Flaming hot psychedelia

Last weekend, American psychedelic rock band The Flaming Lips held their first Hong Kong concert at the AsiaWorld-Expo. The Flaming Lips is on the list of '50 Bands You Must See Before You Die' compiled by Q, the famous British music magazine. But before they appeared, there were live performances by The Raveonettes from Denmark, and local band The Merriweather Deer.

The Flaming Lips do nothing subtly: they arrived on stage by bursting out of a dancing woman being projected on the big screen. Lead singer Wayne Coyne also got into a huge, transparent Space Ball and rolled over the heads of the audience, who excitedly lifted up their hands and pushed, trying to be the ones to take control of the ball.

The Flaming Lips performed their psychedelic, electric songs from 1999's The Soft Bulletin up to their most recent, 2009 album, Embryonic, and carried on until they, and the audience, were exhausted. Some fans, wearing orange outfits, stood on either side of the stage during the show, and danced and moved enthusiastically to the music.

The whole night felt like a carnival; the concert hall was full of big, bouncing, colourful balloons and floating paper strips. Special lighting effects and props included giant hands, an enormous bear, a disco ball and green laser lights. A screen behind the band displayed entertaining animations throughout the show.

When they sang I Can be A Frog, the drummer Kliph Scurlock led the audience to act like the animals in the song - a monkey, tiger and frog - as the set took on the appearance a jungle. The whole concert, from the beginning to the encore, was full of screaming and yelling.

The most exciting part was getting a media pass so I could go into the restricted area. The experience gave me a real taste of what it's like to be a professional photographer. I took loads of photographs from just in front of Wayne Coyne. He's a friendly guy who wanted to learn some Cantonese.