A group of PIGS are bringing one of rock's classic albums to stage in Moose Jaw.
PIGS, "Canada's most authentic Pink Floyd tribute act", will be bringing their show to the Mae Wilson Theatre on Feb. 27. PIGS played Moose Jaw a year ago and this year will be playing Pink Floyd's 1973 classic Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety as part of their show.
"I think it's nice every year to take a look and say 'we did that last year, what are we going to do that's different?'" said Geoff Howe, PIGS bassist who assumes the role of Roger Waters.
"You look at a lot of different tribute bands and they maybe have one set list that they stick with for the entirety of their existence. We look at it as a Pink Floyd fan. Most Pink Floyd fans that come to our show, they're the diehards, the ones who know the more rare album tracks and the deep cuts. We try to put ourselves in the shoes of these people who come to see us, because that's what we would be doing. We would be thinking 'if we're going to see Pink Floyd are they going to stray from the path?' We have a fun time coming up with the different themes and the different albums that we're going to do.
"What treat are we going to give the audience this year?"
PIGS has previously played the Pink Floyd albums Animals and Wish You Were Here in their entirety and are excited to bring Dark Side of the Moon to audiences to mark the album's 45th anniversary during their Outside / In Tour.
"We do the album top to bottom: all of the instrumental passages, the sound effect segues, we do it all," Howe said. "It really gives you an appreciation for the album as a whole and how all of the themes tie into each other."
Dark Side of the Moon features snippets of dialogue, instrumental pieces and sound effects that link the songs and makes the album an entire entity rather than a collection of songs.
"It's a good example of an album that grabbed people as a whole," Howe said. "You would think that a lot of the songs on there were massive hits just because of the radio play that they get. I think it was an album that captured people's imaginations. The themes in the album are really universal, themes about growing up and dealing with adulthood, responsibilities and regret in life, just basic human themes. These trials and tribulations that everyone experiences at some point in their lives. It really casts a wide human net that people get caught in."
Dark Side of the Moon spent 741 consecutive weeks on the Billboard album chart from 1973 to 1988. While Dark Side of the Moon is believed to be the fourth-best selling album of all time, "Money" was its only charting single in the U.S. and the only Pink Floyd single to crack the top 100 in America in the first 12 years of the band's career.
That unique quality of Pink Floyd's enduring success -- wildly successful albums without a slew of hit singles -- gives PIGS the freedom to dig deeper into their artist's back catalogue than most other tribute artists.
"There's so much stuff to work with and we're finding some interesting combinations," said Howe. "Our first set is a grab bag of Pink Floyd's career. We go back to the early '70s, we go through all of the Roger Waters period. We even dip into the '80s a little bit. We try to do a blend of stuff -- album tracks and stuff that people recognize."
PIGS will even dig into the individual members' solo material on occasion as well.
"I find that's something a lot of bands won't do because they're just a tribute to the main band. We find that thematically a lot of the Floyd solo stuff still works alongside the actual real deal. So we kind of sneak some of that stuff in there too," he said.
The Victoria-based band has been going for a decade but relaunched four years ago after a brief hiatus. That was when Howe came on board and he's enjoyed the opportunity to bring a lot of material he grew up with to a live audience.
"I grew up with the music and I had my favourites like The Wall and Meddle growing up with the cassettes and when I got the opportunity to play with some friends of mine that were doing this I thought 'yeah sure, I'll do this,'" Howe said. "It was a nice challenge and it was a way to give back my appreciation to the music that I grew up with."
Joining Howe are Josh Szczepanowski (David Gilmour role - guitar), Jon Baglo (Snowy White role - guitar), Iain Rose (Nick Mason role - drums), Adam Basterfield (Richard Wright role - keys). They also have a touring saxophone player Dave Lawson and Anneda, a backing singer who is featured on the "Great Gig In The Sky".
Without being locked into a specific look like an Elvis Presley tribute act or the choreography of a Michael Jackson tribute artist, PIGS still has a high bar to try to meet to try to replicate Pink Floyd's lavish stage show. Pink Floyd were pioneers with their giant "Mr. Screen" -- a large, circular projection panel -- that they used on the Dark Side of the Moon tour in 1974 and then moving forward.
Thanks to their collaboration with visual artist VJ Photon, PIGS has their own version of the screen used in conjunction with lasers to help realize the look of a Pink Floyd show.
"They were so visual. The music was obviously the focal point, but it was all tied in," Howe said. "It is kind of our version of Mr. Screen. It's a 20-foot screen and we project all of our visuals onto that. We use some of the vintage visuals -- stuff that had made it onto Mr. Screen before, stuff that's a bit more nondescript. We don't like to use any visuals of the band or anything like that. We'll combine that with some new stuff that hopefully creates something that runs parallel with the music and interacts with it."
Tickets for the show are on sale now and are available through the Cultural Centre box office.
