#Current10 Memories: Mary Lucia
by Mary Lucia
January 17, 2015
The Current's Mary Lucia shares one of her favorite recollections from the past 10 years at the station.
At the State Fair, we do interviews onstage. In 2006, the Flaming Lips were playing the grandstand with Sonic Youth. It was pouring that day, and we had Wayne Coyne scheduled to come by for a chat. The crowd assembled, huddling together for hours before he strolled onstage fresh off a golf-cart ride to our stage. The look on his face was priceless when he stepped out from backstage and saw the crowd of devotees. Not being a stranger to animal costumes himself, in the crowd was someone in a full gopher costume waiting patiently if not animatedly with the audience.
Wayne was dressed in his familiar white suit, and we settled in for the interview looking out at the hundreds of people covered in trash bags, trying to shelter themselves from the downpour. He was a delight to talk to; we talked about how funny it was that every commercial wanted to use the Flaming Lips' song, "Do You Realize", without fully grasping the meaning behind the song: "Do you realize that everyone you know one day will die?" I believe ironically a car company was currently running the ads.
After a charming conversation he casually dropped an F-bomb and we had to bail. It was perfect.
Everyone kept calling the station to see if the concert was going to be cancelled due to weather. Around 6 p.m., just as I was getting off air, the sky turned green, the wind picked up and the tornado sirens began wailing. Water began gushing into our little glass-enclosed fishbowl. To boot, it was coming in directly over the jillion-dollar mixing board! We were hurling our coats, bodies and anything else over the equipment to protect it.
As show time approached, a Wayne Coyne miracle occurred: The rain stopped, the skies began to clear and the sun even made a timely appearance. YES! The show must go on! I got into the Grandstand before the music started to see Wayne himself onstage, squeegeeing the stage! No prima donna routine from the ultimate showman.
Over the years, it would seem that every time I've related that story, every single person I talk to says, "I was at that show!" I don't know how that's even possible, maybe it's become urban legend. But that night apparently everyone I've ever met watched one of the best most visually compelling rock shows on earth!