Rudolf-Weber Arena, Oberhausen, Germany
18th March 2023
The Australian Pink Floyd Show - “#Darkside50Tour”
This spring 2023, PINK FLOYD will celebrate the 50th birthday of the PINK FLOYD classic ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ all over the world. For THE AUSTRALIAN PINK FLOYD, this means to perform this masterpiece in its entirety.
There are quite a few tribute bands to PINK FLOYD. THE AUSTRALIAN PINK FLOYD is probably the best-known act among them. The cover band, founded in Australia in 1988, has always had the goal of reproducing PINK FLOYD’s music as accurately as possible. The live shows should also be as close to the original as possible. That the Australian band is indeed something special is shown by the fact that David Gilmour himself invited them to his 50th birthday party in 1996. They also performed there as a live band.
Music & Performance
The concert started at exactly 8pm. ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’. In its entirety. In the very well attended Rudolf Weber arena. Analogue to the song order on the album, the Australians started with ‘Speak To Me’ and ‘Breathe (In The Air)’. At this time, only a part of the band was on stage, at the latest with ‘Time’ a little later, the eight-piece band was completely at work. There is little to complain regarding the performance. In fact, THE AUSTRALIAN PINK FLOYD played the classic accurately. The light show was superb, the sound was crystal clear - if there is anything to criticise, it is the fact that the ladies and gentlemen remained absolutely pale during their performance. 
Really no one on stage is an eye-catcher. But maybe this is all intentional. Maybe it’s because the songs of PINK FLOYD are the star of the evening and the band purposely stays in the background and performs conspicuously so that the music is the only focus. So THE AUSTRALIAN PINK FLOYD performed the album with great accuracy. Only the videos, which ran in the background within the round illuminated metal construction, had a reference to the present. There were loud boos from the audience when, for example, video sequences of Putin and Trump were shown during ‘Brain Damage’. 
When ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ was finally performed after about 45 minutes, keyboardist Jason Sawford addressed the audience for the first and only time, thanking them for the support and the warm applause for the material already played. At the same time, he announced a short break, because the concert was far from over just with the homage to the classic. In total, THE AUSTRALIAN PINK FLOYD performed for almost 2 1/2 hours. And of course, other classics such as ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’, ‘Wish You Were Here’ and others were played during the course of the evening - a treat for fans of PINK FLOYD, of course.
It is obvious that THE AUSTRALIAN PINK FLOYD come from Australia. Their distinctive mark is a pink kangaroo and not a pink pig, as you might expect from PINK FLOYD. And also before ‘Wish You Were Here’, the video sequence in the background clearly referred to the musicians’ home country. Among other things, the Australian flag was shown, AC/DC performed the song ‘Back in Black’, Kylie Minogue’s sexy clip for ‘Can’t Get you Out of my Head’ was shown, and finally kangaroos jumped across the screen. Australia in a nutshell.
All in all, the performance for the “#Darkside50Tour” offered everything one might expect from a performance for the 50th anniversary of ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’. An impeccable, if emotionless performance that paid homage to the songs of PINK FLOYD. The audience will certainly have enjoyed it very much across the board.
Setlist
01. Speak to Me
02. Breathe (In The Air)
03. On the Run
04. Time
05. Breathe (Reprise)
06. The Great Gig in the Sky
07. Money
08. Us and Them
09. Any Colour You Like
10. Brain Damage
11. Eclipse
12. On the Turning Away
13. The Happiest Days of Our Lives
14. Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2
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15. In the Flesh?
16. See Emily Play
17. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)
18. Welcome to the Machine
19. Wish You Were Here
20. High Hopes
21. Pigs (Three Different Ones)
22. One of These Days
23. Run Like Hell
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24. Comfortably Numb
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 8
Light: 10
Sound: 9
Total: 9.3 / 10
All Pictures by André Wilms
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