Australian Pink Floyd

Australian Pink Floyd
Date: 09/24/09
Place: Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles CA
Review By ~Aniruddh Andrew Bansal

When I came to know that there are no support bands for this one, I knew that Australian Pink Floyd be playing a pretty long set. They sure did!!

The show kicked off at 8 o clock with the animation video on a Pink Floyd-style giant circular screen, of a kangaroo putting the Dark Side Of The Moon record on a record player. That was to show that they'll be playing songs from that album. They played the first few songs off of the record including Speak To Me, Breathe, On The Run and Time. I loved the idea of the kangaroo videos. They brought on a huge cheer from the crowd no matter what record was placed in the player!

The next album to be played was Wish You Were Here. The songs played were the amazing Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Welcome To The Machine. The visuals displayed during the latter were almost spellbinding. I felt as if I was getting lost in them. The next album was Animals. They played Pigs (Three Different Ones) and Sheep from this one. The visuals were again brilliantly arranged. They ended set 1 with this and announced that they'll be back after a 20 minute break.

The 2nd set started with a video of the kangaroo putting in a mixed tape. So this set was going to be a mix of great Floyd songs from various albums. They started with songs like Astronomy Domine and Take It Back. The near-capacity crowd at the Nokia theatre was lively. They were giving the band an awesome response. Another song with amazing visuals, Set The Controls For The Heart of the Sun, followed. Two more relatively short songs Learning to Fly and Fletcher Memorial Home came next.

It was time for the best and most exciting part of the show. Happiest Days of our Lives followed by Another Brick In The Wall!! One of the greatest songs of all time, being played with stunning Floyd-esque brilliance by this amazing band all the way from Australia. The set only got better from here with songs like Wish You Were Here, Hey You and Is There Anybody Out There. The songs Nobody Home and Vera were recreated beautifully and were very, very close to the original renditions. They closed the main set with the most breathtaking Floyd tune, Comfortably Numb. The crowd demanded an encore and they got it with the song Run Like Hell. With that they thanked the crowd and said goodbye! What a show this was! I have obviously never seen the original Pink Floyd. This wasn't just the 'next best thing', it was way better than the next best. It was equal to the original in terms of the performance and the stage production, including every detail big and small. The lights, the visuals on screen, the screen itself, the huge inflated pig, the instruments and backing vocalists used and of course the song selection.

Some people say that this band is able to sell out huge theatres like this one mostly because the original band doesn't really exist anymore. I would strongly disagree. There are a hundred tributes out there for every great band. To be able to succeed so massively, you have to be really good at what you do. You have to match the original band as closely as its humanly possible. And Australian Pink Floyd definitely do that! No wonder the 7000-seater Nokia theatre was packed to near capacity! A show that I will remember for a long time!

Here are the complete set lists in order:

Set 1:
Speak To Me
Breathe
On The Run
Time
Breathe Reprise
The Great Gig In The Sky
Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1-5
Welcome To The Machine
Pigs (3 Different Ones)
Sheep

Set 2:
Astronomy Domine
Take It Back
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Learning to Fly
The Fletcher Memorial Home
The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
Another Brick In The Wall Part 2
Wish You Were Here
One Of These Days
Hey You
Is There Anybody Out There?
Nobody Home
Vera
Bring The Boys Back Home
Comfortably Numb

Encore:
Run Like Hell