30 Days of Floyd, Day 8 - March 18, 1973

March 18, 1973

The Palace Theater, Waterbury, CT, USA

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.

Continuing our apparent streak of Dark Side concerts, this takes place on March 18, 1973 during the second half of the Dark Side tour.

What I’m listening to is actually a couple sources mixed together. Apparently, it’s mostly Recorder 2 (DR) with tune-ups supplied by another Recorder 2 rip (wojtek) and filled in parts from Recorder 3 (also wojtek) and Recorder 4.

After their concert in France on December 10, 1972, Pink Floyd took a three month break from touring, possibly to use the ideas they gained through touring to finish the Dark Side album. Despite this being the Dark Side Tour, the tour began 14 months before the album was actually released.

The album, minus the quadraphonic mix, was finished and previewed through some bad-quality PA system next to cardboard cutouts of themselves. The success of the album created a change of feeling with the concerts, where Pink Floyd played in larger venues and in front of a much larger, rowdier crowd.

So Pink Floyd continued their Dark Side tour, playing the now-finished version of The Dark Side of the Moon, on March 4, 1973. The setlist was slightly changed; they were already previewing new music from their next album, Obscured by Clouds. Yeah, they wasted no time on that one.

So no, March 18 is not the first concert after their return. It’s not even their fifth. That’s the luck of the draw.

If you want more information, I already reviewed a much earlier and, in my opinion, much better Dark Side concert here.

Fun fact: The Grateful Dead were at this concert. The two hardly cross paths, but Pink Floyd shared some space with Jerry Garcia on the Zabriskie Point soundtrack.

With Dark Side out, people probably expected Dark Side to start. But this Pink Floyd we’re talking about, so they’re starting with a new piece, Obscured by Clouds. It’s very different, more of an intro jam than an actual song, with focus on the keyboard parts. It does turn into something familiar around three minutes in though, including the drums and the slow guitar bends. It’s interesting to hear the bass pounding away so clearly (as clear as this recording can get.)

And When You’re In plays immediately after the music dies down for a second. This song starts as a song for Mason, with the drums going wild, before going into a jam lead by Waters and his funky bass that includes guitar solos and drums and keyboard that sound like they were taken from the jazzy part of Echoes. It ends with a sort of When You’re In reprise. Altogether, it’s a 13-minute medley.

This one includes tuning! The crowd is really rambunctious today, yelling out songs they want to hear like Breathe and Breathe and Dark Side of the Moon.

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun has that spooky intro with the gong crashing and the synth droning. Waters’ vocals are echoed and Wright’s keyboards are heard more than Waters’ bass, leading to a unique but not entirely different mix. It’s also slightly different from the last version I reviewed. It does go to the regular Set the Controls music after the gong intro, which then turns into an avant-garde mix of music effects before re-adding the instruments every now and then. The other concert I talked about with Set the Controls had a space-like jam in the beginning that ended with regular Set the Controls music.

 Tuning again. People are actually screaming Meddle. AND THEN INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE and Arnold Layne over and over again… Jesus.

But really, someone screams really loudly “INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE” and everyone laughs at him, while one guy repeatedly begs for Arnold Layne. Fun fact, the last (known) time Pink Floyd played Arnold Layne was on September 13, 1967, with a total of 15 times played in total (plus a weird performance on May 10, 2007 where Wright played Arnold Layne and Bike before he died later that year).

Dark Side was released two weeks ago and we can already see how the crowd has changed.

Careful with That Axe, Eugene hasn’t changed. I noticed a little more freedom with some keyboard parts in the intro. There is no Scottish poem, either.

Echoes finishes the first set. That’s weird, but at least everyone in the crowd loves Echoes. They just need to shut up. Wright was really in the improv mood today, adding extra notes to the intro. The later part with the muted guitar is the high point here; Wright does a fantastic job. Other than that, this is an average Echoes. The guitar solos were great, though, especially the one in the bass-heavy section. I think the sound quality and the mix let this song down.

After a break, Pink Floyd return for their second set, the full, post release Dark Side of the Moon.

So that means we start with Speak to Me. The tape loops are present this time around, and the noisy crowd is still here, too. This crowd rivals Philadelphia crowds, and that’s saying something.

Breathe. It still sounds the same as its earlier version because of the lack of steel guitar and Gilmour’s clean vocals.

On the Run is here, with the appropriate tape loops, as well as some extra ones. Wright also does some special effects on his keyboard here and there. This is before the airplane crash, as well.

Fun fact: at a Pink Floyd cover band I went to see, the keyboardist got carried away playing On the Run that they had to cut him off.

Time (including Breathe (Reprise) because bootlegers can never settle on one thing) is at its normal speed. I can’t tell if it’s the recording or the band, but the intro didn’t sound right. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but it just sounded weird. It was no one’s fault in particular, either, because at first I was going to blame Gilmour but then I switched blame to Waters a couple times. I definitely prefer the older Time I reviewed, even though the guitar solo here sounded amazing. I just like more Wright in my Time, but it was pretty hard to hear at times. However, backing vocalists from Black Grass are here for the song, so that’s a plus.

The Great Gig in the Sky sounded like it started a little late, but at least we get live vocals for this. Which were good, but not the best. The song is not complete without those high pitched vocals, but here they don’t get too high. That’s not to say she didn’t go for it at points. It sounded more like she was in the groove, which is not a bad thing. And no one is frightened of dying here.

Money has a chorus-effect chord-based jam thing where the saxophone should be before moving onto the guitar solo.

Us and Them, I think, the best song from the concert’s set. The Gilmour and Wright vocal combo works well, but the chorus still seems a little week. You can’t really hear them during the chorus anyway behind the Black Grass. Instrumentation is good here, though. Especially the keyboard solo.  

I was hoping things would pick up for Any Colour You Like, and it kind of does. Wright is still the MVP here, but Gilmour does get a great solo near the end.

Brain Damage is Waters’ best vocal performance from tonight. It’s what you want from the song.

Eclipse ends the set with Waters preaching to the crowd through the lyrics. It’s still the same, but its like he’s adding a heavy period sentence after every sentence, like he means it.

One of These Days is the encore for today.  And they have to tune while the wind effects play. Whatever recorder this is captures the bass sound very nicely. However, once the keyboards join in the quality really takes an effect on the song. That is, until it’s patched in with a better quality version so it’s better. What’s weird is that I didn’t really care for the drumming here, and not because you couldn’t even hear it when the guitar was playing.

You’re getting, apparently, the best quality versions of the rare-ish Obscured by Clouds / When You’re In. Other than that, the concert isn’t anything special. The concert felt like it was taking a toll on the band. You’re looking at better than average quality as well, with several patches and a mostly average experience.