Flaming Lips frontman
Wayne Coyne announced on his Twitter feed last week that the band will play two hometown New Year’s Eve celebration shows this year.
The announcement was made official this week when the Oklahoma City band’s publicist announced that tickets are now on sale.
Plus, this year,
Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band will join in the party as part of a roster of rare treats.
Wrote Coyne said on his Twitter feed: “The Flaming Lips with Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band will each do a performance. At midnight Yoko Ono will sing ‘War Is Over ... Have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year’ with the Flaming Lips!”
Plus, Neon Indian will perform on the night of Jan. 1. Another band will open on New Year’s Eve, he said.
The New Year’s Eve Freakout No. 5 will be
Dec. 31 and
Jan. 1 at the
Coca Cola Bricktown Events Center, 425 E. California in Oklahoma City, instead of the Cox Center. The venue is general admission, 1,500 capacity (down from the average 15,000 of the Cox Center, which explains the price hike).
The shows are all ages. Doors open 7 p.m., showtime is 8 p.m. both nights.
Tickets start at $100 for one night, plus fees, or $150 for both nights. Buy tickets at
tulsaworld.com/ticketstorm, at Starship Records in Tulsa or call 866-966-1777.
Tickets include admission into an afterparty at
The Womb, an art gallery co-owned by Coyne, located at 25 Northwest Ninth St. in downtown Oklahoma City.
“In honor of our fantastical guests, The Flaming Lips will perform some classic cover songs with Sean Lennon (son of John Lennon), and members of
The Plastic Ono Band, which include the great
Nels Cline,” the band’s frontman said.
Cline is an American guitarist and composer, and lead guitarist of
Wilco. David Carr of the New York Times said Cline is “one of the best guitarists in any genre.”
Continued Coyne, “The afterparty at the Womb will go till sunrise and will feature ... movies inside the Womb room and
New Fumes from Dallas doing paranoid soundscapes and
Stardeath and White Dwarfs playing an electric sunrise interpretation of
Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. It should be the greatest Saturday and Sunday ever experienced!”
The band also promises more confetti, more balloons, more psychedelia, massive volume and, of course, maximum weirdness on both nights. The show also promised quirky collaborations between Ono’s band and the Lips — and perhaps a
John Lennon classic or two.
Coyne went on to explain the venue change, too. “The new venue The Coca Cola Events Center in Bricktown is a much cooler venue than the old Cox Center which became increasingly less accommodating to the beautiful Flaming Lips Fans. There is easy parking and cheap but very good drink and food vending.”
Also, the band’s record label,
Warner Bros, promises exclusive band merchandise on sale for the hometown shows. Plus new music, a recorded live version of “The Soft Bulletin,” Strobo Trip toys and the band’s six-hour song experiment, among other items, are available at the band’s official website,
tulsaworld.com/flaminglips.
Recently, Coyne also announced via Twitter that the band is working on a collaboration with the Plastic Ono Band, a song called “
The Fear Litany.”
Ono married former
Beatles co-founder John Lennon in 1969 and embarked on a human rights movement from their bed. Lennon was shot to death in 1980 outside of his New York City apartment.
