[Earlier in the week, we published Lauren Noel’s review of the Flaming Lips’ November 1 show at Voodoo. Our Kathleen McCann had a different take on it.]

I can’t say that when you’ve seen one Flaming Lips show, you’ve seen them all, because the band puts on a better show than any other festival performer I’ve seen. But when mountains of confetti, dozens of huge balloons, and a human-sized hamster ball are de rigeur, it’s hard to ever top the last show.

The band opened with “Race for the Prize” from 1999’s The Soft Bulletin and mostly stuck to their last few albums for material, as they did at 2006’s Voodoo. While I’m sure a dedicated Flaming Lips concert would showcase the band’s older albums, it seems New Orleans just can’t catch a break on most band’s tour schedules. But the outdoor setting, with unlimited space for confetti clouds, the full moon and what Wayne Coyne, the Flaming Lips’ lead singer, called “the perfect festival temperature,” made for a ideal venue.

The band entered the stage through what one Twitter user called a “Psychedelic Vagina,” a trippy video feed of a naked girl with a door in place of anything truly obscene, followed immediately by Coyne walking around atop the crowd in his giant, inflatable bubble.  Coyne apologized for what he called his terrible singing voice – “But I just love to sing!” – and pointed out that, lo and behold, someone was smoking pot in the crowd. A hundred or so confetti cannon firings later, the band finished with “Do You Realize??” from 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, the last few minutes a little rushed so as not to overlap with Lenny Kravitz’s prompt 7 p.m. start time.

Although it may have been because it was my first time seeing them live, the Flaming Lips’ last Voodoo performance was slightly more impressive. This was during Coyne’s Christmas on Mars phase, so the stage was clogged with enormous inflatable aliens and Santa Clauses, and dancing Martian girls and Santas, all of whom were local students recruited hours before the show.

 Tweets from the Fest:

“So many amps. So many guitars. So many hats halfway on the backs of Brand New’s heads.”

“There’s a guy climbing the set, still building Flaming Lips’ craziness, while the Pogues are playing in front of him.”

“Shane McGowan,the lead singer of the Pogues, was late and is sloppy drunk and even more hard to understand. The rest of the band looked like they wanted to stab him. (Chris Lane, the MC of Fleur de Tease, told the crowd he got a text about a fight on stage.)”

“First time seeing Fleur de Tease, first Lucky Dog in well over a decade.”

“Security guard with a lazy eye looking at me. Maybe.”

“SO much confetti. Wayne Coyne’s personal confetti gun. Got some in my drink.”

”It’s so perfect to be alive right now, don’t you think?” #waynecoyne

“Guitar player has a tiny plastic bubble around his guitar? Confetti shield?”