Pink Floyd sorcerer’s solos soar at the ACC
It was a guitarist’s dream.
It’s one thing to hear David Gilmour, Pink Floyd’s wizard of the sixstring, perform soaring solos but another to see him work his magic up close.
The 15,000-plus who attended the Air Canada Centre Thursday night for the first of two Gilmour shows received both an earful and an eyeful, courtesy of the moon-shaped, spotlight-dominated projection screen that has been used for countless Pink Floyd live extravaganzas dating back to the 1970s.
Whenever the grizzled 70-year-old took an extended solo on material from his latest album, Rattle That Lock, the live TV camera lens homed in on his fancy fretwork, significant string-bending prowess and occasional use of the whammy bar as he sculpted notes at the high end of the instrument’s pitch register.
The solos were beautiful, coherent and fluid diversions into the rock and blues idioms, sporadically played on acoustic or pedal steel, and performed during some of the most iconic songs of the progressive rock canon, extracted from such multi- million-selling albums as Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Hereand The Wall, soundtracks for Canadian generations.
And it’s safe to say that Gilmour recognizes who has buttered his bread for the past five decades, stuffing his nearly two-hour-and-45minute concert with generous note-by-note samplings of such Floyd audience pleasers as “Money,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-IV)” and “Comfortably Numb” — each one an instant singalong with the ACC crowd, who rewarded the maestro and his 10-piece band with standing ovations each time a recognizable tune was played.
For the fairly new and unknown material, such as Rattle That Lock’s instrumental show kickoff “5. A.M.,” the title track, “Faces of Stone” (which Gilmour accidentally started singing a few bars early and had to restart), “The Girl in the Yellow Dress” and a few others, the crowd politely listened and enjoyed those too, bowled away by even more tasteful guitar licks.
Even though visuals such as animated sequences were included in the presentation, the spotlight never really wavered from the fact that it was all about the music.
But it wasn’t all about the guitar, as much as that instrument was the show’s centrepiece: Gilmour’s voice and pitch were impeccable, with the doubly impressive notion that he carried it over, in his seventh decade on the planet, without relying on ear monitors to ensure he was in tune.
And a stellar band that included veteran Pink Floyd and Bryan Ferry session sidemen Jon Carin on keys, Guy Pratt on bass and Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera on rhythm guitar served as added insurance for a noteperfect evening.
Though the set list stretched back to 1967 with a cool rendition of “Astronomy Domine,” Gilmour’s ability doesn’t divulge his age. But the truth is that Gilmour, like all our rock heroes, is getting older. He’s hinted in a few interviews that major tours will become less frequent.
So if these two ACC appearances happen to be the last he makes in Toronto, he’s left the concert bar raised as high as when Pink Floyd first set it nearly a half-century ago.
That’s a proud and worthy legacy unlikely to be matched anytime soon.