I came in here to see what people thought of last night’s opener in Portsmouth but no-one has commented yet. I guess someone may post later but it would be criminal if this thoroughly enjoyable and, I gather, somewhat historic event, were to go undocumented so I thought I would register and post a few thoughts though be warned, I’m not much cop at reviews.
I went along with my 12-year old son despite the fact that neither of us was really well enough to attend but we are both very glad we made the effort.
Before I start, I’m no great fan of tribute bands but I had seen ‘the other band’ at this venue a number of times before after an acquaintance of mine (who had some connection with them) advised me that they were no ‘normal’ tribute band. When I received an email from the venue advising me that TBPFS were going to play, I was a little confused but, after some research, decided that they would be worth checking out. I think others may have shared the same confusion as I did as the attendance was disappointing last night which, IIRC, has never been an issue when I’d been for ‘the other band’. I suspect there are others like me who don’t ‘do’ tribute bands except those that offer something truly exceptional and the name may have put some off. If you are reading this and recognise yourself in that description let me assure you that TBPFS most definitely DO offer something exceptional.
That’s not to say there weren’t some downsides to the gig and it may be churlish to concentrate on those given that this was the opening night of the main tour. However, there are couple of things that bothered me; the disembodiment of certain tracks that just don’t sound right out of context and so end with awkward fades, the unforgivable delay and resultant lack of continuity between Time and GGITS.
As I said, I’m no fan of tribute bands per se and I especially dislike copy-cat bands who strive to do an impression rather than simply playing homage the music and I’m pleased to say TBPFS steer well away (if I had an issue with the ‘other band’ it was, IMHO, the overt attempt at a Gilmour impression). Having said that, music as great as this deserves to be played properly and there were one or two moments where I think it missed the mark and the subtlety and feel of the playing was significantly amiss. It would be unfair to point them out, especially at this early stage of the tour and, in any case, they did not detract from the enjoyment of hearing the music played live. I must emphasise that these moments were very much the exception and the quality and faithfulness of all the performances was generally astounding.
My main concern about the gig was not with the band or the music but with the audience or possibly with the tribute band experience as a whole. The crowd were fairly subdued until the end of the first act (Pigs) which seemed, if you’ll pardon the pun, to animate quite a few down the front. The interval beers loosened a few more and the second half was a much more interactive experience. However, there’s an aspect of this I’m not totally comfortable with. There were times in the second half where large portions of the audience seemed to think they were taking part in some sort of Pulse re-enactment insisting on cheering in the same old scripted places after individual performances that, whilst thoroughly professional and competent, were no more or less deserving of individual praise than other parts. This may seem pedantic but I came away thinking that for some, the band were somehow irrelevant to the whole process and that the crowd would have behaved the same irrespective of the quality of the performance which, I think is a little disingenuous and not a little disrespectful especially to those playing the less glamorous roles.
As I said, all this is a little churlish. I thought the whole evening was a wonderful experience on all levels.
The sound was exceptional with every instrument being very clear in the mix (with a possible and unfortunate exception of the sax in Us and Them) and not overly loud; I know from previous experiences at the venue that it is very easy to sacrifice clarity for volume there.
The visuals were, as always, excellent (BTW is there some issue with licensing here as some of the sound effects, notably the voice over at the beginning of GGITS, didn’t sound like the originals and I’d never noticed that before).
To my taste, the set list was almost perfect (with Pigs, One of these Days and a glorious full version of Echoes being particular favourites) culminating with a sublime rendition of Comfortably Numb which included some interesting role play (which I thought was less successful in the encore - assuming that was still an act!).
I’ll definitely be back and, more importantly, so will my son. He’s an accomplished musician and has been (accidentally I assure you) dogmatised into my taste for Floyd, Porcupine Tree and Rush but has little exposure to live music. I wanted to show him that you don’t have to be a mega star to give and get pleasure from live music and I think the boys and girls did the trick.
His view? “That was fantastic; Comfortably Numb is awesome isn’t it?” On this evidence, I have to agree with him.
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