CinemaScopes: David Gilmour Live at the Circus Maximus

 

David Gilmour

Live at the Circus Maximus Blu-ray

(Sony)

In Fall 2024, David Gilmour undertook a tour of residencies in just four cities around the world to introduce new music from his solo album, Luck and Strange. For the majority of Pink Floyd and Gilmour fans who could not attend the well-reviewed concerts, this set will be a welcome gift. Live at the Circus Maximus is drawn from the six-night stand at Circo Massimo in Rome, Italy, and was captured explicitly across the final three nights of October 1-3. Of the 24 songs performed during the tour and from the Luck and Strange album itself, only “A Single Spark” is missing from this film. In addition to the almost-complete performance of Gilmour’s latest album, the concert features three tracks from his prior solo effort, Rattle That Lock, and 13 favorites from the Pink Floyd catalog.

The concert film is beautifully shot beneath clear Roman skies and runs for more than two hours. Initial songs, including the title track “Luck and Strange,” are bathed in stage fog, but wide shots reveal the colorful light show underway. Dazzling lasers shoot through the arena and pierce the night sky during Pink Floyd classics, including the showstopper “Comfortably Numb.”

Gilmour’s sandy tenor is in fine form on familiar songs, including “Time” from Dark Side of the Moon and “Fat Old Sun” from Atom Heart Mother. His deft touch as lead guitarist is positively undiminished and is showcased on Pink Floyd favorites and new songs, including “Dark and Velvet Nights” alike.

Gilmour happily shares the stage with his trusted band, leaving signature parts like the lap steel on “Time” to second guitarist Ben Worsley (introduced as “the new kid on the block”). Keyboardist Greg Phillinganes covers the late Richard Wright’s territory on organ and vocals as Gilmour smiles encouragingly from center stage. “What a genius,” says Gilmour when introducing second keyboardist Rob Gentry. Worsley joins Gilmour in an acoustic guitar duet to introduce “Wish You Were Here,” before Gilmour shares the lead vocal with his entire audience.

“Vita Brevis” is a fleeting trio featuring Romany Gilmour’s harp, Hattie Marshall’s harp, and David Gilmour’s slide guitar. The younger Gilmour sings lead vocal and plays the harp again on the Luck and Strange track “Between Two Points,” a wry and rueful song recorded initially by little-known but compelling British indie-pop duo the Montgolfier Brothers. “Stopped hoping at an early age,” sings Romany in the song’s expression of despair with a paradoxically inviting melody. Following the vocal section, David Gilmour’s weeping guitar continues the story.

Bassist Guy Pratt shifts to a fretless bass for the mournful yet majestic “High Hopes” as the crew releases dozens of white balloons with the Pink Floyd logo, circa A Momentary Lapse of Reason, for the audience to bat around. Gilmour and Worsley trade soaring leads atop drummer Adam Betts’ majestic cadence for “A Great Day for Freedom.” The song features stirring choral vocals and grand symphonic sounds from Phillinganes and Gentry. The set’s most overtly political statement arrives with the heartbreaking “In Any Tongue.” An impressionistic animated video plays behind the band, depicting fear, loss, and anguish for both invader and invaded during war in a Middle Eastern village.

Singer Louise Marshall sits at a grand piano. At the same time, daughter Romany Gilmour and the Webb Sisters, Charley and Hattie, gather with a candelabra to trade the wordless vocals for Dark Side of the Moon centerpiece “The Great Gig in the Sky.” Pratt moves to an upright acoustic, while David Gilmour accompanies on a weeping lap steel. The performance trades the ecstatic bombast of the recorded version for a simmering intensity.

The gentle and melancholy “A Boat Lies Waiting” is a tender ode to late Pink Floyd bandmate Wright. The main set ends with Luck and Strange’s closer “Scattered,” a final reflection on mortality and the passage of time. “These darkening days flow like honey,” sings Gilmour. “Time is a tide that disobeys, and it disobeys me,” he adds before playing an epic guitar solo in the vein of “Comfortably Numb.”

A second Blu-ray disc includes an audio program called The Luck and Strange Concerts. This collection includes “A Single Spark,” completing the playlist from Luck and Strange. The song expresses the idea that every second is a treasure. “Isn’t it true that it’s all through in a single spark between two eternities,” sings Gilmour. The song peaks with cinematic strings and another swooning, sublime guitar excursion. The bonus disc also includes rehearsal footage, documentaries, and music videos for songs including “Between Two Points,” “The Piper’s Call,” and “Dark and Velvet Nights.”

The “Rain in Rome” documentary begins with gorgeous aerial views of the area around the famous Roman Colosseum. Then it transitions to scenes of torrential rain and soggy equipment on the evening of the first show. “Let’s hope they’ve brought their umbrellas and macs with them,” says Gilmour of 15,000 waterlogged fans. The show eventually goes on as planned.

Another documentary goes behind the scenes at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Gilmour is seen walking his black German Shepherd, Wesley, backstage before telling the story about how Pink Floyd earned a lifetime ban in 1968 by driving nails into the Hall’s newly varnished stage to keep Nick Mason’s bass drum from slipping. “Wesley on Patrol” takes a dog-eye view tour of the Royal Albert Hall, as the dog cavorts among familiar crew friends backstage and on the main floor with a camera on his back.

More footage follows the band to America, featuring interviews with the musicians. Worsley describes freaking out and forgetting how to play guitar during an audition with Gilmour, when they played “Wish You Were Here” together. The action concludes with Gilmour and the band at their celebratory dinner following their tour-ending five-night stand at Madison Square Garden.

As a final treat, the set even includes a pair of black cat silhouette stickers like the one Gilmour has affixed to the horn of his black Fender Stratocaster. (davidgilmour.com)

 

– Jeff Elbel

9 of 10

Tags: David Gilmour Live at the Circus Maximus Blu-ray, Jeff Elbel

Category: Featured