Frank YangSo The Flaming Lips; they’ve kind of been doing the same thing live for pretty much forever, right? The bubble walk, the costumed dancers, the confetti canons, the general technicolour mayhem with Wayne Coyne as master of ceremonies – that’s been going on since at least 2006, circa At War With The Mystics, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of it went back as far as the dates supporting 2002’s Yoshimi. Most entertainers who put together a high-production value show feel the need to reinvent it or at least change it up between tours, but the Lips – they’ll maybe switch up some giant rubber hands for a bizarro megaphone contraption, or trade Coyne’s relatively conventional double-neck SG for a Frankenstein one that’s half Guitar Hero controller.

But even if it is all, technically, a bit predictable, the joy of a live Lips show is that no matter how much you think you’ve seen it all before, when you actually witness it all for either the first or the fifteenth time, you can’t help but be awed by the sheer ridiculous wonder of it all. And those of us in Toronto, at least, can hardly say, “what, these guys again?” because they haven’t been here since September 2006 – their famously abbreviated V Fest set – and before that, their last visit was in the Spring of that year at the Phoenix, a venue good for saying you saw them in an intimate club but not so good for things like walking on top of the audience in giant plastic hamster balls.

Which is why their upcoming July 8 show at the Molson Amphitheatre is worth getting genuinely excited about. Not only are they playing a venue large enough for them unleash the full Flaming Lips live experience, but they’re (presumably) being given a long enough set time that there’s no chance of the authorities bringing the curtain down prematurely. AND they’ve assembled a terrific string of support acts – Spoon, Tokyo Police Club and Fang Island – for what could well be one of the best shows of the Summer. Tickets range from $33.25 to $56.25, but courtesy of LiveNation, I’ve got two prize packs consisting of a pair of tickets to the show AND a lovely limited edition concert poster to give away. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “I want to see The Flaming Lips” in the subject line and your full name and mailing address in the body, and get that in to me before midnight, July 4.

The AV Club, BBC6 and Spinner all talk to Wayne Coyne about stuff.

MySpace: The Flaming Lips