I guess the biggest act I’ve seen live is The Who. Saw them on their first farewell tour in the summer of 1982 in Oakland. They were OK, but I think I liked The Clash (who opened for them) better. Not overly memorable other than it was (seriously) the first time I’d ever smelled marijuana…because two of the guys I went with pulled out a pipe and started smoking it.
But I think Pink Floyd is a group I would’ve remembered. First off because I actually liked them (I mean, The Who were OK, but not a favorite like Pink Floyd). And they were also absolute musical geniuses. I wrote a bit about that here long ago.
Sadly, they will never perform live on the big stage together again. Their keyboardist, Richard Wright, died in 2008. But of course, an even bigger hurdle (other than they’re now in their mid-70s) is that their leads — Waters and Gilmour — don’t get along too well. They have done a couple of short or small jobs together, but their famous concerts (from what I’ve heard, incredible performances) are a thing of the past.
But that didn’t stop some enterprising video geek from taking clips of one of their greatest songs from two of their live performances (Waters’ In the Flesh tour in 2000 and Gilmour’s live concert at Gdansk in 2006) and mashing them together. And he did a pretty good job of it. Would’ve been nice if they’d stayed together to perform, but all things must come to an end. This will have to do…