With all their power

Coyne on live shows and what makes Flaming Lips so hot

Wayne Coyne has helped make a Flaming Lips show the weirdest party in rock music since George Clinton descended onto the stage in a flying saucer in the ’70s.

In concert, Coyne can be seen bleeding all over his white suit, walking atop audiences in a plastic bubble, and assembling battles between groups of Santa Clauses and aliens. On their latest tour, supporting their upcoming “Embryonic” album, the Lips enter the stage through a giant vagina.

But what really impresses Coyne is not theatrics, but the music itself.

“I got a call from my wife’s little sister, or she e-mailed us when she was at Bonnaroo, saying ‘I’m watching Wilco and it’s f—ing amazing,’” he says. “And I thought, ‘Cool, they’re going to be here tomorrow, I’ll go by and see it.’ And I have to say I was just obliterated. I stood on the side of the stage while that guitarist Nels played. He was just insane!”

Coyne speaks with the unjaded enthusiasm of a teenager just discovering music. And in many ways, that’s exactly what he is.

“I would say when we talk about extraordinary musical skill, there’s an element of that that’s kind of like being a supermodel,” he says. “You either have it — you’re tall and you’ve got a certain thing — or you don’t, and I know that only because I’ve been around extraordinary musicians, and I know I don’t have it.”

He credits much of the Lips’ success with the arrival of drummer/multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd in 1992, almost 10 years into the band’s existence.

“After Steven got in the band, I thought, ‘We’re gonna go off on another trip here, we’re going to make emotional, powerful music that communicates different things that has a different skill level!’”  exclaims Coyne.

It’s not that Coyne is especially humble — he’ll be the first to tell you how much he loves Flaming Lips — it’s that he feels like he’s in a band where every member has found their perfect place.

“As much as I can learn and explore and just find ideas myself, I’m never gonna be able to play music like someone like Steven can,” he says. “My brain didn’t form in the right way when I was young. And I know that. I don’t despair about it. Steven’s ability runs into a quagmire of endless decisions sometimes. My inability arrives at no other solution other than the one I want to pursue, and I think that single vision paired with that endless variety and endless vision of what can be is where our power comes from.”

Flaming Lips
Sunday, 7 p.m.
Bank of America Pavilion
290 Northern Ave., Boston
MBTA: Silver Line to World Trade
$30-$50, 617-931-2000
www.livenation.com