The Flaming Lips have postponed their slated New Year's Eve concerts at Tennessee's Caverns venue.
Rick Kern/GettyImagesUPDATE (12/28): The Flaming Lips have postponed their planned New Year’s Eve shows in an underground concert venue. The band will now perform at the Caverns in Pelham, Tennessee, on Feb. 19 and 20. “The Flaming Lips and The Caverns are heartbroken to deliver this news, and we know you’re no doubt sad to read it, but the health and safety of guests, staff, crew and everyone on stage is of utmost importance,” the venue announced on Instagram. “The new dates for the New Year’s celebration are on President’s Day Weekend…. And yes, it will still be a New Year’s celebration of epic proportions! Wayne and the band feel strongly about ringing in the New Year with you!”
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The Flaming Lips have announced their New Year’s Eve shows for 2021. The Oklahoma City psych-rock band will perform a pair of concerts at the Caverns in Pelham, Tennessee, on December 30th and 31st.
The concerts, which go on sale July 13th at 11 a.m. CT, mark singer Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips’ return to the underground natural amphitheater after first playing the venue on New Year’s Eve 2018. During that performance, the group released balloons filled with confetti to be pierced by the cave’s jagged ceiling.
The announcement of the Flaming Lips’ New Year’s concerts cap an unpredictable year for the Caverns, which moved shows above ground to a quickly built amphitheater during the pandemic. The outdoor venue kicked off with four socially distanced shows by Jason Isbell in 2020 and recently hosted a similar concert by Margo Price.
“The story is how in a pandemic, during a really tough time, you can reimagine what the experience could be,” Todd Mayo, the founder and operator of the Caverns, told Rolling Stone earlier this year during an interview for his inclusion in the Future 25 list. “If there’s human beings on this Earth, they’ll be coming to see music in the Caverns 10,000 years from now,” he said of the subterranean venue’s longevity. “It’s not going anywhere.”
In addition to the Lips’ concerts, the Caverns has shows by Umphrey’s McGee, the Mavericks, and Bruce Hornsby on its 2021 concert calendar. The Flaming Lips announced their 2021-2022 tour in May, which kicks off August 20th, in Ogden, Utah. See tickets online here.
Fontaines D.C. have teamed up with Rosalía for their new collaboration, Where Is Gone?.
The song features on the Irish rock band's forthcoming album, Dopamine Chamber, which arrives on Friday (16.10.26). For guitarist Carlos O’Connell, working with the Spanish superstar is particularly special because of his own Spanish roots.
He explained: “I’ve admired Rosalía ever since her debut album, which I thought was absolutely beautiful.
“What excited me most was the way she continued to preserve Spain's musical traditions, something that felt spiritually connected to what we've been trying to achieve with Irish music. Having roots in both countries, it's been really special to witness. "She's an artist who has continued to amaze me at every point in her career.”
Frontman Grian Chatten has also described the collaboration with Rosalía as one of the most memorable achievements of his career.
He revealed that he felt "humbled" when she agreed to lend her voice to the band's album.
Speaking to NPR, Grian said: “I've always felt there's something almost like a single big idea that I'm personally trying to communicate to the world before I get old and die, if that makes sense. There's one thing I think I'll spend my life trying to express. I have a feeling she has a similar outlook. … I mean, she's an amazing arranger, composer and lyricist. It means so much that she wanted to sing on something we'd put together. It's definitely one of the highlights of my career.”
Rosalía's links to Irish rock music extend beyond Fontaines D.C. She also offered inspiration and helped develop the Spanish lyrics for U2's The Mirror Maker (Rosalía), a track from their forthcoming album, Carnaval de Luz.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last week, she spoke about frontman Bono, saying: “I don't know him personally, but he sent me a text explaining that he was working on a new project and had written a song called The Mirror Maker."
Rosalía joked that Bono had invented a few words of his own.
She recalled telling him: “I wasn't sure what to make of it, but I told him he could create his own language if he wanted to.”
She described the opportunity to collaborate with the 66 year old music veteran as a real privilege.
She added: “Bono is a legend.
“It's amazing.”
Bono recently revealed that he was worried about seeming like a stalker when he reached out to Rosalía to ask whether he could name the song after her.
