Just a few days after the sun and the moon collaborated to bring parts of the US its first total solar eclipse in 99-years, the moon was back to take an encore Aug. 24 at Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. That’s where Pink Floyd tribute group The Australian Pink Floyd Show presented their Best Side of the Moon show, an homage to the best-selling Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon, one of the most iconic albums of the last 45-years. The entire first half of the show was dedicated to the album as Aussie Pink Floyd, as they’re familiarly known, played Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety.
The middle section of Dark Side of the Moon features the cuts that really tend to rev the audience up; “Time,” that comes complete with ticking clock sounds, “The Great Gig in the Sky” which is highlighted by soaring wordless vocals sung by background singers Lorelei McBroom, Emily Lynn and Lara Smiles, and the rowdy “Money” on which band sax player Mike Kidson romped the stage while playing the song’s raunchy solo on a pink saxophone.
The understated “Us and Them” brought a mellow moment to the performance while during “Brain Damage” the mood turned to manic as images of President Trump and other world luminaries were projected onto the screen at the rear of the stage, all of whom were caught on film in bizarre and humorous situations. The playing of the last track from Dark Side of the Moon, fittingly enough “Eclipse,” brought the first half of the show to a close.
The large band, featuring guitarists Steve Mac and David Domminney Fowler along with keys player Jason Sawford, are not big on stage patter; not a word was spoken to the crowd until after the Dark Side of the Moon performance ended and Sawford said, “Thanks, were going to play on through now” and the band played a selection of tunes from throughout Pink Floyd’s career, including a back-to-back performance of “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” and “Wish You Were Here,” both of which were written about the late Syd Barrett, the influential Pink Floyd guitarist who blew his mind out in the late ’60s by taking too much LSD.
Cuts from The Wall and Animals highlighted the last portion of the show, and while the band got standing ovations throughout the performance, everyone was on their feet at singer Chris Barnes’ urging for noisy set closer “Run Like Hell.” After a brief moment, the band came back to take their bows and encore with favorite “Comfortably Numb.”