“I Felt Like I Just Witnessed Rock’n’Roll History”: Brit Floyd
Our great thanks to Phil Ross for this outstanding review and his photos!
Having seen Brit Floyd three times already and always leaving impressed, we decided to grab some tickets for this year’s (seemingly) annual show at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida, on June 18. Advertisements promised an exciting new show celebrating the 40th anniversary of the legendary album The Wall. Our $30 Father’s Day promo tickets were not bad at all; we were near the aisle, about halfway back. (There are no bad seats at Ruth Eckerd.)
The show started right on time at precisely 8 p.m. with “In The Flesh,” the same way Pink Floyd started their Wall shows. They played all tracks in order from the first quarter of the Wall album, ending with “Mother,” before they broke away for some material from different albums. The music was well played with the two guitarists trading off Gilmour leads and rhythm duties. Sound and lighting were fantastic, with the stage show being much like Pink Floyd’s 1994 tour setup.
Breaking away from the Wall material, we were treated to some favorites from Dark Side of the Moon, the most notable being the hauntingly beautiful “Great Gig In The Sky,” which was sung flawlessly by Eva Avila, one of the three backup singers who always seem to be a trademark at a Pink Floyd Show. In later years when Pink Floyd did this, they split the duties between the three singers, but Ms. Avila handled this song with the fire of the original singer on the album, Clare Torry. It was no wonder she received a standing ovation at the end of the song, and I may have had a tear or two in the corner of my eye. My wife enthusiastically showed me her goosebumps.
Before returning to more Wall material, we were treated to the Division Bell favorite “Keep Talking,” complete with Stephen Hawking vocals in the beginning, just like on the album and 1994 Floyd tour. The band then played a blistering version of “Sheep” from the 1977 Animals album. The music was spot on and played with fire and energy. The audience responded with enthusiastic thunder at the end.
The band picked back up with more material from The Wall for a few more songs, then took a brief intermission. When they came back to the stage, I was expecting them to open with “Hey You,” the second-set opener of the original Wall stage show, but was pleasantly surprised by a “deep track” from 1987’s Momentary Lapse of Reason. The familiar tones of “Around and Around” rang out as the audience shuffled back in, and as always it segued into one of my personal favorites, “Yet Another Movie.” By this time the people around us, as well as my wife and I were remarking that this was a far better performance than last year, and we loved the show last year.
After the surprise set opener, the band returned to The Wall for “Empty Spaces” and “Young Lust,” which always go together, then broke back off for “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” “Wish You Were Here,” with the crowd singing along with surprisingly good pitch and volume, and the 1987 hit “On The Turning Away,” with a powerfully soulful solo at the end by guitarist Edo Scordo.
Returning to The Wall material, the band played “Hey You, Is There Anybody Out There” and “Nobody Home” before really throwing down with a hot and heavy version of the 1971 classic “One Of These Days,” complete with inflated pig and lasers everywhere. By this point the crowd was fully engrossed and eating it up as fast as the band could serve it. They played a well-executed version of “Comfortably Numb” complete with the hotel room set and doctor’s jacket attire that Roger Waters wore in the original Wall performances in 1980.
“Comfortably Numb” is usually the last song at a Pink Floyd (or Brit Floyd) show, and, as they have in past years, they treated us to extended solos by both guitarists at the end as well as a huge disco ball that descended from somewhere above the stage, bathing the entire theater in a psychedelic spinning glow.
After the band said thank you and goodnight, the lights stayed low, and we knew we were going to be treated to an encore. My guess was it would be “Run Like Hell,” always a safe bet when David Gilmour’s version of Pink Floyd toured. We were not disappointed, but what we didn’t expect was the band continuing on to do the rest of The Wall album in order! After brilliantly played versions of “Waiting For The Worms,” “Stop” and “The Trial,” complete with animations of the Judge, Wife, Mother, and Teacher on the round “Mr. Screen,” the band finished just like Pink Floyd did, with an acoustic version of “Outside The Wall” to finish the encore.
We were expecting a decent Floyd Tribute; what we got was nothing less than near perfection. The band seems to have really hit their stride on this tour, and they have substantially beefed up the animations and stage/lighting effects. It really felt like a good old Floyd show circa 1994 other than the fact that Floyd could never have played a place as intimate as Ruth Eckerd Hall after about 1972. We were marveling at the length of the show (just over three hours) and the technical aspects as well as the top-level musicianship of the band.
I consider myself a Pink Floyd aficionado and a pretty picky music lover. I went with no expectations other than to have a good time. I left feeling like I had just witnessed rock’n’roll history. I call that a good evening! As always, the Ruth Eckerd staff and volunteers were smiling and friendly from the beginning of the show until the very end as they wished us a good night on the way out. Overall, a 5-star experience!
