When I last saw Brit Floyd in August, I said that I would gladly see them again. I did just that on Tuesday night at The State Theatre in New Brunswick NJ.
Over the last two years, the State Theatre took advantage of the downtime forced by the pandemic to completely refurbish the facilities. New carpet, new seats, new bar, new bathrooms…everything has been updated and it looks great. I would swear that the seats are even a bit wider than they were before. Parking is readily available in a public garage just a five minute walk from the venue, and there are tons of restaurants of every type in the immediate area.
I get my ticket and headed to my seat. The staff are all friendly and happy to be operating again. After a few minutes, there is a warning that tonight’s performance will include fog, lasers, and flashing lights. I hope so. The lights dim and the show begins. The set list doesn’t seem to have changed much since August as the familiar strains of ‘Cluster One’ begin the show. Slowly the members work their way on stage and then explode into ‘Learning To Fly’.
Playing the same songs for a few months does have its benefits. Everyone has gotten tighter and crisper in their playing. It has to be very difficult to play night after night when everyone in the audience knows every single note and instantly notices the slightest mistake. The excellent acoustics of the theater amplify any transgression, but there isn’t as much as a dropped note. Everyone is playing at the top of their game and once again we enjoy Eva Avila performing an incredibly faithful version of ‘Great Gig In The Sky’ to a standing ovation.
The advertising before the show made a point to mention the “Multi-Million Dollar Light Show” and there is no doubt about it. A massive circular screen surrounded by lights and flashing familiar Pink Floyd images dominated the center of the stage. Covering every inch of the free space is lighting of every kind and color: purple, blue, red, yellow and green. The entire rainbow is represented and at one point, lasers display a rainbow across the room placing the audience inside of the Dark Side Of The Moon (Capitol) cover.
The show covered most of the Pink Floyd catalog. Some notable deep tracks come in the second set with ‘The Final Cut’ and ‘Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun’, but standards like ‘Money’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’ set the stage for a finale of ‘Comfortably Numb’.
Pink Floyd always tried to have their music support a visual spectacle, and Brit Floyd captures that perfectly. The precise reproduction of each song is accompanied by swirling lights and images projected onto the screen. The performers are meant not to be noticed and it seems like every time Brit Floyd tours, a good portion of the profits go into upgrading the stage show. The result is an incredible evening of great music and entertainment.
I’m still waiting for the flying pig though.
Set 1:
Cluster One
Learning to Fly
High Hopes
Welcome to the Machine
A New Machine, Part 1
Terminal Frost
Time
The Great Gig in the Sky
Poles Apart
Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2
One of These Days
Set 2:
Echoes
The Final Cut
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
Money
Wish You Were Here
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-VII)
Comfortably Numb
Encore:
One Slip
Run Like Hell
Buy tickets for the tour here: https://www.britfloyd.com/tour-dates/269-2022-north-america
WRITTEN BY MATTHEW KOCHEK
PHOTOS BY KIM HANSEN