Concert Reports

A Dia de Los Muertos Celebration, featuring performances by The Flaming Lips and Tame Impala, took place at The Santa Barbara Bowl on Friday, November 1st.

Very Special Thanks: Jesse Lee Weiss

www.FlamingLips.com                      www.SbBowl.com

Celebrating LIFE and DEATH by paying respect to all the AMAZING musicians that have played the Santa Barbara Bowl including Bob Marley, Joe Strummer, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Carl Wilson (Beach Boys), Adam Yauch (Beastie Boys), Frank Zappa and Donna Summer, among others!  

The Bowl was transformed with Day of the Dead décor and entertainment for everyone to enjoy! Festivities began at 4:30PM and featured Altars Day of the Dead face painting, 13 Aztec dancers, traditional Mexican music, live theatre performances and local art inspired by this beautiful Mexican Holiday. Dia de los Muertos costumes were worn by concert goers in attendance.  

The festivities continued with performances by one of the most fun theatrical live bands, The Flaming Lips, along with the very awesome Aussie group, Tame Impala for a full evening of celebration and local favorites Rey Fresco. “Rey Fresco's lead instrument is a 36 string Veracruz harp accompanied by soulful vocals, a pumping bassline, and a booming drum sound resonating from a kit built out of surfboard fiberglass. The VC Reporter calls Rey Fresco "An eclectic, multicultural group of guys with authentic passion for music." The four band members all became friends in high school, but it was not until years later that they started playing music together.

The Flaming Lips are touring in support of their latest album, THE TERROR, their thirteenth studio album, which is out now and has amassed critical praise:

"Before the confetti cannons and sci-fi Day-Glo-pop operettas, The Flaming Lips made great acid-nightmare rock records about the high cost of transcendence. The Terror is that darkness returned: a gripping middle-age-mystic crisis with rude, cosmic-German electronics crowding Wayne Coyne's tremulous boy-explorer voice. The beauty is fleeting but piquant. A choral glow cuts past the clatter and seizures...Heaven, on Earth or anywhere else, doesn't come easy." -Rolling Stone (4 out of 5 stars)  

THE TERROR was once again co-produced by long-time collaborator Dave Fridmann and The Flaming Lips at Tarbox Road Studios with additional recording at Wayne's Pink Floor Studios in OKC. It is comprised of nine original compositions that reflect a darker-hued spectrum than previous works, along with a more inward-looking lyrical perspective but certainly not one without hope.

Tame Impala make psychedelic hypno-groove melodic rock music. Their debut record from 2010, Innerspeaker, received a tropically warm reception thanks in part to its irreverent, contemporary spin on assumedly dead and forgotten sounds, as well as its unique, infinitely surprising way around a melody. It was youthful, romantic songwriting in a melting technicolour dreamcoat. Their second record Lonerism, released in 2012, is on a whole new level of cosmic. NME thought so too, and awarded it their #1 Album of 2012. The band has received several acclaims from sources such as Pitchfork's "Best New Music", and has been featured in publications as diverse as Spin, Nylon, Esquire, LA Times, Billboard, Interview, The Last Magazine, and many more. In 2011, the Aussie's made their live television debut on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon", and returned in 2013.

The Santa Barbara Bowl is a 4,562-seat amphitheater, located in Santa Barbara, California.The Santa Barbara Bowl is open for concerts from approximately April through approximately October with an average of about 27 concerts per season.  

Booked exclusively by Nederlander Concerts in Los Angeles, the Bowl hosts primarily popular music concerts. With world-class views and amenities, the Bowl is often considered the preeminent stop for both artists and patrons. www.SbBowl.com  

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