MERCURY REV/THE FLAMING LIPS Edinburgh, Potter Row - Monday May 3rd 1999

This place is a TOILET - no other word for it. In fact it's a cramped toilet, with a low ceiling on stage. After the opulence of the Music Hall last night, Potter Row is a Students' Union and the main venue is split in two by the mixing desk  - with the stage at one end and the bar at the other. Needless to say they've sold tickets for the bar and needless to say you can't see much from the bar so everyone tries to get in front of the mixing desk. There's too many people in here that I can't get my zimmer parked. But more of that later.

The Flaming Lips do little to change my mind from the previous night, but I probably like the earlier songs a bit better. Same set as last night. Tonight though there's obviously a lot of Lips' fans here - their reaction suggests that the set is two thirds from the forthcoming "Soft Bulletin" LP and one third older stuff. They (just) manage to fit in the screen and the projector so we do get the visual elements as well. They play an hour again and the LP is on my list of future purchases.

Here's a (belated) stab at the set-list:-
1. Don't know (Move To The Left?) 2. Race For The Prize 3. Riding To Work in the Year 2025 (You're Invisible Now) 4. Waitin' For Superman  5.  She Don't Use Jelly 6. Slow Nerve Action 7. Feeling Yourself Disintegrate 8. What is The Light? 9. The Observer 10. When You Smile - and one other - probably early in the set (Was it Thirty-five Thousand Feet of Despair?)

The Rev tonight seem to have almost as much of a battle finding space as does this elderly reviewer. Jeff is hidden underneath an overhang and for all we can tell it may as well be Johnny Vaughan on drums. Justin (or should I say his hat) and Adam are barely visible so all we can see at first is Jonathan and Grasshopper, with Jason occasionally popping into view. The backdrop, needless to say hasn't been brought in tonight - so no real light show.

The big question is what was missed from the set last night. The answer, not much. Disappointingly the set is almost identical with only "Chasing A Bee" added near the end. The sound surprisingly isn't too different from last night. At first I'm struggling badly to get some sort of vantage point (did I say there's too many people in here?) so early on enjoying the music is difficult. "Car Wash Hair" sounds great though, and it segues straight into "Syringe Mouth". "Holes" sounds good too and at last I'm able to see and breathe.

The crowd's into this tonight in a big way, although there's still the odd "I can't believe how much they rock" comment. "Chasing A Bee" is actually a bit disappointing tonight and isn't in the right place in the set. But "Opus 40" is mighty, with the song gelling beyond last night's version. The encore still seems too short, and although we expected another song, it wasn't coming after "Cortez". There's a half decent attempt at getting the band back, but to no avail. The end therefore of this tour for me - T In The Park anyone?

SET LIST

1. The Funny Bird 2. Tonite It Shows 3. Car Wash Hair 4. Syringe Mouth 5. Endlessly 6. Holes 7. Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp 8. Frittering 9. Chasing A Bee 10. Goddess on A Hiway 11. Opus 40

Encore - Cortez The Killer

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