The Southern New Jersey-based band has changed concepts and costumes several times since in that span, but at more than two dozen shows Iíve experienced theyíve always been up close and personal.

That is until a recent show at the New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom, where the loving and lovable eccentric band of Smiths, maiden-named Smiths (Rachel flew in from San Diego for the gig) and friends took the stage in support of The Flaming Lips.

Considering that I've seen the band too many times and over too long a period of time to accurately tally a number, it was both exciting and odd to have to squint to make out who was who as they took the stage. Though possibly not the biggest show of Danielson's prolific and boundary stretching career ó the band played an All Tomorrowís Parties show with Sonic Youth and other big names organized by Simpsons creator Matt Groening once upon a time ó it felt like a big deal as the band played through a set list exclusive to their magnificent recent album Ships.

Declared their most accessible work to date by many critics who seem to have found their way to the band through a door former Famile member Sufjan Stevens has propped open, the Ships album and recent documentary telling the bandís story up to the release seems to have ushered in a new era for this homegrown phenomenon. One has to wonder if there aren't more prominent opening act slots and larger stages right around the corner.

As a long-time fan, friend and supporter of the famile, I couldnít be more proud. Sitting next to my brother ó who kept using words like "awesome" to describe seeing Danielson and The Flaming Lips on the same night ó I felt like a bragging parent resisting the temptation to show off baby pictures in my wallet. My brother, who I took to the show for his 19th birthday present after an Atlantic City date for the Lips was canceled two weeks earlier, was missing his two front teeth when I first dragged him to a Danielson show.

It's anyoneís guess why it's taken so long for these two bands to finally share a bill, considering each has a charamastic ringleader with a seemingly endless supply of strange yet original ideas of elaborate artistic and musical expression. That Oklahoma's finest haven't let international fame keep them from inviting a band like Danielson to open up was as refreshing as the gesture Steve Drozd paid by introducing the band and another Wayne Coyne later showed dedicating the spacey existential song "It Overtakes Me" to Daniel Smith and company.

No matter how larger than life a band like The Flaming Lips appears — their already well documented live show featured a host of Santa Claus, alien and superhero costumed partiers on stage and an abundance of eye candy visuals — Wayne showed his face early casually walking around the stage setting up between sets and later with ease allowed a couple to get engaged in between songs.

Wayne talked a lot about love in an existential, agnostic way that night and at times the show slipped into moments of sugar rush bliss — one friend described the live show as the closest thing he could imagine to taking a hit of acid — but ultimately it was not too far a stretch from a typical Danielson show.

Friendly, warm, comforting and certainly something bigger and more substantial than your average rock show. Minus, of course, the distance from where I was sitting to the stage.