concert

'Moon' still shines

A musical force behind Pink Floyd stages a mean flashback.

By RICK GERSHMAN
Published May 20, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Stephane De Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images] Roger Waters British rock musician and composer of the legendary band Pink Floyd performs on stage during his concert in Paris 03 May 2007. Roger Waters who is best known for his career with Pink Floyd was their main songwriter bass player one of their chief singers and main sonic wizard.

TAMPA - It's unfair, technically, to call it a tribute band, whatever your particular take is on tribute bands.

Hey, I'm not hating. I have no objection to a bunch of dudes reproducing the Beatles to the best of their ability.

And face it, watching Heather Mills flail and fail on Dancing With the Stars isn't exactly reminiscent of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

So goes Roger Waters, who brought his Pink Floyd show to a soldout Ford Amphitheatre, east of Tampa, Saturday night.

Waters, mind, you, was the key lyricist and a musical force behind The Wall, and more specifically, that icon of all that is classical rock - well, the one most appreciated given certain conditions and, um, chemicals - Dark Side of the Moon.

Here's how it worked: Waters spent the first half of the show performing a few non-Moon Floyd classics (audience: thunderous applause) and a few tunes from his solo work and other material (audience: moderately enthusiastic applause, because we know you're getting to the good stuff soon).

And eventually, he did. After a 15-minute-or-so intermission, Dark Side of the Moon came blasting through in all its glory, and the crowd of about 20, 000 bought in entirely.

And suddenly it was - okay, it wasn't exactly 1973 again. But for a re-creation of a 34-year-old album, it beat the life out of anything by the Partridge Family.

As for Waters? Look, the guy who founded the prog-rock band is long gone (Syd Barrett, 10 extra points if that rings a bell), but every classic rock lover between 35 and 55 knows Floyd from head to toe.

Which is why anyone who got into Floyd after, say, 1985 caught on with the David Gilmour-led album A Momentary Lapse of Reason, every copy of which Roger Waters no doubt wants burned, reconstructed from its ashes, and burned again.

Maybe that's why a mid show sequence of Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Have a Cigar and Wish You Were Here seemed like highlights.

Regardless, all that matters is that Waters and company put on a fully entertaining rendition of Moon, with the audience screaming to the opening strains of Time and Money and Eclipse.

Waters, 63, looked and sounded incredible. He was healthy and handsome in a tight black shirt, black pants, black belt - everything except Waters' silver locks (and he still has plenty) was awfully black. He was lean, mean, even muscular, sporting a killer hairline that would put the Geico cavemen to shame.

But then there's the inflatable pig, which wandered over the audience, sporting such slogans as "all religions divide us, " "is this democracy, " and "I only answer to God."

It was cute. But I'm not buying that Waters meant the pig to signify anything more than, "Hey, let's send a mighty big pig through this crowd."

[Last modified May 20, 2007, 01:54:30]