The Aggie Theatre
Fort Collins, CO
Words, Photos & Video By Nicholas Stock (phatphlogblog.blogspot.com)
So continuing what I’ve been calling Deadtober, Amy and I headed down to The Aggie for Dead Floyd. Dead Floyd, as their name indicates, is a cover band that combines the repertoires of both Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead. What seems like an unlikely juxtaposition actually mixes into a surprisingly fluid live experience. The band consists of Charlie Humphreys (guitar, vocals), Josh Miller (bass, vocals), Stu Crair (drums,vocals), and Matt Goldberg on (keys, synthesizer). These guys are essentially a super group of local musicians; Stu and Charlie coming from The Grippe, Matt from Hot Gazpacho. Like true pros, they built off years of experience playing live and invested it into this awesome project. Dead Floyd opened with a ripping version of “See Emily Play”. Here is the rest of the set list from their Facebook page:
SET I: See Emily Play > West LA Fadeaway > Breathe > On The Run > Time (Breathe Reprise) > Eyes of the World > Row Jimmy, Money, One More Saturday Night
SET II: Run Like Hell > Thriller Jam > Run Like Hell > Bertha > Terrapin Station > Echoes > Sugar Magnolia > Scarlet Begonias > Brain Damage > Eclipse
ENCORE: Good Lovin’, Fearless > Wish You Were Here, Casey Jones
The most striking element of their live shows was most certainly the segues. They were able to make clean transitions from Dead to Floyd and back again. The guitar work of Humphreys was distinguished and demonstrated his years of performing live. Humphreys was also impressively able to shift his vocals between Weir and Garcia parts. He carried a slight twang, but it was enough to distinguish the songs. Josh took on the Waters vocals for the show and did so well. It was interesting that, as a bassist, he took on the same role as the player to which he was paying homage. They played the first three tracks of Dark Side of The Moon, leaving me wondering if they were just going to go ahead and play the entire album. After the trio of Floyd tunes, they ripped into a stellar “Eyes of The World”. My favorite moment came with the beautiful rendition of “Row Jimmy”...
I looked over at Amy as she declared that Dead Floyd was her new favorite cover band. I had to agree. They went back into DSOTM with “Money” before finishing their first set with an appropriate “One More Saturday Night”.
During set break, I headed backstage and spoke with the band about their influences in an attempt to decipher the reasoning behind the Dead Floyd project. The members were surprising eloquent and straightforward with how it came to be; it was simply for a love of the music, an excuse to perform these classic songs that continue to inspire them as players...
After the short interview, the boys charged back onstage and opened the second set with “Run Like Hell” that featured a sandwiched “Thriller Jam”. The Michael Jackson tease was the first truly unexpected turn, possibly a nod to the upcoming Halloween holiday. “Bertha > Terrapin” was my highlight of the second set. Although the entire show seemed to be more focused on the music of The Grateful Dead, the band’s renditions of Pink Floyd’s material were certainly not lacking. They wrapped up their set with a good mix of both before closing with a massive version of “Eclipse”. The four-song encore was a great end to the truly impressive hometown show. Dead Floyd’s goal is to book bigger and better shows as they collectively dive deeper into each band’s respective repertoire, and it’s safe to say that they’ll keep firing up their amazing mix of Dead and Floyd on the Front Range for the foreseeable future.
www.deadfloyd.com
Nicholas’s Photo Gallery
The Thriller Jam was for the Zombie Crawl that was going on in downtown Fort Collins that night
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