T5CE - #1 : Pink Floyd (09/17/72)

Top 5 Concerts Ever : #1

Pink Floyd - Big Surf - 17 September 1972

Anyone who has ever seen a Pink Floyd concert will surely include them somewhere in their top 5 concerts. For me, this was the best concert ever, although its probably a tie with the Springsteen concert listed below.

This was the first of three times that I've seen PF. See the Elton John listing below for comments about Big Surf.

The circumstances were similar to Bruce. PF's most-recent album was Meddle, which recieved extensive local air-play by KDKB. But nationwide, the Boys of Floyd were still relatively unknown. That would change in another year or so, when Dark Side Of The Moon came out.

So once again, we have a crowd of 5,000-10,000 or so. 99% of which are psychedelicized and partaking of the sacred weed. Camped out on the beach of Big Surf, coming on, grooving in cosmic unity, and listening to Pink Floyd. Who did mostly stuff from Meddle of course, but IIRC, they also played some tracks from the upcoming DSoTM.

HIGHLIGHT : Their closing number was 'Echoes' from Meddle. And just as they got to the really spacy part of the song, wouldn't you know it - a storm blows in. Talk about cosmic timing.

I still can see David Gilmour's waist-length hair blowing at a 45 degree angle as the front hit. And 10,000 hippies sighed a collective "Ooooooo" in contented amazement, and swore this was a sign from God that Pink Floyd was the best band ever. The storm kept coming, the song kept getting spacier, and just when you thought it couldn't get any better....

....the first drops of rain hit. And Pink Floyd packed up their guitars and announced that the concert was over.

And 10,000 hippies howled their protest for PF ruining their best psychedelic trip ever.

And, in a scene hauntingly similar to the "Danny O'Keefe incident detailed below, PF came back on-stage to explain things. And it went something like this...

"Look, mates. Its raining! We play electric guitars up here. If we stand out in the rain, we're gonna get electrocuted. 'Echoes' was the last song of the evening, so you haven't missed much of the concert anyway."

I suppose that's perfectly logical to a crowd not under the influence of chemicals, but we of course felt that it was quite okay for Pink Floyd to sacrifice their lives, as long as they finished the bloody song!

Alas, PF was adamant in their desire to go on living, and thus ended the concert. Still, that perfect synchronization of weather effects with the song Echoes can never be repeated.

LOWLIGHT : Well, not the incompleted finale. But there was this couple, obviously wasted, who kept wandering through the crowd, screaming, "Reds! 'Ludes! Anybody got some Reds? Anyone got any kind of downers?" At the top of their lungs. IIRC (and I wasn't in a particularly good state to remember correctly), someone finally gave them something halfway thru the concert just to shut them up. Still, the incident somwhow fit nicely into the cosmic harmony of the concert.