Civic Center to host legendary Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips know of a girl who will make you some very peculiar toast. "She don't use butter, she don't use cheese, she don't use jelly or any of these; She uses Vaseline!" croons the band's front man Wayne Coyne in the 1993 single "She Don't Use Jelly," their most successful hit to date according to Billboard Magazine. Let the song serve as an indicator for those uninitiated to The Flaming Lips: These rockers will serve up a quirky, upbeat, kinetic, colorful and fun brand of rock music on Saturday evening.

But the fun doesn't begin or end with the music. Vassar College Entertainment's (ViCE) spring concert is the organization's most anticipated event to date, and with good reason: The off-campus concert venue, the involvement of community restaurants and galleries, the free transportation and the after-parties in the works will make for a night of thorough entertainment.

"It opens up a new caliber of programming," said ViCE Assistant Director Nola Coufal '10 about the ambitious show.

But the main attraction remains the music itself. The Flaming Lips have established themselves as American rock legends, with 13 albums, three Grammy Awards and many other accolades to their name. They began their career in Oklahoma City in 1983 with a debut concert in a local transvestite club. Wayne Coyne often says that he stole the instruments the band originally used from a local church hall. They continued recording and playing small concerts for the next 10 years, even touring with the infamously-named punk band The Butthole Surfers.

By 1993, most of the band's original members (Coyne's brother included) had dropped out. This was also the year that Coyne and his new crew found success with "She Don't Use Jelly." Since then, the band has enjoyed 17 years of success and recognition, thanks especially to their experimentation with the genre of "space rock." The genre uses science-fiction as an inspiration for its aesthetic and subject material. The Flaming Lips's most famous album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, is an example of this; although not a concept album, its first few tracks tell the story of a Japanese girl who must battle with an onslaught of evil robots. In the same vein was the 2008 album Christmas on Mars, also the name of a feature film created by the band that told the story of Christmas on a Mars space colony.

The band has many recognizable singles, including "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1," "The W.A.N.D.," "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" and "Do You Realize??" The latter was recently declared the state song of Oklahoma by Governor Brad Henry. The band most recently recorded a cover of the classic Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon with one of Saturday night's opening bands, Stardeath and the White Dwarves.
"Chances are, if you've been alive for the last 20 years, you've heard their music," said Coufal of the legendary group. "And what's not to like? They're very fun."

"I've been dying to see them since I was in high school," said ViCE Music Committee Chair Christine Yu '10. "I saw them at Coachella [music festival]; it was the first time I had seen the space bubble." The "space bubble" in question is the iconic giant hamster ball the Coyne often gets inside and uses walk over crowds at concerts. The band is well-known for their onstage antics: sasquatch suits, giant balloons, psychedelic light shows, elaborate video sequences and confetti guns are just the beginning of the group's eccentricities.
The spring concert elicited a lot of buzz after it was announced, and despite the controversy over the lack of free programming, ticket distribution was a successful process. It seems as though everyone, whether they are a Vassar student or community member, who has wanted a ticket has gotten one. Even now, there are still tickets available online.

"Ticket distribution was a challenge for us because we had never sold so many tickets before," wrote ViCE Director Peter Denny '10 in an e-mailed statement. "Spring Break also complicated the schedule a little bit. All in all though, it ended up working out fine."
The evening will kick off when the first of the shuttles made available will begin leaving Main Circle at approximately 5 p.m. Students can board with a student ID or guest pass, and will be given maps of the area surrounding the Mid-Hudson Civic Center. Various restaurants and galleries will be pointed out, familiarizing students with the entertainment in the surrounding community.

"We've been working very closely with local businesses to make sure they stay open," said Yu.

"Many local restaurants and galleries surround the venue, and some will even have discounts for ticket holders," wrote Denny. "We have gotten so much positive feedback from local businesses who are excited to have Vassar students in the area."

The idea is consistent with one of ViCE's goals to become more entrenched within the greater Poughkeepsie community. In a February interview with The Miscellany News, Denny had described the concert as having the potential to become a "late-night Meet Me in Poughkeepsie."

"We really wanted students to get out into the community, to see what's there," said Coufal. "There's the idea that students aren't involved in the community, and are part of a bubble. This will hopefully change that a little."

The concert will begin at 8 p.m. in the Civic Center, and will most likely last three hours. Shuttles will be available after the concert, either to bus people back to campus or to any one of the after-parties being thrown, until 1:30 a.m. The Class of 2010 is throwing a 21-and-over party at Mahoney's Irish Pub, the Class of 2011 will be hosting another at the Mad Hatter, and the freshman class is most likely hosting a party at the Juliet Café.
The event as a whole sets a new watermark for ViCE, and in Denny's eyes has most importantly established new connections with the local community.

"This event will bring a large portion of both the on and off campus communities together in a celebration of not just The Flaming Lips, but the incredible resources we have around us and the potential of events to bring people together," wrote Denny.