The show would be one of the last rehearsals of the “Animals” album, which was going to be played in its entirety. In comparison to the gig at De Vereeniging, this one was going to be more about music and less about show. I wasn’t surprised to see that the youth center had almost sold out; the music of Pink Floyd will always attract fans longing to revive their fading memories but also a lot of young people appreciate the music of these rock dinosaurs and came to see Pink Noise.

There are a few Pink Floyd releases in my collection, but “Animals” isn’t one of them. When the first chords kicked in though, I realized that I was familiar with most of the music from the Roger Waters show in Ahoy, more than a year ago. Pink Noise started out slightly nervous. I was told that the warm up gig before the “The Wall” shows were far from being flawless, so that’s understandable. The band shouldn’t have worried though. You can imagine a few errors here and there, but I don’t think there were that many people in the crowd that noticed these. Playing in front of the Pink Floyd fan club in Zoetermeer will be quite different, probably every slightly out of tone note, will be noticed.

The band got great response from the crowd, not only because there were a lot of familiar faces and friends present, but also because their successful effort in playing “Animals”. Despite the fact that the musicians are rather static on stage, there was enough going on to please the eye as well as the ears. There was excellent stage lighting and the show was complemented with slideshow projections. As an encore the band played a collection of ‘best of’ Pink Floyd tracks among which the inevitable “Comfortably Numb”, which will always stay a highlight in every show. You could tell that these songs weren’t played for the first time tonight. The band was obviously relieved that “Animals” went beyond expectations, resulting in a more relaxed atmosphere on stage.

I had an excellent evening, again realizing just how special Pink Floyd’s music is. The only down side to tonight’s gig was the realization that I will probably never get the opportunity to see the real Pink Floyd perform live. I’ll have to settle for cover bands like in this case Pink Noise, doing a pretty decent job.

(Review & Pics: Geert Oldenmenger)