Australian Pink Floyd tickles crowd pink

Utah's love affair with The Australian Pink Floyd Show continued Thursday night as the world's ultimate tribute band chalked up another outstanding show before a roaring crowd at the E Center during its annual trek to the Beehive State.

Aussie Floyd performed nearly three hours of Pink Floyd songs with note-for-note accuracy, highlighted by Floyd's classic 1979 double rock opera album "The Wall" performed in its entirety.

Gems from "The Wall" that rarely get played on the radio, such as "The Thin Ice," "Mother," "Goodbye Blue Sky" and "In the Flesh" were among some of the highlights. But the biggest applause came for some of Floyd's most recognized songs such as the anthem "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" and its well-known lyric, "We don't need no education," which the arena sang along in unison with the band.

Although Steve Mac and Colin Wilson have opted not to participate in APF's U.S. tours, as long as guitarist Damian Darlington, keyboard player Jason Sawford and bassist Ian Cattell are there, audiences are just about guaranteed to get a great show. Darlington and Cattell, the David Gilmour and Roger Waters of the band, handled the large majority of vocal duties.

But it was Darlington's guitar playing and vocals that were the highlights of the evening on songs such as "Hey You," (another tune the large crowd sang back loudly to the band), "Wish You Were Here" and an epic "Comfortably Numb" that deservingly received a long standing ovation as the best song of the evening.

Other high points included "Young Lust" and a great rendetion of "Run Like Hell."

This year's tour included more theatrical elements than years past. A giant video screen projected images complementing the music. Many of the images shown on the video screen were taken from "The Wall" motion picture — but with APF's own home touch added — such as kangaroos topping off the symbolic marching hammers.

Cattell assumed the role of the main character in "The Wall" story, rock star "Pink" whose hard life has pushed him to metaaphorically building a wall inside his mind, making himself isolated from the outside world.

After performing "The Wall" from start to finish, Aussie Floyd finished the night with an encore of greatest hits including "Learning to Fly" and the first parts of "Shine on Your Crazy Diamond." At the end of the song, images flashed of the late Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright who died earlier this year.

Based on the wildly enthusiastic response of many fans in the audience Thursday, it's safe to safe to say many people are already looking forward to next year's fall tour and the return of The Aussie Floyd Show.

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E-mail: preavy@desnews.com

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