The Flaming Lips and Modest Mouse Summer Tour Makes its First Stop in Atlanta, GA

By Andrew Pringle

Friday, August 1^st, 2025, alt-rock trailblazers The Flaming Lips and Modest Mouse kicked off their co-headlining 2025 summer tour in Atlanta, GA, proving themselves to be as awe-inspiring as ever. With support from up-and-coming indie rockers Friko, all three acts displayed highlights from the last four decades of indie and alt-rock, making it clear that the past, present, and future of the genre is in good hands. 

Located in The Battery Atlanta, the Coca-Cola Roxy is a 3,600-person capacity venue with two levels, the first being general admission standing room only, the second being seated areas available for an additional cost. Despite the size, the venue always manages to host notable artists and bands, many of which can easily sell the place out. My only previous experience with this venue was seeing Primus there in 2021, and even four years ago I was impressed by the venue in its layout and acoustics. This show proved to be no different. Additionally, the size limitations did not prevent The Flaming Lips from utilizing their stage presence and theatrics, more on that later. 

At promptly 8 pm, Friko took the stage. My first and only prior experience with Friko was in the summer of 2023 seeing them open for progressive art-rock band black midi at The Basement East in Nashville, TN; by that point they had only released two EPs. Also, at that show I met a local software engineer that said he was there to check out the band who he was building a website for, even he knew nothing about them beside the fact that they were Chicago based. Going in completely blind, I was impressed by their set, most notably their ability use of noise and sound textures which accompanied their atmospheric and mellow sound, all led by singer Niko Kapetan’s soft voice. The following year they released their first full-length album Where we’ve been, Where we go from here, which was met with positive critical reception, and even made it on the radio. Since then, I haven’t given the band much thought, but I was delighted to see they would be joining The Flaming Lips and Modest Mouse on a leg of this current tour.

While I was familiar with the band, I must admit I wasn’t very familiar with Friko’s songs, but that did not prevent me from feeling moved by them. Their strengths lie in their ability to balance the soft and heavy sides of their songs. The soft sections being carried by glorious indie tones and beautiful chord progressions alongside singer Niko Kapetan’s soft voice. The soft sections are seamlessly juxtaposed by the heavy sections, driven by Niko’s shouting, melodic dissonance, and at times noise, perfectly held together by the airtight rhythm section. The band’s stage presence adds to the music, standing eerily still during the quite parts, and during heavy parts slamming guitars against amplifiers to create hissing feedback, playing the instruments in odd poses, and Niko falling on his back, spazzing on the stage. While already being acclaimed by outlets like Pitchfork, Friko really does have a bright future ahead of them.

The next band on the bill was Modest Mouse. Having recently done a full review of their show in Birmingham, AL on June 18^th, 2025, I won’t go very in-depth about my history with the band, but I will reiterate that my first impressions of Modest Mouse was that they were the band that did “Float On”, and my two best friends in high school were massive fans. However, no matter how much they tried to sell me on the band, it just didn’t click for me. That was until the three of us saw them at Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, TN in 2022. Despite only knowing a few of the songs, I was blown away by the performance and ever since then they have become one of the most significant bands of my adult life. This was my sixth time seeing them but what made this particular show especially notable was that my two best friends who got me into Modest Mouse were in attendance. The last time the three of us went to a Modest Mouse show together was nearly three years ago at Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville, TN, which was also the last time we saw drummer Jeremiah Green perform before his passing in late 2022. While I was not able to be with them during the set because I was taking photos of the band, we still spent a majority of the drive home that night geeking out over their set. 

With the Atlanta show being the opening show of the tour, I had no idea what to expect of their setlist, but having seen them numerous times, I did not care what they played because I knew I was in for a great time regardless. Still, they managed to wow me by opening with the catchy guitar melody driven “Satellite Skin”, a B-side originally included on their 2009 B-side and rarity compilation EP No One’s First and You’re Next. Without wasting a moment, they dove straight into the pulsing groove-heavy classic “Tiny Cities made of Ashes”. Beginning with a tight four-on-the-floor beat by drummer Damien Cox, before the haunting ear candy bassline snaps into the groove. From the photo pit, only a small part of my attention was on the audience but was quickly directed to a group at the barricade who were jumping to the rhythm, borderline moshing. By this point, the crowd was all in. The tune is carried further down the rabbit hole by frontman Isaac Brock’s bleak lyrics delivered with his signature high-intensity yelling. Immediately after, they played another four-on-the-floor favorite- “Dashboard”, a classic amongst the die-hard fans and surface level listeners alike. With a memorable chorus, “Dashboard” is one to ensure dancing and smiles from the crowd. The remainder of set consisted of hits such as the timeless “Float On”, the modern hit “We Are Between”, and the nostalgic “Gravity Rides Everything”. Other highlights include the banjo driven rocker “King Rat” immediately followed by the spooky “Bukowski”, and the raging classic “Doin’ the Cockroach”. They ended their set with beautiful deep cut “Night on the Sun”, a song that delivers a comfortable sense of isolation and no matter the length, I wish it would never end. While I would consider this set to be a safe selection of songs, the label should not take away from how enjoyable it was as well as reminding me why I keep coming back to this band. 

