FLYING LOTUS CONCERT REVIEW. BROOKLYN STEEL, BROOKLYN, NOVEMBER 6, 2017 (MON)

3D concert…That caught my interest when my friend told me about the concert of electronic music front-runner Flying Lotus in Brooklyn. I hadn’t heard about the 3D concert by any musicians before. Even I searched on Google, there were a few 3D films that featured concerts, such as Jonas Brother, U2, Phish, and Kraftwerk, but I didn’t find the concert itself with live 3D. How would Flying Lotus merge 3D with his concert and electronic music? I was curious about his innovation.

The stage was far from innovation when my friend and I arrived. In the center of the stage, there was a strange shaped, big, rugged, brown…well, what was it? Tree? 3D equipment? That was it.

“I hope that’s not Kuso” I said my friend his directorial debut movie and meant “shit” in Japanese (answer: that was FlyLo’s booth). There was a big screen on the back, that was only a hint of the 3D concert. No music instrumentals, no microphones. Only an equipment and a screen. Simple as that.

It was like kingdom come when large “FLYING LOTUS” logo proudly shined on the screen as the appearance of himself after the first two boring supporting acts (Seven Davis Jr. and The Buttress) and one entertaining one (So-So Topic). The sold-out audience in NYC welcomed the advent of an adventurous musician from L.A. with big cheers.

The simple stage changed to a big collaborated entertainment of Flying Lotus’s music, visual arts, lights, and smoke. Not just the combination of music and 3D show. The 3D show that synched with music without a gap never stayed same and was eye-catching. The world Flying Lotus brought the audience over 3D in the dark with his music were the science fiction, mechanical universe, mysterious future, and beautifully evanescent dream. Starting with a ritualistic theme, meeting with human faces and brains we left upon the departure to space, cyber conviction, eccentric carnival, falling down to the urban…the presentation planted inhumane imaginations to the audience. Unlike movies, the screen didn’t talk. And most of the songs didn’t have lyrics. 3D took the important role to cultivate the audience imagination with FlyLo’s fountaining musical expression. And the high definition visual bewitched us. That was super clear as fuck. The world over 3D glasses was addictive. The 3D show successfully gave the electric music a new style of expression without a vocalist and musician’s movement on the live performance…if money allowed (Sure 3D would cost a lot of money. And electric musicians couldn’t move much from the booth, you know). Each time scene changed on the screen, the large venue with 1,800 people was filled with the excitement.

Musically, the concert emphasized more edges and grooves comparing with jazz-influenced and eccentric recording materials. More underground and industrial than intellectual. And the concert rocked. Those changes made a dynamic chemistry with the large-scale 3D show and succeeded to catch the audience into the thrilling development of digital visual over FlyLo’s digital music without being melancholic, the feeling sometimes given by his albums.

The set list enhanced the 3D show as well as entertaining the audience. While the majority of the songs were electric music, he placed some of the hip-hop and vocal songs throughout the concert with balance. “The Killing Joke” from Captain Murphy’s Duality album, “Coronus, The Terminator” from the latest You’re Dead!, the collaboration with Anderson .Paak…they were a few of the moments bringing the audience back to the reality from the fantasy and fuel audience up with natural headbanging before being back to another illusion again.

Flying Lotus showed his power to make a large music hall in NYC sold out and even added a second show though he might be a maniac artist who was highly praised by many notable musicians. The concert, however, was not maniac in a good way. That was the concert everybody could enjoy both his music and 3D show, and indeed, that was an entertainment. It will be exciting to see what new things Flying Lotus will do on his next tour.

One opinion. Flying Lotus should wear better outfit matched with the 3D show. I don’t say wearing casual on the stage is a bad thing and I don’t deny. But his outfit seemed like bought at Forever 21 or H&M wasn’t for high-quality sci-fi 3D show. His outfits on promotional photos would at least match with the purpose of his concert.

OVERALL POINTS: 87/100

• Performance: ★★★★+1/4
• Excitement/Fire: ★★★★+1/2
• Vocal: ★★★★
• Instrumental (DJ): ★★★★+1/2
• Sounds: ★★★★★
• Song orders: ★★★★
• Stage setting+lighting: ★★★
• Better than recordings: ★★★★★
• Chemistry with the audience: ★★★★★