Unusual faces of rock triumph on stage

ASPIRING pop stars, take heart, you don't need to be photogenic to be a rock god these days - that's if the rapturous response to the unlikely front men of two bands that performed in Singapore earlier this week was anything to go by.

It doesn't matter if you look like Wayne Coyne, the scraggly singer of The Flaming Lips who played on Monday at The Coliseum, or the portly duo of Jack Black and Kyle Gass, better known as Tenacious D, who performed at the same venue the next evening. All you need is a healthy dose of showmanship.

Coyne is an expert when it comes to that and you can always count on The Flaming Lips to put on a colourful show whenever the Oklahoma City quartet, formed in 1983, bring their zany, high-energy rock circus to town. This is their second visit to Singapore after their debut performance here in 2011.