Finally, The Flaming Lips. Like Modest Mouse, my two best friends were fans of The Flaming Lips long before I was, and similarly, I resisted them. They had a few songs that I enjoyed, but I felt like there was something missing. No matter how many times I listened to The Soft Bulletin, it never hit me like my friends told me it would. My opinion of them changed in September of 2024 when I saw them open for Weezer in Nashville, TN. I knew they were known for putting on a memorable and over-the-top show, but that description alone could not prepare me for what was in store (more on that later). What that show taught me about The Flaming Lips is that the music is just one of the many layers of them.

The minutes leading up to The Flaming Lips taking the stage, there was a general feeling of excitement in the air, a feeling only to be found at a concert before the magic happens. Even the crew and band sound checking the individual instruments evoked cheers from the crowd. Another cheer came from the crowd as the massive LED wall at the back of the stage came to life, displaying glitched-out colors. Shortly after, the house lights faded. A looped recording of insects chirping faded into the PA, and within moments, the band took the stage. They opened with the piano driven instrumental “Sleeping on the Roof”, the closing track of their 1999 album The Soft Bulletin. The intro was accompanied by pink lights and yellow lasers that swept over the crowd, with a blue background on the screen behind them. As the track concluded, Singer Wayne Coyne walked to the front of the stage, to which the crowd erupted with a roar of cheering. With haste they went directly into acoustic intro of “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt.1”, the title track of what might be their most significant album, a song in which the crowd’s energy matched the band’s, the type of energy that unites a crowd of strangers. They followed the song with “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 2”, a maximalist psychedelic instrumental which utilizes electronic sounds and various samples, both euphoric and, at times, terrifying. The feeling is heightened by the stage props- four massive inflatable pink robots about fifteen-ish feet tall, a multitude of colorful lights, and raining confetti. Leave it to The Lips to have a grand display of ecstasy like that for their third song of the night. They followed it with their mid-90s classic “Turn It On”, a fun tune considerably more simplistic as the previous, without losing an ounce of momentum. Afterwards, they powered through the transcendent, Pink Floyd-esq “Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung”, during which Coyne propelled a storm light in circles, holding the cable, during the instrumental segments. The next song in the set was the deep cut “Five Stop Mother Superior Rain”, a song in which the band believed they had never played live since its recording in 1989; however, it has been previously played in 1995. Despite being a deep cut, the band looked out for the fans by displaying the lyrics on the giant screen in the background. After which, Wayne introduced the next song, a cover of Daniel Johnston’s heartbreaking ballad “True Love Will Find You in the End”, which they performed with the utmost respect for Johnston, who passed away in 2019. They then played the upbeat “The Golden Path”, a collab song with the electronic duo The Chemical Brothers, which featured a smiling sun costume which danced to the rhythm alongside two glittery inflatable Martians. Yes, it really was as bizarre as it sounds in writing. Between that and the next song, Wayne gave a speech about the struggle of living with depression and the feeling of not being yourself around others. He asked the crowd to bear with him as he sang the next song- “Waitin’ for a Superman”, a song about holding on despite the things that drag you down. After the emotional ballad, they went with the tonally upbeat “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song”, which despite the playful tone, contains heavily cynical lyrics from the perspective of world leaders and politicians, continuing to be more and more relevant in the nearly twenty years since its release. During the song, the band was accompanied by two large inflatable eyeballs controlled by Lips’ crew members, who stood on both sides of Wayne, who held a set of inflatable red lips. However, the most crucial part of the live performance of this song is the crowd’s participation in the call-and-response of “Yeah” (x8) and “No” (x8). After which they amped up the crowd even more by playing their mid-90s nonsensical MTV hit “She Don’t Use Jelly”, an explosive track with catchy lyrics that can really only be taken at face value. They ended the main set with their anthem “Do You Realize??”, an awe-inspiring hit about making the most of life, even if our time on Earth is limited. The beautiful performance was coincided with an inflatable rainbow arching over the stage, cascading silver confetti which emphasized the gorgeous color palettes of the shining lights. The dopamine inducing environment created an overwhelming sense of love amongst the audience, the only reasonable reaction was to hug your friends and tell them you love them, which is exactly what I did during the key change after the first chorus, while we held back tears of joy. 

After the main set, the lights lowered and after a momentary break, the band returned to the stage along with Isaac Brock, who then performed a cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs”, paying tribute to the recently deceased “Prince of Darkness” Ozzy Osbourne. Keeping the energy alive, they ended the show with the fan-favorite “Race for the Prize”, with Wayne singing the first half inside his signature inflatable bubble, oh, and there was even more confetti. While their set was only about an hour and twenty minutes, I would have no problem with them playing for twice as long. But they successfully left me with a craving for more, needless to say next time they come to the area I will definitely be going. 

Being a person who loves live music, I go to plenty of concerts, and while I enjoy a majority of the shows I attend, there are very few shows that I would rank as high as The Flaming Lips. The music, the visuals, the stage props, the crowd energy, and everything in-between make for a performance that cannot be done justice by words but must be experienced first-hand. Even if you know nothing about them or their music, they would still be incredible going in blind, especially seeing them on their current tour with Modest Mouse and Friko. I will be reminiscing this night for a very long time.