The Machine is a Pink Floyd tribute band I almost didn't see on Friday night. Blame it on a blown fuse and difficulties with finding electricians, but thankfully the show started -- even if almost two hours late. That said, the band promised no breaks and sampled mostly on the safe side of Floyd's immense catalogue. I was hoping they'd play whole albums like Animals and The Wall as they did at B.B. King's last month, but as someone there told me, drink a few beers, close your eyes and you won't know you're not listening to the real Pink Floyd. So that's what I did and I'm happy. My only problem was their choice to cater more to the average Floyd Fan by playing more of the well-known songs (i.e. from The Wall) and by feeling the need to sample from many of Floyd's albums (which meant mediocre or poor songs from The Division Bell and Momentary made the cut). I was fairly disappointed when they played "Echoes" -- yes, the "Echoes" -- and ended the song at about 17-18 minutes right before Gilmour's famous guitar line builds up. Good god, why? They played "Fat Old Sun" and that solo was awesome, Jeff. I'm trying to play it on my guitar today without much success. These guys are from New York and play here often, but I know they travel around, so if you get the chance to see them, it's worth it. The guitarist/vocalist does a pretty close Waters imitation and a passable Gilmour.
Setlist:
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Welcome To The Machine
Coming Back To Life
Speak To Me/Breathe
Time
Sorrow
Fat Old Sun
Is There Anybody Out There?
Nobody Home
One Of These Days
Pigs On The Wing
Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Echoes
Hey You
Wish You Were Here
Encore:
Run Like Hell
Comfortably Numb
B+
2 comments:
I've seen them twice, and both times they did a great job. I've never seen them play "Fat Old Sun" or "Echoes" which is pretty disappointing though. The two times I saw them they do a pretty good job of touching on everything, including the so-so material from the Division Bell days. They usually throw in some lesser known songs too, for instance I remember them playing "Childhoods End" which I was incredibly excited about. They do a great job of covering the greatest band in history.
They're playing again, I think, at B.B. King's on October 30. I might have to see them again.
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