Lips, Atoms, and other Musical Matters – LOCAL POP AND JAZZ HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

Atoms for Peace performs at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Thomas Kelsey/News-Press file photos
Atoms for Peace performs at the Santa Barbara Bowl.
Thomas Kelsey/News-Press file photos

My humble vote for pop concert of the year in Santa Barbara goes to the great and insistently hard-to-pigeonhole band outta’ Oklahoma, Flaming Lips. The band, led by charismatic Wayne Coyne in a bloody, witch-ly costume and throne-like perch, brought its grisly funny, rocking and trippy presence to the Santa Barbara Bowl the night after Halloween, ending with its mortality-minded pop anthem “Do You Realize.”

And my vote for the most senses-tickling five minutes in the 2013 pop year goes to the Lips’ opening song, which perversely reversed expectations by being a grand finale-style bombast with their customary epic red balloon release into the audience — but on the first song. Leave it to these Okies to turn rock ‘n’ roll convention on its ear.

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