Australian Pink Floyd does 'The Wall' justice
By Jesse Claeys | Posted: Monday, November 17, 2008
The Australian Pink Floyd performs Sunday night at the Orpheum Theatre. (Staff photo by Jim Lee)
If a group of musicians is going to make a living performing songs made famous by another band, it had better have outstanding music makers.
Good thing for the Australian Pink Floyd its nine members possess skills strong enough to fill theaters around the world.
Twenty years after forming, APF took on its self-proclaimed most ambitious feat to date -- recreating Pink Floyd's "The Wall" in it's entirety -- at a Sunday night concert at the Orpheum Theatre. The show was part of the group's 41-city tour of the United States, an annual fall American trek.
While past tours have attracted Floyd fans with APF's cover of "The Dark Side of the Moon," the 30th anniversary of the release of "The Wall" prompted these Aussies to give the classic concept album devoted to the theme of isolation a nod.
Justice is what APF did to the album.
For those who wonder how a cover band can attract enough fans to support worldwide tours, just imagine a band playing the songs of Pink Floyd with such note-for-note accuracy and with the ability to replicate the sound of the original band so closely that a CD and a concert become audibly interchangeable.
Throw in a stage show packed with elaborate lighting, props straight from Pink Floyd's concert stash, and animated film shorts straight from the 1982 movie version of "The Wall," and you've just created the world's ultimate cover, or "tribute" as the Aussies like to say, band in the world.
These musicians are so dedicated to recreating the album that the show's intermission was held at the same time a Floyd fan would have had to remove the first LP from his or her record player and switch to the second one.
With such precision it's easy to see why APF has developed a bit of a cult following here and abroad. Jason Sawford uses the keyboard to recreate Pink Floyd's layers of sound so solidly that he's easy to overlook. Paul Bonney worked a massive drum kit with ease and vocalist Ian Cattell did a spot-on job crooning Roger Walters-style (he even sort of looks like him). While Cattell made the most of his minutes in the spotlight, it may have been guitarist Damian Darlington's perfect David Gilmour that stole the show, especially after a rousing guitar solo on "Comfortably Numb" that brought a rather tepid crowd to its feet.
The set-list contained no surprises and it wasn't a surprise that the album's singles -- "Hey You," all the parts of "Another Brick in the Wall," "Mother," "Young Lust" and "Is There Anybody Out There?" -- drew the most applause.
While covering an entire album may seem a bit strange at first, it is ultimately the decision that makes APF more than just a cover band. It allows for an evening of paying homage, not a night of musicians playing thief to earn enough money to pay the bills.
Good thing for the Australian Pink Floyd its nine members possess skills strong enough to fill theaters around the world.
Twenty years after forming, APF took on its self-proclaimed most ambitious feat to date -- recreating Pink Floyd's "The Wall" in it's entirety -- at a Sunday night concert at the Orpheum Theatre. The show was part of the group's 41-city tour of the United States, an annual fall American trek.
While past tours have attracted Floyd fans with APF's cover of "The Dark Side of the Moon," the 30th anniversary of the release of "The Wall" prompted these Aussies to give the classic concept album devoted to the theme of isolation a nod.
Justice is what APF did to the album.
For those who wonder how a cover band can attract enough fans to support worldwide tours, just imagine a band playing the songs of Pink Floyd with such note-for-note accuracy and with the ability to replicate the sound of the original band so closely that a CD and a concert become audibly interchangeable.
Throw in a stage show packed with elaborate lighting, props straight from Pink Floyd's concert stash, and animated film shorts straight from the 1982 movie version of "The Wall," and you've just created the world's ultimate cover, or "tribute" as the Aussies like to say, band in the world.
These musicians are so dedicated to recreating the album that the show's intermission was held at the same time a Floyd fan would have had to remove the first LP from his or her record player and switch to the second one.
With such precision it's easy to see why APF has developed a bit of a cult following here and abroad. Jason Sawford uses the keyboard to recreate Pink Floyd's layers of sound so solidly that he's easy to overlook. Paul Bonney worked a massive drum kit with ease and vocalist Ian Cattell did a spot-on job crooning Roger Walters-style (he even sort of looks like him). While Cattell made the most of his minutes in the spotlight, it may have been guitarist Damian Darlington's perfect David Gilmour that stole the show, especially after a rousing guitar solo on "Comfortably Numb" that brought a rather tepid crowd to its feet.
The set-list contained no surprises and it wasn't a surprise that the album's singles -- "Hey You," all the parts of "Another Brick in the Wall," "Mother," "Young Lust" and "Is There Anybody Out There?" -- drew the most applause.
While covering an entire album may seem a bit strange at first, it is ultimately the decision that makes APF more than just a cover band. It allows for an evening of paying homage, not a night of musicians playing thief to earn enough money to pay the bills.
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Nick Cassidy wrote on Jan 3, 2009 4:34 AM:
aussie floyd fan wrote on Nov 23, 2008 1:59 PM:
If you want to experience the closest thing to the real deal, go see this show, a must for any floyd fan. "
lefty wrote on Nov 17, 2008 5:17 PM:
cp wrote on Nov 17, 2008 2:23 PM:
Thrash wrote on Nov 17, 2008 1:41 PM: