The Pink Floyd Experience

          Listening to the sounds of the cash register and the clock, as well as watching all the lights soar around the room was just part of the Pink Floyd Experience that I went to see.  On Tuesday, April 15, 2008, I went to Laxson Auditorium, here at Chico State to see the Pink Floyd Experience.  It was really cool to see something like that.  I have always liked Pink Floyd and I always thought it would be cool to be able to live in the time when they were all together, and watch them perform.  Well, even though I didn’t get to see the actual Pink Floyd band perform, at least I was able to experience something pretty amazing by watching the Pink Floyd Experience.

          Pink Floyd was probably one of the greatest psychedelic rock bands there ever was.  The band made fourteen albums, selling over 200 million copies worldwide.  The band first got together in 1965, the band members included Syd Barrett (rhythm guitar, lead vocals), Roger Waters (bass, vocals), Rick Wright(keyboards, vocals), Nick Mason (drums, percussion), and Bob Klose (lead guitar).  Klose left the band after recording only a demo, leaving the remaining four to make up the band Pink Floyd.  In January 1968, David Gilmour joined the band as the lead guitar and lead vocals, to carry out Barrett’s playing and singing duties.  Then in April 1968 Syd Barrett’s departure was formalized.  Barrett had left the band due to his increasing use of psychedelic drugs and his mental health was deteriorating.  At times he would just stare off into space during a performance, or just strum one chord throughout the entire thing.  Once he left, Water, Wright, Mason, and Gilmour made up the remaining four of Pink Floyd.

          No one can ever replicate a Pink Floyd performance exactly the way it was performed by the original band, but there is a group that does a pretty good job at staging how it would have been like to watch Pink Floyd perform.  The Pink Floyd Experience is made up of six guys who performed the songs originally performed by Pink Floyd.  Tom Quinn, Gus Beaudoin, Graham Heath, Jesse Molloy, John Cox, and John Staten make up the six members of The Pink Floyd Experience.  The group was formed in 1994, in San Diego, and first hit the stage in 1995.  Between the years of 1999-2003 they went on to acquire many San Diego Music Awards.

          Quinn is the band leader and lead guitarist.  He bought his first guitar the same year that The Dark Side of the Moon was released, in 1973.  Beaudoin began playing bass guitar at age thirteen and can play many different styles of music.  Heath is the lead vocalist who has been singing and recording for the last ten years.  Molloy plays the saxophone, which also has his own group titled On The One.  He has studied under Charles McPherson and Rhett Bender.  Cox self taught himself how to play the keyboards at the age of nine.  In 1976 he formed the group Embryo, a space music group.  Staten is twenty-eight years old and has been playing the drums since age five.  He is also part of the band On the One with Molloy.

          The performance was really neat to watch.  They actually did a pretty good job singing the songs and recreating the whole experience of Pink Floyd.  The lights, sound effects, and videos really brought the entire performance to life.  Everyone in the audience really got into the entire performance.  I would definitely recommend to anyone that likes Pink Floyd to go see these guys perform.  I really liked the show and would watch it again if I had the opportunity.