Live music review: Brit Floyd exceeded expectations at ACL Live last week
Tribute bands are a strange phenomena. Of course we love Pink Floyd. Their pioneering psych-rock musical style pairs well with our own home-bred original Cosmic Cowboy, Roxy Erickson. But a group of talented musicians recreating Floyd’s Division Bell tour like Brit Floyd? Despite the success of the group which tours worldwide, we had our doubts about how the show would play out. In retrospect, our hesitation was unwarranted. The show was a smashing success. The music, lights and visuals were spectacular. As were the musicians who performed. If you have the chance to catch this production when it rolls through your town, you should. It’s worth the ticket price.
On entering ACL Live at the Moody Theater last Wednesday we noticed the fan-shaped screen behind the stage with a circular smaller screen, ringed with stage lights inside it. Taking in that elaborate setup meant at least the visual aspect of the performance would rival current Roger Waters or David Gilmour tours albeit on a smaller scale. After all, Waters played the enormous AT&T Center in San Antonio last year which has roughly ten times the capacity of ACL Live. But the musicians were equally impressive. Musical Director (vocalist/guitarist), Damian Darlington has been performing the music of Pink Floyd since the mid-90s when he was a member of an Australian Floyd act. After literally thousands of shows, he’s got more than just the chops to reproduce Floyd’s sound, he’s an expert at making the music both Floyd’s and inserting a bit of the group’s own influence on the music.
To wit, the group performed “Mother” from seminal album, “The Wall” and had backup vocalist, Jacquie Williams share vocal duties singing the parts most appropriate for a woman. The effect actually strengthened the tune’s emotional impact with Williams voicing the “mother” lyrics during the performance. When the band was introduced by Darlington later in the show, the singer rightfully got a huge response from the audience.
The above is from a soundcheck in Houston just prior to the group’s Austin event. If you watched the clip, you noticed how true to the original sound the group gets and this is just Brit Floyd rehearsing for the actual performance. The clip was posted by YouTube user Nigel Brooks.
Other highlights included a flying pig being released during the second set. The inflated, gigantic pig featured color-changing LED eyes. The stage prop floated on the left side of the stage for bulk of the remaining songs. A disco ball also dropped from the ceiling as the group neared the end of the show to cheers from audience.
The complete set list with links to original songs from Setlist.fm is below. Note: track listing is from prior night in Houston. All sets during Brit Floyd’s current tour have been identical.
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