The Flaming Lips open their new era at Brooklyn Bowl on release day

Two years after an arena night at Bridgestone, the band kicks off 'The Teardrop Throbs' with two Brooklyn Bowl shows on Jan. 22 and 23, 2027, the first playing the new album in full.

On the day The Flaming Lips' first new album in more than six years comes out, the first people in the world to hear it played live will be standing in Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville.

The band plays Brooklyn Bowl on Friday, Jan. 22, and Saturday, Jan. 23, 2027, both nights at 8 p.m., with tickets at $58.70 through Ticketmaster (Saturday here). The shows were announced Oct. 26. The last time the Lips played Nashville, on Sept. 17, 2024, it was at Bridgestone Arena. This time the room holds about 1,200.

Jan. 22 is also release day for *The Teardrop Throbs*, a 13-track album on Third Man Records, according to JamBase. It's the band's first record since 2020's *American Head*, and its first since 1990's *In a Priest Driven Ambulance* not released by Warner. It's also the first since the band parted ways with longtime member Steven Drozd, as Stereogum noted in its headline. The lead single is "God Will Control the Werewolves," and Louder framed its coverage around God, werewolves, Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett, which tells you something about the record's reference points. The Line of Best Fit counts it as the band's seventeenth album.

The two nights aren't copies of each other. Per JamBase, on Friday the band will perform *The Teardrop Throbs* in its entirety in the first set, then return for a second set billed as "Songs From The 20th Century." On Saturday, the new material gets played "in a new way," alongside songs from 2002 to 2020. If you've been around since the '90s, Friday's second set is for you. If the *Yoshimi* era is your Lips, Saturday is likely your night. If you can swing it, both.

Nashville gets first crack. After the Brooklyn Bowl opener, the run heads to New York's Irving Plaza on Jan. 26 and 27, with dates later at The Bellwether in Los Angeles, Metro in Chicago, and two nights at London's O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire in April, according to TicketNews and Clash. Every one of those is a small room by this band's standards, a deliberate choice that The Music Universe described as a series of intimate concerts.

That's what makes the Nashville shows matter. In 2024 the city saw the Lips at arena scale. In January it gets them in a room a fraction of that size, on the day a new chapter starts, playing songs nobody has heard on a stage before. It's a rare chance to be in the room for the beginning of something rather than the victory lap.

Tickets went on general sale Oct. 30, and with only about 1,200 spots per night, don't count on waiting until January.

Sources: The Flaming Lips Return With 'The Teardrop Throbs' & Intimate 2027 Shows — JamBase (jambase.com); The Flaming Lips announce first post-Steven Drozd album The Teardrop Throbs — Stereogum (stereogum.com); God, werewolves, Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett: The Flaming Lips announce first album in six years — Louder (loudersound.com); The Flaming Lips return with seventeenth album The Teardrop Throbs — The Line of Best Fit (thelineofbestfit.com); The Flaming Lips announce 10 shows across U.S. and London for 2027 — TicketNews (ticketnews.com); The Flaming Lips Announce New Album 'The Teardrop Throbs' — Clash (clashmusic.com); The Flaming Lips announce new album with Third Man Records — The Music Universe (themusicuniverse.com); The Flaming Lips at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville — Ticketmaster (ticketmaster.com)