Last night a friend and I went to see Echoes of Pink Floyd that I think is touring to highlight the 50th anniversary of the release of Pink Floyd’s, “Dark Side of the Moon” album. Not only that one our local bands and one I’ve mentioned before, Flexadecibal, opened for them. We got to the beautiful Frauenthal Theater, capacity 1800, early, before the doors opened, to make sure we got good seats (and we did, I’m guessing 10-15 rows back and in the center section. The doors opened at 7 and Flexadecibal started playing right around 7:15.
Flexadecibal, or Flex, as us fans call them, played for about an hour. This was their first song. When I went out at intermission to buy a CD of theirs the seller told me this song is from a yet-to-be released CD. I like the raggae feel to it.
Echoes of Pink Floyd started playing at around 8:30 and played almost to 11:30 with a 20-minute intermission. They played cuts from The Wall and other albums for the first half. For the second half that circle behind them on stage started playing scenes from The Wizard of Oz while they played the entire “Dark Side… ” album, then came out and did a 3-song encore! The woman singer nailed the Clare Torrey part but some jerks in the audience were yelling, whistling, etc. that its purity was sullied. Every single player/singer in the Echoes ensemble were skilled and they meshed flawlessly with each other. The main singer was the guy on the synthesizer but the bass player also sang some backup. The sax player was fabulous. I recorded 2 songs, but I was stupidly singing along with one of them (why, Lisa, why, when you knew you were recording!?) I’ll post one here but the other one is also out on YouTube. Apologies for my idiot sound effects if you listen to it.
The laser light show was impressive with all widths, colors, combinations, and with a seemingly endless variety of movement on them. At times the lasers and all of the smoke got a little distracting and the band got lost in it all visually, but the sound carried the night. I was so happy to be back out in a large (for me) crowd of people. Few were wearing masks so I won’t be surprised if I end up with Covid. I’ve known too many people who have been fully vaxed and boosted and still picked it up. Will have to wait and see.
One of the highlights of the evening actually happened while we were waiting for the inner doors to open. A tall man standing by me said, “I’m not used to seeing people my size around.” I said, “I’m not used to people up in my atmosphere either.” We got to talking and he was quite personable. He said something like, “All my lovers die.” I asked him what he meant and he said, “Well, I write horror stories.” He said he’s had 7 books published and that there is a vibrant writers community in the area as well as a facebook group called, “Written in the Mitten.” He gave me cards for both of them. What are the odds!? I looked both up when I got home. His name is Andrew Allen Smith and his website is AndrewAllenSmith.com Sure enough, he was telling the truth. I also joined the facebook group. This feels almost like serendipity!
Tao Talk 
Thanks for sharing, Lisa, and I’m glad you had a great time. Echoes of Pink Floyd sounded pretty good, and their light show certainly looked impressive. How did you feel about the combination of the music with the Wizard of Oz? Was it synchronized?
“Frauenthal Theater” sounds very much like a German name to me. The venue looks beautiful. With 1,800 seats, it’s on the smaller side, which is nice. There’s a theater of similar capacity in New Brunswick, a neighboring town about 20 minutes from my house where I’ve seen various shows.
Last but not least, I also liked that tune you captured by Flexadecibel. Apple Music lists one full-length album, “Straight Pipes & Sweet Jumps” (April 2020) and one EP, “Volume Won” (May 2017). I had not heard of them before. Based on sampling the first few tracks of the album, I like what I’m hearing!
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You’re welcome on the sharing. It was difficult to see the movie fully between the smoke, the lights, and the lasers, but I did see where it looked like it did match up. Would be fun to try it at home. They definitely didn’t play the whole movie, just clips. More about the theater. There is a typo in there with one of the 3 names of the ones he built: it’s the Regent, not the Reagent lol. Two of them were still standing (as well as The Strand in the Hts.) when I was young. The idiots decided to raze The Regent, which was just down the street when they decided to built the “modern mall.” Our local leadership sucked then and it still sucks. https://frauenthal.org/about/history/
About Flex, I got their first album (which is a full length album) and bought the 2nd one at the show.
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Sounds like it was a great show! They didn’t do any of the lighting effects, etc. in the Pink Floyd show I saw last week, so having the lasers, things on the screen (Wizard of Oz…), etc. so that makes the show you saw cooler on that level. I’m actually thinking of more “Fake Floyd” and may see Govt Mule’s “Dark Side of the Mule” show… Not sure yet, but possible. Anyway, glad you had a great time with Echoes of Floyd.
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It was an awesome show and it isn’t often I get out for live music since covid started.
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Quite an adventure all around. (K)
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Like I said earlier…soon that will be what I go to…the tribute bands. They usually play the songs better than the real band at this time. They capture what the band was like in their heyday… but the coolest thing is who you met…what are the odds of you meeting another writer?
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Max those kinds of groups are the only ones around here for the most part. That or just oldies covers bands. I know what you mean about meeting that writer. The odds are pretty much astronomical! I think it was serendipity. Another breadcrumb along the way…
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It’s great to have contacts in the field you are in…and that is a great contact!
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