Pink Floyd Live in Vancouver 1994

I saw pink floyd live in Vancouver, BC in the Spring of 1994, as I recall (may have been different year). The band consisted of David, Nick, and Richard, plus an entourage of other performers. After an agonizing wait for the show to start, the lights were dimmed and the sound of a trickling stream faded into the atmosphere. The crowd went absolutely nuts. Rising behind the trickling sound were the echoing robotic voices heard at the beginning of Astronomy Domine. By the time we realized what was happening, Pink Floyd just started slamming it out:

Lime and limpid green, a second scene
A fight between the blue you once knew.
Floating down, the sound resounds
Around the icy waters underground.

The rhythm and beats were so loud, heavy and devastatingly mind-blowing that we thought we might explode. It was so powerful. As that song came to its close, we were completely blown away. That was worth the price of admission to get a sense of what it must have been like way, way back in the days. Even without Roger Waters there, pink floyd put on a great show. The first song was by far the highlight of the event, at least for us, but everything else was incredible as well.

One thing that was kind of a drag is that they played too much from their at-the-time new album, The Division Bell, which has some good stuff, but doesn’t rock the house as hard of just about anything else Floyd had done up until that point. So they played too much of that stuff, and when they did those songs, I couldn’t help but think how it was all about David Gilmour, as the lone frontman with the spotlight, guitar, and lead vocals. It was almost like watching a David Gilmour show, with some of the other band members sort of making a guest appearance.
Then they also did too much of the typical “radio” favorites, including Wish You Were Here, Run Like Hell, and all the rest. Aside from Astronomy Domine, they really didn’t go any further back than a few songs from Dark Side of the Moon. So you’ve got David up there with the entire stage to himself (visually speaking), playing these new songs that nobody really knew, and then staying pretty mainstream for the other songs.
I remember the props, projection and pyrotechnics were incredible, making the show feel like an incredible event. I remember thinking that the use of the giant pig balloon strategically swung out during Roger’s (substituted) parts of the Wall was a bit obvious and pathetic, but the projected images were trippy and the fireworks lit everything up real nice.
In an upcoming post, I’ll compare and contrast the ‘94 Floyd concert with a 2001 Roger Waters show.