Unfortunately, the global pandemic also meant an end to most of the usual social gatherings. At least the regular ones. Needless to say, businesses, event organizers, and regular people refused to give up and have been looking for different ways to keep providing their services and simply keep doing what they were doing before while ensuring social distancing. Bored Panda has already discussed the comeback of 17th century "Wine Windows," a socially distant floating cinema in Paris, individual workout pods in a Californian gym, and a few more. But have you heard about socially distant "bubble" concerts?
Apparently, it's sort of a thing now. American band The Flaming Lips have recently held a concert where they placed themselves and all the audience members inside individual plastic bubbles.
Turns out, the gig was in part a live show and in part a music video shoot
Image credits: waynecoyne5
Image credits: waynecoyne5
The event took place last week in Oklahoma City, which is the hometown of the band members. The gig was in part a live show and in part a music video shoot. Turns out, the idea for a concert like this was born out of a sketch doodled by one of the band members, Wayne Coyne.
The event took place last week in Oklahoma City, which is the hometown of the band members
"I did a little drawing... where I drew a picture of The Flaming Lips doing a show in 2019. And I'm the only person in the space bubble, and everybody else is just normal," Coyne told CNN. "Then (I did another drawing with) The Flaming Lips playing a show in 2020. The exact same scenario, but I'm in a bubble, and so is everybody else."
The idea for this concert was born out of a sketch doodled by one of the band members
Image credits: waynecoyne5
Though back then, none of them thought that this idea would ever come to life. "I don't think anybody would have thought... in the middle of March that this is still going to be going, you know, eight months later. I think we all thought this is a month, this is maybe two months, but we're going to get a handle on this," the frontman added.
Image credits: waynecoyne5
Bubbles like these are nothing new for the band since they've been using "space bubbles" to crowd surf since 2004. All they had to do was to set the specs, order 100 of these bubbles, and find fans who wanted to participate. On the whole, the audience consisted of 100 members.
Apparently, a person can comfortably be in the bubble for a few hours. "You fill them up [with air] and people can be in them for quite a while. I don't think people quite realize that. Since we have some here, we've played with them and messed with them for quite a while," Wayne told Brooklyn Vegan. "It holds a lot of air. I mean, you can be in there for quite a while. I just don't think people quite realize what it is as a mechanism. But we've just messed with them for so long, we kind of know that it can all work and how it can work and all that."
The band concludes that the gig was a success and are hoping for the opportunity to do something like this again in the future
Image credits: waynecoyne5
Apparently, this bubble concert was a test run for future concerts, as the band performed a dance remix of "Assassins of Youth" and "Brother Eye"—2 tracks from their latest LP, American Head. "I like the way this looks, because you can get as excited as you want, you can scream as much as you want, you just can't infect the person next to you, no matter what you forget about, how excited you get," the frontman of the band told CNN. "That barrier is still there, they're protected, and you're protected... that part of it is what we really felt like was the success."
Here's what people on the internet are saying about this type of concert
