Visions of Floyd

Rigor Mortis

This Floyd tribute group are playing the NCH in August.

Has anyone ever seen them live.

exaisle

Saw them last night in the NCH...

I'll focus on the good points first.... the lead singer/guitarist sounds a lot like David Gilmour when he sings AND when he plays. His solos were very like Gilmour's at live Floyd gigs....close to the originals but not necessarily note for note. They played ALL of Dark Side of the Moon. They did a stomping good job on many of the songs they played particularly "Mother", "Brain Damage", "Eclipse" and "High Hopes", "Time" was excellent, particularly on the part of the three backing vocalists and of course "Comfortably Numb" was a fitting finale.

Some constructive criticism....there was a lot of stage noise and hum between songs (use a click track and in-ear monitors and make sure your volumes are off at the end of each song). The lead guitarist wandered off timing several times but found his way back again. (Again, a click track helps!) The sax player should have stuck more closely to the original solos..he tended to get lost a bit as if he didn't really know the tunes and could do with investing in an alto sax for some parts...the same applies to the second guitarist...he should stick more closely to the originals. The keyboard player clashed with the bass player on several songs....maybe he should lay off the left hand a bit...although for the most part his contribution was excellent given that Floyd for the most part used two keyboard players. (I suppose I have to say that being a keys man myself).

Musically, the whole thing was fairly accurate, with the odd exception and as a musician I appreciate the enormous amount of work that goes into a show like this. My overall impression was that some of the musicians didn't listen closely enough to the original work to replicate it faithfully and some solos went a bit too far off track. You really have to be a bit of a nerd that way when it comes to tribute bands!

Given that we were in the NCH, the available lighting was used well, although I acknowledge the budgetary restraints. It was a pity that the reflective ball hanging from the ceiling was only used at the very end of Comfortably Numb...it could have come into play much earlier in the last solo.

Still....the band went down a storm with the crowd and everybody went home happy....me included. I'll look forward to their next gig...and would strongly recommend going to see them if they play at a venue near you!

exaisle

Well....as promised I went to see them again on Saturday in the Olympia.

Technical issues with the projectors aside (which didn't really interfere with things too much anyhow), I have to say that I was disappointed.

The rendition of Echoes sounded rusty and to my ears needed a few decent rehearsals. It's a long, complex piece and you need to be very tight to even attempt it. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case on Saturday.
The arpeggio used at the crescendo didn't sound right and needed the right guitar effect. This link might help though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z65jga7A-jM

However, Echoes aside, things improved significantly from there on with one particular exception. The lack of an alto saxophone (and somebody who knows the songs well enough to play them reasonably accurately) was particularly evident throughout Us and Them. Aside from the chorus and instrumental breaks there are only 4 major sax riffs in the song. 1 is after "ordinary men", 2 is after "to do", 3 is after "who is who" and 4 is after "fighting's all about". There's a mini one just after "With without" and NONE OF THEM ARE REPEATED. What you don't do is play the same two right the way through the song.
Us and Them is the simplest of songs. It has a 4 chord verse leading into a 4 chord chorus (in fairness, the chords are particularly tasty) but what you don't want to do is over-egg the pudding because it's a relatively (for Floyd) simple arrangement. Less is more so unless you're sure it's there on the original, DON'T PLAY ANYTHING!
Sorry for getting all geeky there but it would have been easier to do it right...and I'm hoping that the criticism is constructive!
Oh...and one other thing...if you're gigging and there's a technical hitch, just apologise for it and move on. And don't keep drawing the audience's attention to it. That's number 3 in the rules of gigging after 1: The show must go on and 2: if there's a fight/disturbance, turn up the volume and keep playing!