The Flaming Lips and New Year’s Eve are like peanut butter and jelly. The band has been playing on New Year’s Eve for longer than some of us have been alive and if you’ve never seen Wayne Coyne, Steven Drozd, and company on stage for the ball drop, well then you might want to add it to your live show bucket list. But it’ll have to wait at least 12 months… or maybe just until February?
Today, Pelham, Tennessee venue The Caverns and The Flaming Lips have announced that due to the surge in COVID-19 cases from the Omicron variant, they are making the tough decision to postpone the band’s two dates on December 30th and December 31st to February 19th and February 20th. The band famously played a mid-pandemic show with not only Coyne, but with everyone in the audience inside of a plastic bubble, but this does not seem scalable for an NYE crowd. “The Flaming Lips and The Caverns are heartbroken to deliver this news, and we know you’re no doubt sad to read it, but the health and safety of guests, staff, crew, and everyone on stage is of utmost importance,” read a statement on The Caverns Instagram page.
The Lips previously played an NYE show at The Caverns in 2018. But considering The Caverns is inside of a literal underground cave, this seems like a responsible call that had to be made. It’s a bummer for fans who were planning on saying goodbye to this miserable year over confetti bombs and dancing aliens flanking The Flaming Lips, but at least they have a night in February where they can do the same. The Lips have promised that “It will still be a New Year’s celebration of epic proportions!”