|
Date: Sat 11 May, 2002 at 00:00
Headline: Floydian Reprise
------------------------------
|
Greetings and Salutations!
Wow...well, what can I say? Sometimes hard work and perseverence
do actually pay off.
Last night was the biggest and most public version of the FloydShow to date. The people turned out in
droves, and were just as pumped to hear the tunes as we were to play them.
The show went quite a bit later than we were supposed to (I think we finished up
sometime around 1:45 am) but nobody seemed to mind. :-)
Being able to connect with an audience over shared love of music is a
pretty amazing thing. Getting such enthusiastic and heartfelt response to
one's own songs is the ultimate, but in a situation like this, where the band and
crowd are bonded by mutual love of the artist being covered, it's a whole
different kind of magic. There were times it seemed as if the crowd was
responsible for playing the songs as much as we were...that it was all just
seeping in from somewhere else and we were enjoying it together as a group
of friends.
It also opened me up, in some cases, to feel this music as I
never have before, or at least not for a long time. Working on a project like this, you can get a little
jaded to the feelings you once had when first experiencing the music as a
listener. The joy of discovery, excitement, catharsis, tends to get washed
away in a tide of mechanical details. But last night, the memories and
emotions opened back up on songs like 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond', 'Us And
Them', 'In The Flesh'...and especially 'The Gunner's Dream', which was
probably the most moving moment of the evening for me personally. Powerful
stuff. Not to get too mushy about it...because the night was also a raucous party, with folks
on the dance floor almost constantly during the last set and the band joining
them on the jam sections of some songs. A grand time was had by all,
and we were pummeled with requests afterwards. Just keep 'em coming, I
say...you never know when your favorite tune will pop up during a show.
Massive props to the band (including new addition Matt Meldrum on guitar & vocals) for giving their all, Carl Roehmann & Bub
Farrell for their special guest
appearances, Dan the Light Man for the visual viagra, Sarah Forsey for a dose of the same ;) as well as gamley tackling some backing vocals at the
last minute, Ray Opheikens and Bret
Warnick for filling in on documentary duties when Fozz took ill; and my partner
in crime, the mad genius Tim Hollinger, for his Bob Geldoff impersonation
which brought the house down. I was disappointed that we weren't able to implement the video screen for this show and that the pig we made was just too heavy to fly...but hey, there's always next time.
Oh, and did I mention that my left hand was in excruciating pain from tendonitis not 15 minutes before we hit the stage? It's amazing what a little Motrin, a lot of adrenalin, and a GREAT CROWD can do for you.:-) Thanks, everyone, for being there. We hope you
had as much fun as we did.
Pics, audio & video will be posted as
soon as they are available.
Shine On!
your humble correspondent
Thom Bowers
|
