Australian Pink Floyd Show

Australian Pink Floyd Show

Summary: Great. Worth the time and money.

Detail:

This is probably the only concert I'll go to this year. Heck, it is probably the last concert for the next several years. I believe it is the first concert I have gone to since the Celine Dion concert several years back, and that was at Jenn's insistance. Before that it was ZZTop in the early 90's.

Jenn saw the concert announced on the Corel Center light board by the highway when doing her comings and goings. She got us tickets as an anniversary present (four years of wedded bliss!) -- first tier, center, seventh row.

The crowd was about what you'd expect. I was looking around, thinking look at all the old hippies, then Jenn pointed out that people behind us were probably looking at my gray-streaked ponytail and thinking the same thing… But the youth movement was also well represented. This shows the wide spectrum of people that Pink Floyd music appeals to.

This was billed as the 30th Anniversary of Dark Side Of The Moon; as a result, the opening was Dark Side of the Moon, start to finish. Great presentation; great performance; great sound. The sound started to get distorted a bit near the end, but it did not detract much from the whole experience.

After a brief intermission, they played Shine On You Crazy Diamond, then went through several popular highlights from Pink Floyd's archives. From Meddle and Careful With That Axe Eugene through The Division Bell's Keep Talking, they touched on the hits that the crowd demanded.

And they kept The Wall to the required minimum. It would be too easy to get into the trap of playing 90% of The Wall, instead the band restrained themselves, touching only on the required hits.

One thing you really noticed when being performed live was the difference between the Syd Barret Floyd, the Roger Waters Floyd, and the David Gilmore Floyd. Barret's Floyd was 60's experimentation and wildness; Gilmore's Floyd is guitar-fronted music with a message. Water's Floyd keeps Gilmore's guitar on a short leash, making sure that it adds to the presentation rather than being the central point. Overall, Water's Floyd is the best balanced in terms of music, mixing melody and lyric with Gilmore's enthusiastic lead guitar, and also makes the best live presentation of the three genres.

Overall, the performance was excellent. Every single fan who's held a guitar knows how to play an approximation of the guitar solo for Money, and demands that the performance keep any 'interpretation' of the piece to strict studio album music, and the band delivered. The second act was a little excessively distorted and the mix balance was off, the lyrics being drowned out by the EXTREMELY LOUD LEAD GUITAR (this being the mandatory mix for Division Bell and Momentary Lapse Of Reason pieces). However the whole thing was filled with enthusiasm and energy, with the crowd responding well.

For the future, I think that if they could pull it off, a tour to celebrate an anniversary of The Wall, with The Wall being the center piece of the show, would be awesome. Here's hoping. But let's be honest here, this is because I am selfish and want to see The Wall, live, once in my life.

Bottom line: definitely worth the time and the money. Lots of fun; I'd go again.