The rumors were flying around the Oklahoma City Zoo in the hours leading up to the Flaming Lips show like an unidentified spacecraft sparkling with possibility. There were whisperings that the band was going to make a flying entrance hovering over the crowd in a giant UFO. Some said when the show is over all the animals in the zoo will be released so that the crowd can party with the zebras and monkeys and birds of paradise. According to one forecasting fan, there could be only one result to the Lips inevitably legendary homecoming show: “I’m expecting everyone’s head to explode, which I’m pretty sure will happen.” The Lips fans have affectionately been nicknamed “The Freaks” for a reason.

There’s some truth to at least one of the less ambitious rumors. The Lips did get all Parliament on asses and entered the stage via a lowered, Close Encounters style UFO. Out came Steven, Michael and Kliph from the belly of the beast. But where was Wayne? All of the sudden, from the midst of the hazy fog machine by-products like some mystic messiah he appeared. He was like a second-coming from Mars, back to his hometown. High atop the UFO, encased in a plastic bubble, he stood as an instrumental introduction track soars in the background. Carefully choosing his steps, a smiling Coyne descended down a ramp and through the stage to the waiting hands of the audience. After a day of preparing for the experience of The Flaming Lips show, they eagerly held the bubble and passed around a crawling Coyne. You couldn’t contain his youthful smile with all the negative energy in the world.

The experience that follows from a bubble-free Coyne and the rest of one of the most influential bands of the last two decades is a microcosm of their careers as a successful band up to this point. From the first snare cracks of “Race for the Prize,” it is clear how much this crowd, which had been scandalizing at the zoo all day, was ripe for eruption. Millions of confetti snippets were sent flying through the air, dozens of sunny, oversized balloons were sent hovering into the crowd where they were bounced and bobbed the entire show, and Coyne grabbed a tubed streamer shotgun and pumped countless rounds into the cornucopia of the Oklahoma night. It’s clear that this wasn’t just a concert DVD, it was a full on experience. It’s was an event to be circled on the calendar. Fans, like one of the women interviewed, accepted to the terms of a job if and only if their bosses understand that Lips concerts take precedence and subsequent days off. “Today’s like Christmas,” shouts another Freak.

With a total running time of nearly 2 hours, UFOs at the Zoo is as much a documentary of the making of and fan experience of a Lips concert as it is the concert itself. The Freaks nearly steal the show in their interviews, too. Nearly. It is the fan interaction and introduction to some of the nuts and bolts behind putting a Lips show on that make you feel as though you really were there laughing your head off with the other fans, and crafting the insanity with the stagehands behind the scenes.

Every band says it has the best fans in the world, but few bands play to a chorus singing every word to every song. Few crowds are so devoted, knowing the perfect time to shout out the “HO! HO!” in “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part 1.” And fewer fans yet, get visibly emotional when they know the experience is coming to an end. As Coyne says midset, “To be loved, all you have to do is give love and you’ll get more back than you can ever, ever ask for.” For a first concert DVD from a band that has been around 20 years, the wait has been worth it. UFOs at the Zoo is an experience. It’s a full day’s worth of build-up and two hours of sweet release. But perhaps what this DVD signifies most is a celebration of the most devoted fans, perhaps, in music today. It’s about them giving their heart and soul for a band that offers their own in return every night.