Last night saw a twofer of some artists from back in the day who can still bring it. Jeff Beck was at the Hammerstein Ballroom (backed by Vinnie Colaiuta on drums) and, although both our seats and the house sound were less than desirable, we saw enough to know that he's playing as well as ever -- better, even. How he gets such a liquid sound out of what looks like a stock stratocaster is a mystery. How his solos come at you in such unexpected ways, how he works in and around his rhythm section, how he can string impossible riffs together with ease is less a mystery -- he's been doing that for 30+ years.
After an hour we headed over to the Garden to see Roger Waters' Dark Side of the Moon show. Hard not to compare it to David Gilmour's recent Radio City show, where he also played (parts of) Dark Side. Gilmour's was the more sedate performance, but also the more authentic: listening to the guy who sang and played the classic guitar solos (not to mention seeing the accompanying laser show) made it seem like we were really at a Floyd show. Waters' performance was more incendiary, the audience more passionate, so the show was ultimately more powerful. But without Gilmour it was a little like seeing a tribute band (fortunately, the best Pink Floyd tribute band ever)!
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2 comments:
As Monty Burns would say, "Ehhhxcellant!" You got to do the compare and contrast with the Floyd-less Floyds. Did Roger sing all the songs? Hard to imagine his voice on -(fill in the name of your favorite Gilmour sung song here)
Roger sang the encores (a medly from The Wall). He left it to various members of his 12-piece backing band to handle the Dark Side vocals.
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