Pink Floyd tribute band nails it (goosebumps and all)

Now…I’m a pretty big Pink Floyd fan. I was a teenager when Dark Side of the Moon came out; then, after that introduction, I got into their previous album Meddle, a little more psychedelic and experimental.

Aaah, the age of experimentation and some great tunes to enjoy the music to the experience…or is it the other way around? Anyhow, tripping or not, Pink Floyd produced some pretty timeless albums, the kind of albums that you would play from start to finish and feel like you’ve just been on some fantastic journey.

Did I mention that I’m a pretty big fan of the band? In September of 1986, Pink Floyd started their tour in Toronto, but they were bypassing Winnipeg. My sister had recently moved to Toronto so I figured I’d plan a visit the same week Pink Floyd were playing.

It was a pretty incredible show which I remember vividly to this day. In fact, it was so good that when they added another Toronto date to the tour in the spring of the next year, a friend and I drove out there for that show as well.

In 2010, Roger Waters brought The Wall tour to Ottawa and then Montreal for two nights. I drove to all three shows. Then saw it again in Toronto in 2012. The point of all this? I’m still a fan of that great music which still brings me goosebumps and chills down my spine, along with some great memories of this timeless music.

Last night, I saw an awesome Pink Floyd tribute band from Victoria, BC at the Pyramid Cabaret. They’ve been covering that iconic band for 10 years.

While there have been a few line up changes over the years, this incarnation of PIGS has been together for two years having replaced ‘Roger Waters’ then.

The show started with the first tracks off of The Wall: “In the Flesh”, “The Thin Ice”, “Another Brick in the Wall” and “Mother”. Yikes…these guys are awesome! Every time I’ve heard “Mother” live (and many times listening to the studio version), I’ve gotten goosebumps and chills and tears… well it happened with these guys as well… all three sensations.

Then a very pleasant surprise: “There’s No Way Out of Here” from David Gilmour’s 1978 solo outing. Wow, I haven’t heard that one in a while. Going to have to revisit that album again.

They ended the first set with “Pigs”. These guys nailed everything so far to a tee. The light show and visuals were pretty cool as well. Some guy named Photon worked his magic with his lasers, lights and visuals on the screen (unfortunately their 15 foot circular screen didn’t fit into the venue…but very cool nonetheless).

The second set opened up with “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, that wonderful tribute to original Floyd founder Syd Barrett…14 minutes of absolute brilliance.

Dark Side of the Moon’s “Time” was next. Oh yeaaaaah…many memories came rolling back for this one. Another DSOTM track they covered was “Money”. I’m so glad they stuck to the original version of “Money” without the “Woo oo’s” that Pink Floyd started doing in the ’90’s.

Two tracks from the last album that Roger Waters played on before going solo (The Final Cut) were included in this set, “Gunner’s Dream” and the title track. Lot’s of heavy emotion in these songs.

“Set the Controls to the Heart of the Sun”, with it’s rolling drums and eerie vocals, sent a few more chills down my spine. This was the oldest track (1968) covered this evening.

From 1968 we jumped to this year with the band covering a song from Roger Waters’ latest release “Deja Vu”.

“Coming Back to Life” from 1994’s Division Bell was next.

After “Money”, they said they had one more song. “What the heck,” I thought, “they’ve only played for about 50 minutes in this set.” But wait a minute the first notes indicated it was going to be “Echoes”…that’s a 23 minute song. Right on, the show’s not over yet.

After that epic track they did their encore of “Final Cut” and “Comfortably Numb”. It was quite obvious that these folks were huge fans of Pink Floyd as they faithfully covered these masterpieces.

Don’t you just hate hearing how great a concert was that you missed? Well guess what, if you missed this incredible show, PIGS have another show tonight (Wed. Oct. 4) at the Pyramid Cabaret.

They said that for the first set they are going to play the Animals album in its entirety. I overheard many people say they enjoyed the show so much they’re going to go again. I’ll be there as well. Did I mention how much I love Pink Floyd…?