Yesterday Pink Floyd played in Grieghallen. At least almost ...

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The high-profile tribute band Brit Floyd played in Grieghallen in Bergen for two days in a formidable show that lasted 3 hours including a break of half an hour. I was present the second day, in a performance that thrilled the audience in increasingly degree as the show advanced.

But let's start with a little philosophical consideration about what this is all about. It's easy to adopt a condescending attitude towards a tribute band, a band that only has the task of copying what others have created. Replica is a word that has not quite good sound in some circles. In particular, this thought creep in terms tribute band which started out as a bunch of architecture students more than 40 years ago.

Having digested that it is not the original product we are talking about, it's time for a practical approach. One can go into the mentality that this could have been a Pink Floyd where the crew had been replaced one by one, until there was a whole new crew. Or the band of Roger Waters, where the boss took a well deserved night off right tonight, to spend some time with the howling dog. In that case one would of course felt a little cheated the first songs - until they started really listening to the music. And to philosophize about whether the ultimate approach is to quote David Gilmore embarrassing literally almost letter by letter in the later institutional and legendary guitar solos that we old, grumpy old men have listened to endlessly. Or if it is as natural to in slightly larger extent create their own interpretations of these materials. No blueprint on it, other than that one inevitably referrers bit when it occasionally appeared a letter in the guitar solo with a tiny accent differenct to the one we have memorized by heart.

The music during the concert was divided into sections, with the most prolific albums theme. The visual presentation is also worth mentioning - tempting to call it the analog predecessor of the cover flow, specifically video of a middle-aged person looking for the LP cover from the shelf.

The first part of the show started with a block from The Wall, led by "In the Flesh?". Maybe this was not the most compelling part - possibly partly due to some minor technical issue that sometimes caused some unusual activity among the technical crew.

Next block with two songs from "Wish You Were Here" had in my ears also a bit cramped start by guitarist Bobby Harrison, who was not quite at the height of cloning David Gilmore, nor completely met in their creative deviations in the magical transition between the long low-key intro and the 4 legendary notes in the riff where the rhythm section eventually enters. In return, musical director and guitarist Damian Darlington played sparkling as he gradually took over the guitar solo in this song.

This got me to draw the hasty conclusion that Darlington is very good, while Harrison is - not that good. The impression made Bobby Harrison emphatically to shame the opening of the next block from the Dark Side of the Moon. Here he got a solid revenge over Darlington, who was not at his best in this song. We heard the "old" side two of the LP continuously. When I sensed the contours of "playlist", I was worried that the guitar solo on "Any Color You Like" would be a letdown, and that the wonderful "sound" should not be included. Completely misguided concern - here it is tempting to argue that the Darlington exceeded Gilmore - at least he flipped out with a raw rhythmic drive, and the most daring excesses guitar solo. And the "sound" was in place! I realise it is much focus on guitar solo now, but that`s the way it has to be when you've grown up with solo guitars with the long, fat sounds ruling, and then starved in recent decades.

Blockes from the 3 most prolific albums before the break, creating concern that the best part of the concert is behind us. Also this one all wrong. Because although the material in the first half was perhaps the biggest parts of the jewels, was operated in the performance even better in Part 2. Pigs on the Wing and Dogs opened part 2 from the album Animals. The latter was adventurous performed. More tracks from The Division Bell was also very good, and ended the Cover Flow-based bulk of consert. Then there were some additional goodies from various albums, where the titletrack from "Wish You Were Here" aroused great enthusiasmook the in a packed auditorium. So did "Time" from "Dark Side". I was long wondering if they dared to bring it over to "The Great Gig in the Sky" - if there was someone who dared to sing after Clare Torry. You bet, and what a show! The definite  peakof the night, and vocalist Ola Bienkowska gained applause several times in the middle of the song. Amazing, and there and then savored as better than the original.

My favorite Comfortably Numb together with another tune from "The Wall" was a great the termination of the nearly 3 hours long show. Sound level was increasung during the show, and a quick measurement with an App on the iPhone indicated peaks between 95 and 100dB. Somewhat unneccesary - 5 dB reduction would have been more appropriate in this congregation, consisting mostly of real grown-ups.

But otherwise it's hardly a surprise that this summary aroused enthusiasm. Back to my opening theme, it is in a way a little bit of a sidetrack that this is not the original. As the show progressed, it was very minor to me belonging that this wasn`t Pink Floyd. And the main reason is that this appears to be musicians of approximately equal caliber clean tecnically, although of course they are not music creators within the meaning of Pink Floyd. It must also venture that backdrop is not the same. Brit Floyd have hardly the same political and social commitment that drove up the Wall, or missed by the collapsed band mate Syd Barret who provided the foundation for Wish You Were Here. Brit Floyd probarly is just a bunch of extremely talented musicians who have perfected themselves in playing Pink's music. And seem to love doing it over anything. On the other hand - what do I really know about the soul of the musicians in Brit Floyd...

What I do know is that these people are so good at doing this that in some weak moments I visit the almost blasphemous idea that the performance is just as good as what Pink Floyd did.