I wrote and published this following review of this phenomenal concert some time ago. But being that this day marks the 20th anniversary of this phenomenal show, and day, it seems fitting (at least to me) to publish something in recognition of such an anniversary.
My God! Has it already been two full decades exactly since the day that I saw this concert - one of the most memorable concerts that I have ever seen?
And, it goes without saying, this is a legendary band. They did not come around often. So, when my brother told me that he and my father were interested in going, and asked me if I would like to go, as well, of course I immediately said yes! I was familiar with Dark Side of the Moon (who isn't?), since both my brother and father had played it for years, as well as many of their other works. Personally, I became completely obsessed with "The Wall"for a couple of years or so following Roger Water's concert in Berlin in 1990. Although I was bummed out that Waters was no longer a part of Pink Floyd, I nonetheless felt very privileged to be going to such an amazing show!
It was New York City. Yankees Stadium, specifically, and my first trip there. The city felt almost jovial, because the New York Rangers either had just won, or were about to win, the Stanley Cup, breaking their 54 year drought. I am not a Rangers fan, but I was happy for those who are, and enjoyed the festive atmosphere. Also, the Knicks were doing very well, in the NBA Finals against the Houston Rockets, although that would not turn out as well for them. But at the time, it felt like anything was possible. The city was a great place to be, and we were there on that day. It was to see a great and legendary band. I had my first independent job ever, and was making money (not much, but it was a salary, and I was proud at the time).
In short, this was a good time in my life. For whatever reason, despite some of the problems (like no girlfriend) that I was having at the time, I remember 1994, and specifically, the first eight months or so of 1994, very fondly. And the day of the Pink Floyd concert was one of the highlights. I went with my brother and my father, and even though the seats were not exactly great, the price was not so outrageously expensive back then as they have become since. What makes this memory extra special to me was that it was not just about the concert, although it was truly an incredible, and very memorable, concert! We made a day of it, and the weather could not have been more accommodating.
Of course, Yankee Stadium is in the Bronx, and the Bronx is where I was born, and where my family used to live. So, we visited the old neighborhoods, including Jerome Avenue. There was an element of exoticism in this, funny as it may sound, because we hardly ever go to New York City together as a family, and trips to the Bronx are even rarer (for instance, I do not remember a trip back since this day). But we enjoyed it on that day. We then went to the Bronx Botanical Gardens, which are very beautiful, and which my family did used to visit during my childhood, even though we had not been back there in years (and have not been back since).
And then, of course, the concert. Everything felt perfect. I loved the new album, "The Division Bell", and the sound was crisp and clear- more so than almost any concert I can remember to date. There was the laser show, of course. And there was the pleasant feel of being in New York City on a warm, summer evening, in the open air, listening to some great music. It was a long concert, and at the time, I got the mistaken impression that three hour concerts was the norm. Later that year, I would get a bootleg of the show, which I still have somewhere. I remember feeling just great as we headed home afterward, happy to have gone, and happy for the day, and when I think back to that day, and that concert, there is that kind of fuzzy warmth that comes with pleasant memories. I am especially grateful since this was apparently the last real opportunity to have seen Pink Floyd! They would not officially disband or anything, but they would not come back around to the United States after that tour, and never released another actual album.
The Rangers were on the verge of winning the Stanley Cup. I distinctly remember this simply because lots of people in attendance were chanting "We want the Cup! We want the Cup!" I remember Pop's slightly disgusted reaction to that, finding it rather pathetic that people would be focused on that while in attendance to see a concert. As for the day and the show, I too look back on it fondly. I'm a highly (excessively, in some ways) nostalgic person, so as a general rule I'm happy to revisit old stomping grounds, particularly when it's been a while since my last sojourn there. The concert was certainly memorable, even if Roger Waters was still in the midst of his feud with the rest of PF at that point and therefore not there, and even if I'm not entirely certain we were in the same area code as the band. (I've grown tired of stadium and arena shows over the years as you know, but didn't really mind at that point.) That was a big concert year for us, actually, since if I'm not mistaken 94 was also the year we went to see two of the major British Invasion bands, the Stones and the Who.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's right. 1994 was a big concert for us, with Pink Floyd, the Stones, that horrendous Metallica show at the Orange County Fairgrounds that did not even come close to being on the level of that first time that we saw them, as well as Kitaro and the Z-100 Acoustic Christmas (which featured a whole bunch of artists, including Green Day, Hole, Weezer, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Melissa Ethridge, Sheryl Crow, Bon Jovi, and the Indigo Girls. We did see the Who in the nineties, but that was a couple of years later, in 1996, a few weeks either before or after we saw Kiss.
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