David Gilmour live
David Gilmour
Rosemont Theatre, Rosemont
Thursday, April 13, 2006
There’s a fine line between boring and hypnotic. Appearing in support of On An Island, his first new material since Pink Floyd’s 1994 work The Division Bell, David Gilmour managed to cross that line both ways.
Gilmour has always been one of the most instantly recognizable guitarists out there. At this stage of the game, you can generally name that solo in three notes. On An Island finds Gilmour in fine technical form, but the passion is no where to be found. The result: what IE‘s esteemed columnist David Gedge generously refers to as “Sunday morning music.” I only mention this because of the show structure. Gilmour breaks it down into two sets, with the first one consisting entirely of the new album.
Granted, it makes sense to set it up this way, as the show’s pacing would be egregiously stop-and-start. Think of the crowd reaction to a couple of new songs followed by a Floyd song, then back to the new stuff. Still, it is a bit of a catch-22. By covering On An Island first, it seems to say, “If you get through the new stuff, I promise to play what 99.5 percent of you came for.”
Frankly, the new stuff doesn’t hold up to comparisons. There’s nothing wrong with putting everything out there, but Gilmour seems to have forgotten he has two other solo works to choose from. Honestly, “Blue Light” or “All Lovers Are Deranged” from his wonderful second solo album, About Face, would have provided the first set with the kick in the pants it so desperately needed. As it is, only Island‘s “Take A Breath” managed to jump start the proceedings.
After a 15-minute intermission, it was on to the business at hand. If you came because you only know Floyd from Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall, you might have been disappointed, but if you’re a Floyd purist, you were probably pleasantly surprised.
Gilmour dug into the vaults and omitted some of the more well-known moments with mixed results. The crowd responded as expected upon the first strains of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” then the show veered left with “Wot’s . . . Uh, The Deal” from ’72’s Obscured By Clouds. Also making a surprise appearance was “Fat Old Sun” from Atom Heart Mother, and The Division Bell‘s “Wearing The Inside Out” (providing a tepid vocal turn for keyboardist and fellow Floydian Richard Wright), and “High Hopes” — Bell‘s best track but here surprisingly limp.
Finally, as if he wanted to remind everyone what he was truly capable of, Gilmour broke into the 20-minute epic “Echoes”. It was during this that the show finally came alive and fulfilled its promise, becoming invigorating, electric, and yes, hypnotic.
The specter of Pink Floyd and Roger Waters will always hover over Gilmour like an inflatable pig. And while this is probably as close as anyone will ever come to seeing a Pink Floyd show again (despite the tease of the Live-8 reunion and Waters touring this summer), it just proves how much Gilmour and Waters need each other. Waters may be the lyrical brains and Gilmour may be its musical heart, but when separated, the pieces just don’t click.
— Timothy Hiatt
Category: Live Reviews, Weekly
