This trek marks the band’s first headlining outing since 2000. In between, they’ve toured with Cake on the Unlimited Sunshine tour, and most recently backed Beck – both as an opening band and as Beck’s live band. Those gigs saw the bands playing to packed houses throughout North America and were hailed as the return of the Lips, who’d been quiet for a couple of years.

But quiet they are no more. Last year saw The Flaming Lips back in service with a new album, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. The disc made many “best of” lists for 2002 and eventually helped them out when Grammy season rolled around.