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I thought the The Dark Side of the Moon performance was a bit uninspired but, nonetheless, very, very solid. It was unexpected and fun watching Jamie -- who I think stands about 6 ft 6 in -- fit in flawlessly. There was a seriously drunk guy at his feet who spent almost the whole show facing the audience playing air guitar and "conducting" the band. Because of the height of the stage, drunk guy did not block anyone's view and was mildly entertaining. During Dark Side, I was quite surprised to hear Ian singing Gilmour parts -- and excellently as well! I learned that Ian and our own Paul Samarin are very similar in their ability to sing both parts with uncanny accuracy
The second set was really where it all happened. As anyone who has read what I've said about the Aussies over the years knows, my biggest problems with them has been the lack of a Roger presence resulting in a bit of a "Pink Floyd Lite" or TBD tour sound and a tendency for them to play it safe by playing "hits" (disclaimer, Which One's Pink? does the same thing). Well, all I can say is, problem solved! First off, Ian is a scary Roger! And when they trotted out Gunner's Dream, this was the absolute highlight of the set for me. Here's a song that we have not even considered for our setlist -- it took balls to play this and I think they were rewarded with a strong audience reaction.
After seeing Roger's "truncated" version of Shine On (cutting the entire Part 2 solo, shame on you), it was refreshing to see Jamie not just play it but nail it. Learning to Fly was solid and then Set the Controls was freaking huge -- and this time Jamie let it fly, powerful with pristine tone. Pigs was great although Ian was having a huge issue with his bass going out -- looked like they swapped a bad cord out. And Damian's talk box was excellent -- Peter Framptonesque (who is playing at our Canyon Club next week, by the way). Gunner's Dream -- Gunner's Dream -- Gunner's Dream! Then it was odd to follow that up with what I consider to be one of the weakest Dave Floyd songs -- Take It Back. However, as I say below in the photo, they pulled out the stops on the lasers and made that song surprisingly entertaining (although I'm still not sure it belongs after such an intense Roger song like Gunner's Dream -- on the other hand, last week we played Learning to Fly and then Southhampton Dock/TFC so who am I to criticize?)
WYWH was excellent -- massive crowd reaction and great to hear it played without the slide on the acoustic (ala Dave Kliminster). I forgot to ask Damian about the "acoustic patch" he uses on that song -- someone remind me about that later. Brick II was brilliant as expected -- although I have to say I'm not a fan of the extended jam at the end (the Aussie's and Roger both did it this time around) -- but that may be because I want to get up there and shout with my atriocious Scottish accent (but alas, no invite was forthcoming). Numb was huge - Damian was smoking on this one -- with his own stamp coming at the end -- hugely successful.
The encore, What do You Want from Me is pefect (and of course has now injected this track into our band's discussion of songs to start including!). And RLH -- with the laser show from Hell -- is the perfect ending!
I will say that Jason needs to be a little clearer in introducing the band -- I could not understand a word he said!
A word on the crowd -- this time it was more typical LA -- late arriving and, at first, low energy. The band did win them over but not to the level they did at the Wilshire Theater. Which is an injustice since I thought they were superior this time around. I would estimate the crowd at 5000 out of 5700 (alhthough only 1500 of them were in their seats at 7:30 the ostensible start time! The show did not start til around  . Also bizaare is that people were much less receptive to our flyers at this show than they were at Roger's show just 3 weeks ago. I don't know why this would be the case -- you would think that someone going to a tribute show would we more receptive not less! But, of course, there were tons of W1P fans around and we got our "C list" celebrity treatment -- which is always nice. On the other hand, the Aussies themselves gave us top notch A List treatment and for that we are grateful. They really went out of their way to treat us well -- very cool guys and I hope someday we can reciprocate!
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