Just witnessed your
best live gig?..send us a review!
AUSTRALIAN PINK FLOYD
3 April 2004
Everyone has his or her own interpretation of what a tribute band is
or should be. In my vast experience, a tribute band is usually
headed by a decent singer that can hit a majority of the notes of the
singer he/she is trying to emulate and a competent band that is
typically nowhere near the skill level of the band they are copying
but does a decent job mimicking their heroes.
Overall, most tribute bands do a fairly decent job at paying homage to the musical past of
some of the top legends in music. I have seen tribute bands that
cover, AC/DC, Kiss, Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Led
Zeppelin, The Doors, The Beatles(many of them), Iron Maiden, Elvis
etc. And, for the most part I am satisfied paying 10 or 15 bucks to
see them as they are adequate and I may never get an opportunity to
see the real deal anytime soon so I am pacified.
Sometimes you run across a tribute band that really rocks and exceeds your expectations
such as the Van Halen tribute band the Atomic Punks, the All-Female
AC/DC tribute band Hell's Belles or the Led Zeppelin tribute band No
Quarter. All 3 of these bands rock and they each have exceeded my
expectations and we would easily pay to see them every chance that we
could.
This past Saturday, we had the opportunity to see another tribute
band called Aussie Floyd. As you can guess, they are a Pink Floyd
tribute band from Australia. They have been touring the US for the
past 2 months. I didn't see anyone on the message board post about
having seen them. And, that is really too bad. They are billed as
the #1 tribute band in the world and it is well deserved. It was an
amazing show. Easily the best sounding tribute band I have ever
seen.
They played for 2 hours and 20 minutes. They played the
entire Dark Side of the Moon in order as the first set(30th
anniversary of the release). They took a 15 minute break and then
played 90 more minutes covering Floyd classics such as Shine on Crazy
Diamond, Sorrow, Echoes, Run Like Hell, Another Brick in the Wall,
Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb etc.
They tour with a massive light and video show and a sound system that was incredibly clear.
They were so good, that it is hard to classify them as a "tribute"
band. They are awesome musicians and covered all the bases. They
even had the 3 female backup singers and the lead female NAILED the
Great Gig in the Sky off the Dark Side album. Absolutely amazing
vocals.
The core band has 3 different lead singers, each of them hit
their parts with ease and the guitar playing was near flawless and
they did all the guitar parts on Shine On. The band even has a sax
player. You could have put the biggest Floyd fans in there and had
them close their eyes and they would never have been able to tell it
wasn't Floyd.
Several people we were with, or had talked too there,
that had seen Floyd in the past said these guys were better than
Floyd. Only thing missing was the massive outdoor stadium stage and
the flying pigs. Truly a memorable show and one we will never miss
if we get an opportunity to see them again. We paid 40 bucks to see
this show and it was worth twice the price. More than likely, Pink
Floyd will never tour again as a band.
So, if you get the opportunity to see these guys, DO IT! I feel like I got to see Pink
Floyd in a 2500 seat theatre. It was fantastic. They have already
played all their dates in the US, so more than likely you missed out
this year. But, who knows, maybe they will be back. 5 more years
and they can tour for the 30th anniversary of The Wall. WooHoo! They
do have dates all over Europe in April and May.
Review: The Commish(who is on Pink Floyd Cloud 9)
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