Watch Yoshimi P-We Join The Flaming Lips Live For The First Time At Their Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Show In Tokyo

12:27 PM EDT on March 27, 2025

MALMESBURY, ENGLAND – JULY 30: The Flaming Lips with Wayne Coyne perform on the main stage, on July 30, 2022 in Malmesbury, England. To date, there have been 300 WOMAD festivals on six continents with over 10,000 artists playing to audiences in their millions. This year there will be 150+ music artists from over 40 countries gathering for the fortieth anniversary festival in Wiltshire. (Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)

|Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

The title character of the Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots was inspired by Yoshimi P-We, the longtime drummer of Japanese noise rockers Boredoms. Though that album came out way back in 2002, the real-life Yoshimi somehow had never performed with the Flaming Lips until Wednesday night in Tokyo.

Yoshimi was billed as a "special guest" for the two Tokyo shows on the Flaming Lips' current tour, where they're playing Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots in full. (These shows were also a co-headlining situation with Cornelius.) It doesn't look like Yoshimi was there for the entire set, but she did come out to some gnarly screams. According to an Instagram post from Wayne Coyne, she did some trumpet and drums too. Watch a few clips below.

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