The Australian Pink Floyd Show
Tour: Set The Controls
Date: February 18, 2014
Location: G Live
Support: n/a
Last year, in honour of the 40th anniversary of
Dark Side of the Moon, the world’s best tribute band The Australian Pink Floyd
Show performed the album in full and it was quite spectacular. Of course, this
year they’re not doing any such thing. Although they are playing a significant
number of songs from Dark Side, they’re not in order, which is all wrong. Also,
since the first time, I’ve seen Roger waters (that’s 20% of the real Pink
Floyd) so seeing these guys again could never match up, right?
Well, the big surprise of the night was that they were
actually even better than before. Without constraining themselves to one
particular album, they were able to play a bigger variety of songs from more
period of the band’s career, and there weren’t as many repeats from the first
time as I’d worried. And there was an additional element where the audience
could vote, a couple of months prior to the show, for songs they wanted played
(from a selection) which I thought was a really great idea that more bands
should try.
In fact, they opened with one of the songs I’d voted for: ‘Shine
On You Crazy Diamond’, the song Pink Floyd used to open their concerts with
years ago. The song is basically made for that purpose, beginning so quietly
and building to a crescendo as the title line is sung, and assuming that was my
only chance to see it played live, it was good enough that I can handle that. Later
on, both ‘Welcome To The Machine’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’ were played from the
same album, the latter being a repeat but a highly enjoyable one, although the
video of the members of the real Pink Floyd that was played in the background
was recycled exactly. Plus, this time around the opening guitar part didn’t get
fumbled.
Other repeats came from Dark Side of the Moon, including my
two favourites ‘Time’ and ‘Us & Them’, and the surprising choice of ‘The
Great Gig in the Sky’, which is very difficult to pull off but I was impressed
with the performances of the backing singers. (One of them used to be a backing
singer for Floyd when they toured in the 90s, which has to help.)
But the best songs of the night were the more unexpected
ones. The undisputed highlight was ‘Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun’,
an all time favourite of mine in the studio but one that doesn’t always work
live, since it’s harder to get the creepy, atmospheric feel of the song – but here
they stayed true to the studio version rather than any of the published live
ones, and the overall effect was great. That and the music played over the PA
before the concert began (clips of songs from ‘Piper’) were the closest we got
to Syd Barrett numbers all night, the one major disappointment and flaw in the
concert for the second year running.
I was also lucky enough to hear a song from Animals – it wasn’t
‘Sheep’, as I’d been hoping, but it was the funky, danceable ‘Pigs (Three
Different Ones)’, played in full. Coming at the beginning of the second set,
the band’s rocking out came as a nice contrast to the quiet concentration they’d
been in for most of the first half. We saw this again in some of the heavier
Wall cuts, like ‘Young Lust’, and a version of ‘Happiest Days/Brick 2’ that
didn’t live up to Waters’ own venomous voice but was nevertheless enjoyable.
This was less of a surprise as I knew it was coming, but it
was also good to hear three songs from ‘The Division Bell’ – the post-Waters
era gets a lot of hate, but I really like the bluesy call-and-response ‘Keep
Talking’, although I was less convinced by the guitar-solo-heavy ‘Coming Back
to Life’. I feel like the group should stick to the full band compositions
rather than trying to play songs that specifically relate to one particular
member, where the style is harder to imitate.
I’ve already mentioned that the Wall songs had the hardest
challenge, and none more so than ‘Comfortably Numb’, which has been performed
wonderfully so many times that it can’t possibly be beaten. The band played a
note-for-note copy of the original, and the guitar solo felt elegant and
natural, although the vocals possibly could have been improved.
I managed to find myself a place to stand right near the
front, and so the atmosphere in the audience was great, with other people who
were clearly huge fans too. After the band left the stage following ‘Comfortably
Numb’, everyone was cheering for ‘Run Like Hell’, except for a select few near
me who decided to yell for ‘Brain Damage’. I considered shouting out ‘Alan’s
Psychedelic Breakfast!’ but then worried they would actually play it, which
would be a waste of an encore. Not to worry, though. They finished the night
with a rousingly energetic ‘Run Like Hell’ that was so intense I managed to forget
that Roger’s emotion wasn’t quite there.
Overall, a tribute band to one of the world’s most famous
bands is always going to have a difficult task, but there’s a reason the
Australian Pink Floyd have such a great reputation. Their love and respect for
the music, the most important feature a tribute band can have, is obvious, and
they have genuine talent of their own too, as well as a great sense of humour
about the whole thing. With that in mind, I’ll end with an anecdote I heard
once that I’m 98% sure is not true.
David Gilmour went to see the Australian Pink Floyd years
ago and was so impressed that he said they were the best tribute band he’d ever
seen. Flattered and wanting to return the compliment, a member of the Aussie
Floyd found some tapes of the original Floyd playing, and told them that they
were the best Australian Pink Floyd tribute band he’d ever seen.
