Pink Floyd Experience

Last night Kyle and I went out to dinner at Origami and then over to Mill City (not where you think, if you think like I do) for the Pink Floyd Experience.  We got to Origami exceedingly early for a 9:00 p.m. performance just down the street.  Around 6:20 p.m.  But the timing was right on.  After two ten-piece sushi platters with rolls, an extra spider roll, an extra NY NY roll (very good - had a bit of soft apple in it), some underwhelming wasabi tobiko, and green tea ice cream that was perhaps pushing it, but hit the spot, it was closing in on 8:15.

We thought the performance would be by the river.  That's the only Mill City I've ever heard of.  But it turned out to be in a club, Mill City Nights, in the warehouse district with an interior reminiscent of First Ave.  Although, unlike First Ave, I could see the stage almost the entire time.  Except for when this guy built like a 6'6" sumo wrestler stood in front of me.  Despite being more than a meter away, I couldn't see much around his head without leaning.

The performance was better than I expected and they reached back into some older albums and deep cuts to really deliver a good performance.  I remember thinking, "They're not quite as good as Floyd."  But they were also in a small club without an enterprise level sound system.  So damn good given the constraints.  Couple of characters around us, including two guys who went for the high five and missed (have another), and a guy who tried to high five his friend three times in under a minute.  On the third try, his friend just left him hanging.

I didn't realize until later that I didn't get the main singer in my shots.  In the second one, I didn't even get most of the band.  But they look almost exactly like the photos at their web site.  And if you'd like to hear them, there are a bunch of videos on YouTube, including a 38 minute clip.  Here's a more reasonable 4:26 clip of them doing Wish You Were Here, with a lot of audience participation.

The screen behind them had a variety of psychedelic videos, many of them featuring large eyes and a lava lamp motif, sometimes blended together.  And yes, per the video and from what you can tell in these photos, mostly guys.  But it was a mixed audience, age and gender wise, and there were a few 20-something women nearby.  The middle aged overly excited guys just happened to predominate, both in number, and in their dancing, fist pumping exuberance.