on scheduling new live-shows during the global pandemic saying in an interview with Brooklyn Vegan, I mean, I’m not suggesting the whole world should do it this way. I’m just saying The Flaming Lips can try it this way, and if you like our music, you can come see us. You’ll have to be in one of these space bubbles, but maybe that’ll be a good thing.
When Coyne uses the phrase ‘space bubbles’ he is not referring to the metaphorical social-distancing bubble coined by the UK’s covid-19 safety guidelines, but rather a large physical blow up bubble that crowd members would enter in order to attend in-person concerts.
These space bubbles have been used by The Flaming Lips in the past as a show-prop but the Oklahoma rock band is planning to use them for safety at their upcoming home-town show in Oklahoma City. Whether it will be incased in a bubble or not, tickets for the newly announced summer show by The Flaming Lips will go on sale this Friday, October 16th at 10 am.
UK and Ireland tour dates for 2021 are as follows.
