The Best Shows, Coast to Coast, to Kick Off 2011

The Flaming Lips are coming prepared for their fourth New Year's show at Oklahoma City's Cox Convention Center: frontman Wayne Coyne tells Rolling Stone there will be “the world’s biggest balloon drop, the world’s largest mirror ball and big, dangerous laser beams. It’s the greatest audience you could ever be a part of, to be with a bunch of fuckin’ freaks that want to do crazy shit and take drugs – that’s what you really want on New Years Eve.” (You'll be able to watch the show live and the day of January 1 right here at RollingStone.com.)
But that’s not all: When the clock strikes midnight, the psych rockers will launch into their 1999 classic The Soft Bulletin for the first time in its entirety. “It seemed as though we should start with this one and see if anybody gives a shit," says Coyne. To meet the task, the band is bringing in new instruments like harp and timpani, “all kinds of stuff that sounded pretentious back in the day but now its like ‘Fuck yeah! It’s big and bombastic!”
8:30 p.m., Cox Convention Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. With Stardeath and White Dwarfs. $10 to $25, Ticketmaster
By Patrick Doyle