Step back in time to enjoy the best songs of legendary Pink Floyd, as tribute band Floydium comes to Chatham Saturday night.
The Toronto-based band returns to the Chatham Capitol Theatre. It shared the stage last fall with Michael White and The White, a Led Zeppelin tribute band.
This time around, Floydium is flying solo; well, as solo as an eight-person band can be.
Members Leon Dadoun, Keiko Gutierrez and Jacob Manishevitz recently spoke with The Chatham Voice about the coming show.
Expect to hear selections from Pink Floyd albums spanning decades, starting all the way back to 1967 with a song off the album Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and as recently as 1994’s The Division Bell, plus a great deal in between.
The band is comprised of musicians of various ages, with Manishevitz being the youngest at age 26.
He said he’s been a Pink Floyd fan for most of his life.
“I’ve been listening to Pink Floyd probably since I was 10 or 11, through the very formative years of my musical education,” he said. “Then I went back and relearned all the songs when I joined (Floydium).”
As the lead singer and lead guitarist, he has the challenge of being a lot of David Gilmour, and a little Roger Waters, the two main singers of the original Pink Floyd. Gilmour also played lead guitar.
“David Gilmour is just fantastic. He’s one of a kind,” Manishevitz said. “There is definitely no one else like him.”
Gilmour’s at times haunting vocals and equally haunting guitar solos are mainstays of Pink Floyd’s music.
Gutierrez said every member of the band is a Pink Floyd fan at heart and jumped at the opportunity to perform that band’s music.
Gutierrez, who plays bass, said it’s challenging and thrilling to perform Pink Floyd songs.
“It was very much an album-centric band. Everything they produced was a concept of sorts,” she said. “I loved the music and some of the challenges of the tunes. It’s so much fun to play because of that. Nothing is boring and simple.”
Dadoun agreed.
“If you listened to ‘Animals,’ it’s not just a cookie-cutter sort of song. Even longer Pink Floyd songs, there are a lot of tempo changes, timing and co-ordination,” he said. “It’s hard to accurately reproduce the feel, the music and the emotion involved.”
For Gutierrez, Waters’ bass playing is all over the place – in a great way.
“The bass playing for Pink Floyd, it’s classic rock, but it’s groovy too. They’ve got a feel,” she said.
Dadoun, who handles rhythm guitar duties, describes Pink Floyd music as very emotional. Ditto for the lyrics.
“It’s extremely emotional. There’s a lot of anger to it at times,” he said, referring to the writing of Waters. “At a young age, Roger Waters lost his father in the war. There’s a lot of moving imagery.”
Waters’ experience as a child and on stage led to the basis of The Wall, the band’s top-selling album.
With all the emotions thrown into the music and lyrics, it can be a challenge to perform, Dadoun said.
“It’s hard to accurately reproduce the feel, the music and emotion involved,” he said.
As challenging as it is, Manishevitz said he loves it.
“It is the funnest thing you could ever do in your life, living your passion for the music to the fullest,” he said. “Pink Floyd music features more theatrical, happier songs, really rocking stuff, groovy stuff and everything in between. If you put the set list in the right order, the ups and downs can feel like a complete journey.”
The band looks forward to playing the Capitol again, as they enjoyed the venue last fall.
“It sounded good from the stage, and the video we got from the audience sounded great,” Manishevitz said. “And it’s a beautiful theatre.”
For tickets, go to www.chathamcapitoltheatre.com.
