Pink Floyd Down Under

Last night I took Danielle to see the Australian Pink Floyd show at the Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel/Casino a few blocks off the Strip! GREAT SHOW!!!

If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you know that I am a huge fan of Pink Floyd. I have never seen a Floyd tribute band before and I was just a little apprehensive about the experience. However, the tickets weren't unreasonable and I've heard nothing but good things about these Aussies, so I decided to check them out. In fact, I asked for and received a paid-vacation day yesterday just to see them!

I'm really glad I did. Man, what a terrific show!! On their current tour, they are playing The Wall in its entirety, along with a few encore songs including 'Learning to Fly', "Great Gig in the Sky', 'Wish You Were Here', 'One of These Days', and 'Brain Damage/Eclipse'.

I was so impressed with The Wall recreation! The only thing that would have been a topper is if they'd actually built a wall around the stage during the performance like the old days when Floyd toured the album. It appeared that most, if not all, of the light show and graphics were created from scratch. But almost all of it was extremely close to Gerald Scarfe's movie animations. So close in fact that I can't say for sure if they did actually "borrow" some stuff or if they just did a kick-ass job of creating extremely authentic looking stuff. The one nice touch throughout the show was incorporating the Australian theme into the animations. The Wall hammerhead animations were replaced with those kangaroos that you see up in the picture.

The music was as close to the real thing as anyone could possibly expect. These guys obviously don't capture the real Floyd, but I can't imagine anyone coming any closer. The absolute single biggest highlight of the night was their rendition of Comfortably Numb. The solo was just ridiculously close to the real thing and it was the only time during the entire concert when the crowd as a whole rose for a standing ovation!!

Their Wall included everything from both the studio album as well as the stuff that was in the movie, but not the album. There were some creative points that deviated slightly from the album/movie, but those instances actually enhanced the performance! I also enjoyed the minor theatrical measures they took which included their "Pink" sitting in a lone chair with a lamp and television playing the EXACT same old movie footage that was found in the movie!

The Australian Pink Floyd Show is simply the mother of all tribute bands! They don't just cover Pink Floyd, they pay an honest tribute to them! For the money that I paid, I'd say it may have been the best bang for the buck that I've ever gotten out of a concert! If you have a chance to see them wherever you live, try to check them out!

Aside from the concert, Danielle and I also headed down to Buffalo Wild Wings earlier in the day to watch the Steelers kick ass in New England. For the locals reading this, Buffalo Wild Wings (still BW3 in my book) has completely won me over as my preference for local sports bars. PT's used to do it for me, but BW3 is now the place to go, if not for the sole reason that they actually have the balls to enforce the restaurant smoking ban in Vegas. Since I have to deal with smoke in the casino on a dialy basis, I've decided that I will simply NOT put up with it on my days off! Good job BW3!! You've earned my business.

So I spent the day with Danielle watching the Steelers roll and a great Aussie Floyd show......all while getting a paid work-day! Can't really beat that.