The Flaming Lips pulled off their first bubble concerts to get around social distancing rules, but health experts question their safety

• The Flaming Lips performed live from “space bubbles” in January because of the ongoing pandemic.
• About 200 people attended each show, and patrons rocked out inside their own plastic inflated bubbles, too.
• Some health experts say the bubbles aren’t necessarily safe, while others encourage using them.
• Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Concert-goers punched the tops of their inflated plastic bubbles to the beat of The Flaming Lips last weekend.

The psych-rock band performed in plastic “space bubbles” on January 22 and 23 in their home state of Oklahoma, The New York Times reported.

Audience members danced in bubbles, too, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. 

“The job of the Flaming Lips is to get you in a room, get you excited, get you to forget about the world’s problems and entertain you for an hour,” Wayne Coyne, the band’s frontman, told Rolling Stone. “But if we do that without this pretty radical protection, then we’re going to kill you.”

Read more: Hairstylists have one of the most dangerous jobs during the pandemic. One NYC stylist shares the drastic changes she’s had to make to keep working.

The Flaming Lips performed indoors, but everyone was inside a plastic bubble

Nathan Poppe, who ran cameras for the event, tweeted that there were 100 bubbles in the crowd with up to three people in each. There were about 200 people at each show, The Times reported.

In the same thread, Poppe said the bubbles were blown up with leaf blowers, and each one came with a speaker, fan, water bottle, towel, and sign for those needing the restroom.

Once inside the bubbles, patrons could remove their masks. To leave their bubbles, people had to roll themselves to the exit.

Read more: How risky daily activities are during the coronavirus pandemic, ranked from safest to most dangerous

Some experts aren't so sure that these bubbles are safe

Some health experts are wary of the idea of bubble concerts.

"I'd need to see how the air exchange was occurring between the outside and the inside of the bubbles to be able to say if it were safe overall or reduced risk of transmission," Dr. Eric Cioe-Peña, director of global health at Northwell Health, told The New York Times.

Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, said that preventing the spread of the virus depends on air filtration.

"In theory, if air filtration is good, protective barriers can helpfully augment and reduce risk of transmission, but I would be hesitant to attend a concert in a bubble at the moment unless this has been assessed further," he told The Times.

Read more: 4 activities you can do safely before a second coronavirus lockdown, and 4 things you should skip

Others say space bubble concerts could give people hope and keep them social distancing

If each bubble contains only members of the same household, it could be a good way to keep live music going, Joshua Barocas, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Boston University, told Insider. 

"I think this is an innovative way of allowing people to participate in a normal activity - concert-going - while also doing it in the safest way possible," Barocas said.

Barocas said this type of innovation is necessary to keep people motivated to social-distance and wear masks.

"People need incentives and people need hope," Barocas said. "Music affords people the opportunity to hope, so if we can find safe ways to let people experience live music or theater or the arts, I encourage it."

Read more: Should you dine in a restaurant tent this winter? It depends on 5 safety factors