An awesome evening was had by the Bogie household last night! We went to the Australian Pink Floyd Concert at the Verizon Wireless Arena, in downtown Manchester.
After we walked in and had our tickets scanned (those tickets sent thru email rock!), we were immediatly accosted by people giving away free CD's - Promo discs of the band. Never had that happen before. Naturally we took a CD then found our seats, which were about stage level.
One thing I have to make clear, is the Verizon Wireless Arena is not a big stadium, as far as those that live in big cities are concerned; it holds about 10,000 people. About 1/3 to 1/2 of this was cut off, and the stage was set somewhere near center court. They had a huge black sheet at the dividing point, reaching from side wall to side wall, so that the crowd didn't have to look at all the seats in the background (and it made a good background for the lights to be shown from). There was also a screen set up behind the playing area for the videos that they would be showing during the music.
Watching the crowd was interesting. There were teeny-boppers there, but they were far outnumbered by "gray hairs". Some of the people brought their pre-teen children with them. Several people had original Pink Floyd concert T-shirts on, and from their comments, the stage was set up pretty much as the original band had done (except I'm sure they played much larger venues).
The lights went out, and the band started right in with songs from Dark Side of the Moon. They had an electrifying light show and the music was very well done. There were 6 band members and three gals supplying back up vocals. Most of the singing was great (the lead singer did have a hard time hitting a few notes, but with the lights, videos and music, it wasn't really distracting). The sound was very deep, with the bass at the point that we could feel it, and it wasn't distorted. Whoever their sound person was did a fantastic job keeping the sound forcefull but crisp. Even as loud as the music was, there was no problem hearing the vocals. The first half of the show was the all of the music from Dark Side of the Moon.
One song, I believe it was Any Color You Like (I could be wrong, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I suck at remembering song titles), has a woman's vocals (not singing, vocals) and the blond gal that did that part really belted it out. It was sensational to say the least!
We broke for a 20-30 minute intermission and it was back to our seats for the second part of the show. On a side note, many people came in during the intemission. I don't know if they thought there was a warm up band or what, but it was their loss that they came in so late.
The second half of the show was comprised of songs off of The Wall album (yes, I call it an album because that was the original format that it was released in). Although there were less songs that I knew during this part (they did several of the instrumental titles, which weren't really big on this side of the ocean), they once again did a fantastic job with the lights, videos and sound.
At the end, the crowd coaxed them back for 2 encores which came from different albums (no, I won't even pretend to remember the song or album names and I'm not going to search our collection for those names). Everyone in the arena sang along with those two songs - even the teenyboppers (who, I was impressed watching them through the concert, knew the words to all the songs).
If anyone gets the chance to see this band, do so! WS and I agreed that it was well worth the the ticket price to see and listen to the band for almost 2 1/2 hours.
Glad you and WS had such a wonderful evening. Gee, even I remember Pink Floyd and The Wall--not that I remember the music, just the album cover. (BTW: What does it mean in current musical jargon when they talk about someone having done a "cover"?) Seems to me that you got that album when you were in Jr or Sr High?? HH and I may even have bought it for you, but I wouldn't make book on that.
Posted by: Cop Car | October 31, 2004 at 07:51 PM
...doing a *cover* means that they aren't doing an original song - they are *covering* someone else's song...over here the charts of full of winners/losers from a programme called pop idol or manufactured groups who just sing songs that were hits in the 70/80/90's :^)...
Posted by: billy | October 31, 2004 at 11:59 PM
Billy is absolutely right - the band we went to see is a "cover band" (although they are also a "tribute band" since they only cover Pink Floyd songs).
Yes Cop Car, you bought me that album when I was in Sr. High (Birthday or Christmas present).
Posted by: bogie | November 01, 2004 at 04:25 AM
...billy also has a friend who plays in a pink floyd tribute band :^)...oddly enough he plays the sax, which I don't remember any of the original members playing :^)...
...they actually dd a world tour that took them through america and canada and skegness - they passed through skegness three days before we moved there :^(...
Posted by: billy | November 01, 2004 at 01:45 PM