I went to see a show yesterday called The Pink Floyd Experience. This is a New Zealand mob of 9 musicians and singers who play the music of Pink Floyd in a three hour concert. They actually try to do more than play the music, they also try to recreate some of the imagery and theatrics associated with PF in their concerts and films esp. ‘The Wall’.
I love the music of PF. But why did I not enjoy anything else about the concert? to me it seemed that here was something going on under false pretences. They were playing the music and had appropriated the imagery of the great PF but it was obvious that they were NOT PF. The music was recreated almost note-perfect but again the discordant note was that they were not PF! If they had been playing covers of PF music- their versions- then I may not have felt this dissonance; this would have been another band interpreting the music and playing it in their distinctive way. As it happened it sort of felt like someone peddling me plastic imitations of my favourite flowers.
Don’t get me wrong. I loved the music. These were very competent musicians, technically. They also tried to stretch the show by incorporating the ‘experience’ being skits of people on the verge of insanity and also the whole fascist imagery from ‘The Wall’, marching hammers and all. But they never once mentioned or paid homage to the band they were making their living off! Not even to mention Syd Barrett who died recently. It was almost as if they were embarrassed to draw attention to the fact that they were not the real thing.
I guess these are weaknesses for all ‘replica’ shows. There is a replica band for Abba, who were wildly popular in Australia and of course there are lots of Elvis impersonators, so this may be a trend. For me though, it is clear that I will be watching videos of the real band (on a large screen and the music turned up) rather than going to another of these shows.
No comments:
Post a Comment