The Flaming Lips have confirmed their return to Australia, with a national tour booked for February 2025. On the four-date tour, the band will perform their 10th studio album – 2002’s Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots – in its entirety. The full list of dates and ticketing information can be found below.
The Oklahoma City-based psychedelic pop-rock band were last in Australia circa late September and early October 2019, where they similarly embarked on a tour centred around performing a record in full – in this case, Yoshimi‘s 1999 predecessor The Soft Bulletin. The tour included two nights at the Sydney Opera House, two shows at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall and a one-off show at Brisbane’s then-freshly-minted Fortitude Music Hall.
The Flaming Lips – ‘Do You Realize??’
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots was released in July of 2002. Four singles were released from it: ‘Do You Realize??’, the title track, ‘Fight Test’ and ‘Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell’. ‘Do You Realize??’ has gone on to be considered the band’s signature song, which Wayne Coyne emotionally reflected upon in a May 2024 episode of the podcast Song Exploder.
“People say, ‘I played that at my mother’s funeral,’ or ‘we played that at our wedding [and] it was the first song we danced to’,” he said. “We’ve played it every night since 2002. You see people crying, you see people hugging, you see people struggling. I struggle watching it. It’s heavy, y’know? But, when we did it, it wasn’t heavy. It was fun.”
Since The Flaming Lips were last in Australia, they have released two new albums: 2020’s American Head and 2021’s Where The Viaduct Looms. The latter was a unique collaboration with a teenage fan, Nell Smith, in which they recorded an album of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds covers. Founding bassist Michael Ivins also exited the band, leaving Coyne as the only original band member.
The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots 2025 Tour
- Thursday, January 30th – AEC Theatre, Adelaide SA
- Saturday, February 1st – Festival Hall, Melbourne VIC
- Sunday, February 2nd – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney NSW
- Wednesday, February 5th – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane QLD
A pre-sale for the tour begins at 9am AEST on Wednesday, August 21st – which can be signed up for here. A general sale for the tour will follow on Friday, August 23rd – again at 9am AEST. Tickets are available via Destroy All Lines.
Further Reading
Here’s What The Flaming Lips’ First Space Bubble Concerts Looked Like
The Flaming Lips – ‘Oczy Mlody’
The Flaming Lips + FM Belfast + Royal Headache + Hermigervill – The Domain, Sydney 09/01/16
