I've seen The Flaming Lips perform 3 times, all within the last year. But if you followed The Flaming Lips around last night, you could have seen them eight times.

The Flaming Lips set a Guinness World Record early this morning, breaking the record for most concerts performed in a 24 hour period by a performing artist. The group used their tour bus to travel to various cities that included Baton Rouge and New Orleans. This record was originally set by Jay-Z who flew on a private jet to 7 different destinations over the course of 24 hours. This was back in 2006.

Each performance was stripped of its gimmicks, lightshow and festivities that seemed to coincide with The Flaming Lips' performances for the last few years. Each performance was also 15-20 minutes only. Special guests included Neon Trees, Jackson Browne, Gary Clark Jr. and Grace Potter. 

Wayne Coyne issued a statement regarding the record:

"To be published alongside the man who ate 10kg of his own boogers, beside the woman with the longest toenails or perhaps even to be published beside an individual who has had maybe 1,000 cockroaches stuffed into their ears...that, to me, would be one of life's absurd joys."

The above statement may seem bizarre until you realize that this band has done everything strange from collaborating with ke$ha, released music on a promotional flash drive in a gummy skull, wrote a song for an episode of Spongebob Squarepants and even wrote a song that is 24 hours long. 

My work week is simple: I stay at Motivators until about 5:30 and then spend the rest of my night either relaxing at home, working out, blogging elsewhere or a combination of the three. I seldom go out on a day that isn't Friday or Saturday. So one could understand my excitement when I won two tickets to see The Flaming Lips and Weezer co-headlining over Yeasayer at the PNC Bank Arts Center in New Jersey. I was ecstatic for two reasons: (1) I never win anything and (2) I had seen all three bands quite a few times. (some photos from the pit at my first The Flaming Lips show are below) 

After work yesterday, I made my way through the work-week traffic and ended up in Homdel just in time for the show. I showed my ticket at the front gate and was greeted by representatives from Zippo lighters and from Livenation. They were handing out promotional pens and other promotional products to those who were interested in purchasing their products. While I didn't stop to speak to those behind each table, I took a promotional pen from each as a reminder to check out their products online.

This concert was unique because Weezer and The Flaming Lips shared the stage with each other. One band would play a few songs and then the other would play a few songs. The whole experience was 3.5 hours long. While not the most orthodox set-up, it was a fun and unique way to see what artist the fans wanted to see the most. For example, while The Flaming Lips donned the stage, those wearing The Flaming Lips promotional t-shirts would be standing up and dancing while the Weezer fans would be sitting or taking a bathroom break. And when Weezer was on-stage, fans of The Flaming Lips would walk around and check out the merchandise table for other promotional products or grab food from the concession stands.

I have a few other concerts lined up for the summer and I know I will be saving up for promotional products from these artists. They tend to be good conversation pieces or stand out in unique ways.