They came, they blazed, they bled, and they were accompanied by large dancing animals. The favorite was the, well, not sure what it was,,, a kangaroo? A unicorn who lost his horn?

I know I'm too old for this -- too damned old -- but somehow we made it all the way up front for the Flaming Lips. We saw Wayne Coyne nervously flit about the stage getting all his props in order. His trademark suit looked like it had been slept in for 30 nights but how he shined this night.

Now we have a theory,,, Wayne simply can't sing. Listen to the live tapes, and sure enough, he's just waaaaaaaaaaay off. But when you're there, you just don't know it. Think of Pink Floyd meets the Teletubbies. What really matters here? Dig the bleeding cross routine and the strobe suit during "Gash". That's heavy fun.

We did scare Mr. Coyne a time or two. Didn't mean it. You see, there were dozens of gigantic plastic bouncing balls that indeed were bounced about the Warfield for the entire show. My [tall] friend would catch a ball, hold it up for me, and I'd "Gash" it up and back, aiming for that famous balconey behind us. But sometimes it would shoot straight up and hit the stage lights waaaaaaaaaaaayyy up there and Wayne, trying to avoid a Curtis Mayfield moment, gave us a distressed glance and we chilled.

One of these days I'm going to be one of those dancing animals on the side of the stage but right now I'm too old for this. Ah, good show... good show.