Zaphod's New Favorite Band

The loudest concert I ever attended? That's easy. The Flaming Lips.

And I had been warned, by crikey. Warned by those who had previously seen and heard and lived to tell the tale -- those who didn't need the aid of the written word, sign language, or interpretive dance in order to communicate as a result of the experience so at the time I was willing to chalk it all up to punk rock urban legend; Aside from The Who at Charlton's Football Stadium, could any band really build such an accepted reputation for being that willfully, unreasonably loud?

Speaking of The Who, remember how Pete Townsend purportedly lost part of his hearing in one ear when Keith Moon's drum kit exploded on the Smothers Brother Comedy Hour?

I think it's safe to say that I acquired what I would later refer to as my "F'Lip's Ear" that night in 1994 when Joe booked Da Lips at the old Machine in Virginia Beach right around the time when the band was touring in support of their Transmissions From The Satellite Heart album. I shared a table with David of the Waxing Poetics that fateful evening. Or rather under the table was more like it, as the two of us were in sudden desperate need of any buffer zone handy the very second they launched right into the immense obstreperous assault that was the first song of the night's set. Or perhaps we wound up down there due to the Santorini-like force of the explosion blowing us backwards out of our seats. We were hunkered down spitting on torn shreds of cocktail napkins and cramming them into each other's ear canals, but nothing oh God nothing did any lick 'o good. Mother. Fuck. That. Was. Loud. Holy Mother of Jeebus if I could just come up with some kind of hyperbolic analogy to underline the point to each and every one of you gentle readers that these boys were some... some noisy sonsabitches. And ironically they sounded very little like what they would later evolve into in the more recent years. Whoosh. Loud, people. That's all I gotta say. We're talkin' Disaster Area loud. Like, hear them in a bunker on another planet kind of loud.

After the gig the band spent the night at our place, and autographed the front and inside of my copy of Oh My Gawd!!!... The Flaming Lips. Just the sight of this record cover brings back memories of that night almost twelve years ago. Not to mention certain disquieting I'm-back-in-'Nam-again-flashback feelings somewhat accurately reflected on my facial expression in the top photo (the second photo is the inside gate-fold of the album, which by the way is clear vinyl).

Anyway, this is the M4a to "The Spiderbite Song", the story of which is supposedly based on strange-yet-true events within the band. Although rumor has it that the actual spider bite was later determined to be just an abscessed track mark from one of the band member's frequent heroin abuse.

The Spiderbite Song - The Flaming Lips
(This track is only up for 7 days. Let me know if anyone has any trouble with it. No complaints leads me to believe that it's all running smoothly.)