Thursday at Fraze: Australian Pink Floyd to deliver hits, curveballs on current world tour
Aug. 30—More than 30 years after forming, the Australian Pink Floyd Show (TAPFS) is a touring juggernaut, traveling the world to remind fans of the musical majesty of Pink Floyd. The tribute act, performing at Fraze Pavilion in Kettering on Thursday, Sept. 1, earned its reputation through its state-of-the-art light show and a devotion to authentically recreating the distinctive sounds of the English progressive rockers.
The current "All That's To Come" world tour includes 50 dates in North America with a setlist that touches nearly every corner of the Pink Floyd universe, except for the 2014 album, "The Endless River." There is material from the debut, "Pipers At the Gates of Dawn," up through the band's 1994 swansong, "The Division Bell."
Singer Chris Barnes, who joined the international collective of musicians in 2016, has been a professional musician since 1992. Before joining the group, he was involved with tributes to Pink Floyd, the Beatles, ABBA and other acts. A longtime fan, he took his wife to a TAPFS gig on their first date in 1999.
Barnes, a British native living in the Manchester area, recently answered some questions during a tour stop in San Francisco.
Q: Is there a particular theme for this tour?
A: This is kind of a catchall of all eras of Pink Floyd. There's isn't an actual theme as such but it's very, very, very heavily filled with the classics. It's the songs you'd want to hear if you went to see a Pink Floyd show and there are some curveballs in there, things like 'Astronomy Domine' from the first album. It's a real mixed bag and we leapfrog from decade to decade. There's all kinds of stuff from the '60s right up to 'The Division Bell.' All the hits you want to hear are in there and there are a few surprises as well. We're honoring that music, that catalog. We can't go wrong because it's such a good set of music to pick from. We can't go out there and play a stinker because the songs are fantastic.
Q: Where was the group when the coronavirus pandemic hit?
A: We had just started our European tour. We had been to Eastern European countries like the Czech Republic and Poland. We had a couple of gigs left in France that got canceled. They just said, "It's OK, we'll come back out in a couple of weeks and do the German gigs." Then, the German gigs were canceled (along with) the American and UK tours. It was a never-ending cycle of, "Oh, my God, this is never going to end." We were unsure of what was going to happen. It was pretty scary, to be honest. No one knew when we'd get to go out again. It was 21 months before we went back out for a UK tour at the end of 2021 and it was great to be back, believe me.
Q: What did you do during lockdown?
A: My wife had just had a baby, (who) was three weeks old when I went off on tour. So, when that all got canceled, I was home three weeks later. I got to spend lots of time with her and see her grow up. I never get that much time at home. I was basically a house husband.
Q: This is such a big group. What's it like touring on that scale?
A: It's like your second family, really. The age range is wide. I'm in the middle now, I'm 45. We've got younger members and older people. It's like a family. You're all there with each other. You look out for each other. If you get a day off, you do things together. Yesterday a few of us hired a car and went around to guitar shops in San Francisco, which was so much fun. You feel like friends away on holiday during a day off and then you get back on the tour bus and you're laughing and joking. I say family and it is the Aussie Floyd family. There's no divide between the crew and band. We're all one family, which is great.
Q: How does it feel to be back in the United States?
A: It's so good to be back. When we landed in LA, everyone was like, "Oh, yeah." We got to that first gig, and when the lights went down, we were like, "Oh, we missed this. This is great." Not that other fanbases aren't great, they're great as well, but there's just something about American crowds. The thing about you guys is you really know how to have a good time. Being British, obviously, it's a bit more reserved and stuff like that. You guys are out to party. It's like, "I remember them being like this. This is great." (laughs) We're just excited to be back on the road playing these fantastic songs for people.
Contact this contributing writer at 937-287-6139 or e-mail at donthrasher100@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
What: The Australian Pink Floyd Show's "All That's To Come" world tour
Where: Fraze Pavilion, 695 Lincoln Park Blvd., Kettering
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1
Cost: $30 lawn & terrace, $55 side orchestra, $60 center orchestra and $65 plaza in advance; ticket prices increase $5 day of show
More info: 937-296-3300 or www.fraze.com
Artist info: aussiefloyd.com
