Famous events and figures have travelled through Baton Rouge in the past, but the city has seen few spectacles as unique as the 24-hour-long Flaming Lips’ O Music Awards Tour, which drops by The Varsity Theatre this afternoon.
Viacom’s O Music Awards promotes collaboration of music and technology, honoring those who bridge the two best. This year’s OMAs will begin in the form of a live-stream, cross-country tour running through the Delta South, beginning in Memphis, Tenn., and ending in New Orleans. Fans can stream the tour online at omusicawards.com.
The tour will dole out 24 awards like “Must Follow Artist on Twitter” and “Digital Genius,” all of which will be selected by fans.  
As the first 24-hour live-streamed awards show, The Flaming Lips’ tour will also seek to break Jay-Z’s world record for most shows performed in a 24 hour span with eight tour locations. In addition, each show will host a full set by other respected artists before The Flaming Lips performances. MTV’s Vice President of Digital Music Strategy Shannon Connolly said having these multiple endeavors in a single event create the unconventionality the OMAs strive for.
“It’s part awards show, part concert tour, part reality show,” Connolly said in an e-mail. “All these parts will produce a raw event where literally anything can happen and be streamed live throughout, no filter.”
While the event’s participants have organized the logistics, Connolly said much of the event is still difficult to predict without rehearsals.
“The truth is, things could go completely crazy,” she said. “That’s kind of the spirit though – celebrating the fusion of tech and music in the most unconventional way possible.”
Following a Givers opening performance at The Varsity Theatre, The Lips will arrive at the venue from their previous tour stop in Biloxi, Miss. and are expected to run from their bus through a waiting crowd of fans before taking the stage.
Of course, Wayne Coyne and his crew won’t be alone aboard their tour bus, the appropriately dubbed “Endeavor.”
Passengers will include Jackass star Chris Pontius, singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, Neon Trees, the pop duo Karmin and others who The Flaming Lips recruited and drew into their adventure during the course of the tour.
The Varsity Theatre general manager Brent McLellan said the event has philanthropic elements as well. All profits from the show will go to VH1’s Save the Music Foundation, and one-eighth of the proceeds from the tour will go to local schools.
“The band is literally playing for $1 a show,” Mclellan said. While the Varsity show sold out quickly, unloading 700 tickets, McLellan said the venue didn’t sell out its maximum capacity.
“We’re not going to sell the additional capacity of our room because of all the equipment and travelling parties [The Flaming Lips] will have,” he explained.
In addition to making this space, The Varsity had to make additional preparations for this event. While the venue generally uses most of a day for headlining bands to set up equipment, run through sound checks and rest, McLellan said the OMAs won’t afford this time.
“The timing of all this stuff is going to be an additional task for us,” he said. “This is going to be a pretty bold undertaking to time everything out perfectly so no shows have to suffer because a show ran long, or traffic affected a part of the tour.”
While The Flaming Lips will perform “mini-sets” to run through the tour on schedule, McLellan said they won’t disappoint. The tour promises surprises and collaborations with musical guests.
“They’re going to do what they can to be as Flaming Lips-like as possible,” he said. “But the time constraints won’t let them roll around in a hamster ball over the crowd.”
Doors will open for the show at 12:45 p.m., but Mclellan said The Flaming Lips will probably arrive around 2:15 p.m.
 
____ Contact Austen Krantz at [email protected]