David Gilmour concert last night
2006-04-13 by dscr22
Of course, Pink Floyd didn't use any Mellotron, but I thought there might be a little crossover interest here. There were two sets, the first being entirely from his new solo album (played almost the whole thing). The second was Floyd material. The quality of the music was excellent and Gilmour's playing and singing were as good as they've ever been. An additional bonus was the presence of Richard Wright, who played a prominent role singing as well as on keys. A reasonably small band with no female backup vocalists which they usually have. Besides the usual hits that you often still hear on the radio, a couple deeper cuts were particular highlights: "Wots Uh The Deal" from Obscured By Clouds, and "Fat Old Sun" from Atom Heart Mother. Also, Shine On You Crazy Diamond was played in a new, stripped down version that was quite interesting. That song in all its glory is magnificent, but has been done on all of the 4-5 Gilmour or Waters tours of the last ~20 years, and always tended to sound like the CD played over a 50,000 Watt stereo. However, the main highlight of the evening, forever memorable to anyone there no matter what concerts you've seen in the past, was a full 20+ minute rendition of "Echoes" from the Meddle album. I'd be interested in knowing when that was last performed - you might have to go back pre-1975. It left the crowd absolutely out of their minds. Finally, one interesting thing was that the stage show was VERY subdued for the bulk of the evening. Just the standard lights you'd expect at any concert, a notch above the standard stage lighting at House of Blues. No video effects or props at all. It could be construed that the music from DSOTM, Wish You Were Here, etc. loses a bit of its impact from what I've come to expect in the '87 Floyd tour and Waters' solo shows in '99-'00 (with a video backdrop, various stage props and gimmicks, and lots-o-lighting effects). However, just during Echoes they unleashed an unbelievable barrage of visual effects. Strobing lights and lasers and whatnot. Someone in there must've had a seizure. All in all, for a big fan, it was a privelege to see that material played live again. Not so many such opportunities as these guys tour about once a decade and are now 60 years old after all. Also felt lucky to live in one of the only 6-7 big cities they're including on this small North American tour.