30 Days of Floyd, Day 3 - July 18, 1994

July 18, 1994

Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey

Welcome to the month of Pink Floyd, where I’ll be celebrating the 30-day countdown until the release of the Early Years box set. Technically, it’s 31 days, but I’ll be celebrating the 31^st day differently… maybe. I’m bad at commitment.

The plan is to look at 30 random concerts from Pink Floyd history, even going past the content covered in the Early Years.

Today’s concert is from the Division Bell tour from July 18, 1994. The last (full) North American concert ever.

Our recorder is unknown, but it is “Master Recorder 3”. It’s a good audience recording.

The Division Bell tour was massive. So massive, in fact, that it set a record for the highest grossing tour with over $250 million dollar. It owes some of its success due to its Volkswagen sponsorship which was… odd, I guess. Some of the concerts would be included on the Pulse live album, which were plentiful in the post-Waters era (plentiful as in compared to the only full-Floyd era live album, Ummagumma side one).

The July 18^th concert is a little unique for several reasons. It is the last ever full Pink Floyd concert in North America. The second set also contains the Dark Side of the Moon, something added later into the tour, for only 18 out of the 110 concerts. This would be the third concert of the series to do so, the other two being the night before and in the Silverdome on the 15^th.

Another unique little tidbit is the appearance of the Publius Enigma. The gist of the entire thing is that a person posted anonymously to a Pink Floyd Usenet cryptic messages, leaving “Publius” as the only name. To prove his legitimacy, he promised that during this exact concert at 10:30 PM, “flashing white lights.” Sure enough, at around 9:55, the stage lights spelled out the words “ENIGMA PUBLIUS”. Later, on September 1996, the remailer service was shut down to keep protect the anonymity of their users. Both Gilmour and Mason later said that it was a game of sorts set up by Capitol Records, and the winner would get “a crop of trees planted in a clear cut area of forest or something to that effect.” Technically, the mystery has never been solved. Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.

Well, history is done. On to the concert.

I wish I could talk about it more, but if you’ve listened to Pulse, you’ve heard these concerts. Pulse even had the Dark Side set included. It’s a safe bet to say that the performances spliced together on Pulse represent the best of the tour. Unfortunately, July 18, 1994 was not included in any form on the album. It does not mean it’s a bad performance by any means, just a little predictable and average.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I – V, VII) is the show starter, which started at the same time they included the Dark Side second set. Before that, it was the second set opener. The taper has a good sound for the guitar and the bass pedal, but nothing else really gets that far into the mix, which is a shame for 1994. I assume they’re using a click track for the concert due to the projection (or… just film?) so the performance is pretty close to the studio. Gilmour still goes for the high notes and he gets close. It’s was a good performance, nothing to write home about. Even the saxophone solo wasn’t extremely impressive.

They let Shine On fade out so they can start Learning to Fly suddenly. Gilmour seems a bit unimpressed, but there is some nice bass work that goes on in this song.

“Let’s get on with it” Gilmour says, and introduces High Hopes. Nothing to say.

Take It Back is next, and I think at this point Gilmour picks up the pace a little bit. The song fades into Coming Back to Life, or Gilmour’s chance to show off his voice with just a background synth. After that, it’s a good performance from all musicians (and there’s a lot for this tour, around 11 at the same time if there’s backing vocals and a saxophone). The outro solo was great, but nothing else stands out.

We get a 10-minute Sorrow! But wait, we even got that on Pulse. God, Pulse was such a good album. Everything sounds really good here, except for Gilmour actually. He seems tired. The solos are great, though, and the drums/keyboard combo is great. This is probably the high point of the first set, and possibly the entire concert, especially that outro solo.

After Keep Talking, a song that can sound good even if Gilmour is tired (however, I’ve always thought the 1988 backing vocals were so much better than the 1994 backing vocals), we bust into some classics with Another Brick in the Wall (Part II), which technically has The Happiest Days of Our Lives pushed in there a bit as an intro. A nice touch with the screaming before the lyrics enter. The crowd is really riled up at their most recognizable song. The part where the child choir would come in reminds me of the Cyndi Lauper performance from The Wall – Live in Berlin. And you can’t expect anything less than perfection from the guitar solo as well. Gilmour actually gets a chance to do some improvisation and do an extended solo alongside Mason’s drumming and a slap bass.

The first set ends with One of These Days, with what you expect.

The second set is the Dark Side of the Moon set. Some highlights:

On the Run was fantastic, it felt much longer than it actually was.

Time’s solo was actually a bit disappointing. It’s hard to explain. It’s a great solo, but it doesn’t have the same power as it should.

The Great Gig in the Sky, in 1988, is beautiful. I’ve said that countless times and I’m starting to feel bad for saying it. Basically, it has spoiled me.

Any Colour You Like is perfect.

The encore performance consists of Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb and Run Like Hell. Wish You Were Here is what you expect, Comfortably Numb’s solos made the crowd excited. Run Like Hell is a regular encore for Gilmour, which ended with fireworks.

Average concert, nothing special audio wise, but it being the last concert in North America it’s something special in a way.