Photos and Review by Jeff Palmucci
So the first time I heard about Brit Floyd was not too long ago. My son Will had gotten heavily into Pink Floyd. Heavily like started to learn the guitar because of Floyd. Heavily like born 50 years too late into Floyd. Heavily like he knows way more about their music than me, a person that was not born 50 years too late for Floyd. I kind of love his taste in music.
Anyways, we were vegging out in front of YouTube and came across the Brit Floyd Red Rocks video. Started watching it, and didn’t stop till the end. That’s a 2 and 1/2 hour video folks, on a streaming service that was designed for people with A.D.D. And I watched the whole thing through. That’s how amazing these guys are.
So, we bought a bunch of tickets to the show last night and all headed out. This was a reschedule of a previously planned show, so a couple of my friends had extra tickets that they offered on our email list. That started a discussion about cover bands, with some saying that they didn’t really get into such things. I felt a little bad for them. That large, cumbersome stick up their asses is preventing them from seeing some amazingly good bands. (here’s another)
On this tour, the band didn’t just play Floyd songs, they jammed together adding their own spin to the classics. There was one point where musical director and guitarist Damian Darlington took the guitar solo at the end of Comfortably Numb, and cranked it up to 11. He received a well-deserved standing ovation for his efforts. There were also extended versions of Money and Momentary Lapse of Reason that I thought were amazing. This is how I’d think that Pink Floyd would be in a live show. After all, a lot of the studio albums have the band jamming out for minutes on end. Curiously, I’ve seen both Pink Floyd and Roger Waters before in concert, and I don’t remember them straying as far from the recorded versions.
There was no other act for the night. They came out for the first set, had a 20 minute intermission, then came out for a second set and an extended encore. You will not get short-changed for music on this tour.
The light show was fantastic, of course. Lasers were shooting everywhere. The band was accompanied by movies and animation on a big screen behind them to add commentary to the music.
These guys are all amazing musicians, and I love how they play the more technical parts of the Floyd catalog just spot on. You really need to check out the YouTube video above. You will be impressed.
A great night of music, and the North American tour is continuing through August. Check out the schedule, they’re probably playing somewhere near you.
One other point in the show where the crowd gave a standing ovation was when the lead female background singer sang an incredible solo. On the way out a guy walking beside me and I were talking about it, and neither he nor I could remember the name of the song. “Hey Will, what’s the name of the song the female soloist sang?” I asked. “Great Gig in the Sky, Dad,” he replied without a second’s thought. I’m so proud!