I had noticed the ads for this show in the Chronicle a while ago, but didn't take any action. The band was a selection of local Austin, all-stars, and included my friend, Ulrich Ellison.
Having recently purchased tickets for a Return to Forever show in September, with a bunch of Prog/Fusion fan friends, one of them just happened to mention, Hey, any of you interested in going to that Pink Floyd tribute show, this Saturday?
Five of us said yes, and convened at the Ginger Man before the show.
It's a good thing that I went to this show. Having dilly-dallied a month ago, I had missed an opportunity to see the opening of the Fusebox Festival at the Seaholm. As it turned out, this was the last chance, as the City of Austin is beginning a multi-year, redevelopment project.
Arrival
When we arrived around 6:30PM, I was surprised to see that the stage was outside. It was a bit hot until the sun went down. During the After-Party, hindsight proved this to be the best choice. It would have been sweltering inside.
For contrast, I took these pictures of the plant's trademark smokestacks. Shortly after we claimed our seats.
Moving Matter
The show opened with a Jam Band, Moving Matter. They were good, but I'm just not that much of a Jam Band fan. They played for about an hour.
While the openers played, I ran into a few people I knew. One of them was Damon Lange from Nomad Sound. After talking to him a few minutes, I noticed that there were some additional speakers on tripods, behind the audience, as he was walking back to the mixing board.
Which One's Pink?
The main act, played two sets. The first set opened with Shine on you Crazy Diamond (Part 1)
and then quickly went into the songs from the first part of the Wall, starting with In the Flesh?
and ending with Goodbye Blue Sky
.
This was really well done, and there were several surprises. For starters, the side-channel speakers I had noticed earlier, were used for surround-sound effects. The audience was swimming in a lake of sound, making it sound as if there were really helicopters descending as the Wall played. The other surprise was that they actually had a group of small school children as a small choir for Another Brick in the Wall.
There were 7 or 8 different vocalists during the show including Tony Scalzo from Fastball, Teal Collins Zee from the Mother Truckers, and the very impressive, Akina Adderly. All of the vocalists delivered great performances.
At the beginning of the second set, I took this second picture of the stacks. Throughout the show, lighting was projected on to the stacks to great effect, while the music played.
Here's a quick run-down of the songs that I can remember, in no particular order:
- Meddle - One of these Days, and maybe San Tropez
- Wish You Were Here - Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Have A Cigar, Wish You Were Here
- Dark Side of the Moon - Speak To Me/Breathe through Money, Eclipse
- Animals - Pigs (Three Different Ones), Sheep
- The Wall - In the Flesh? through Goodbye Blue Sky, Young Lust, Comfortably Numb
- Division Bell - Keep Talking
I'm sure I've forgotten some already. I must say however, that this show was very well done.
After-Party
At the beginning of the second set, they announced that there was going to be an After Party, and that everyone would get to see the inside of the Seaholm. This was a fun way to close out the evening, but as I said earlier, thankfully the show was outside.
Bottom line: It was great night of music, under the stars.
