Goodbye Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett, Rest in Peace and Shine On

Only a few days before the DVD release of Pink Floyd's Pulse concert, their founder, the legendary Syd Barrett passed away July 7th, 06 at age 60. I dedicate this review to him. Shine on You Crazy Diamond.

Pink Floyd In Concert PULSE is a live concert set done at Earl's Court, London, England in 1994. Years ago this concert was out on VHS, and CD. I bought Pulse when it came out on CD, because it had a blinking LED light in it, and really cool packaging. It was a double CD set that I still listen to today. I also still own my original VHS copy which is alongside the as of yet not out on DVD Delicate Sound of Thunder VHS concert tape. Of course, if you haven't figured it out by this point in my review, I am a major Pink Floyd fan. This two DVD set is in a word AWESOME, and Pink Floyd fans should immediately go out and buy it.

A bit about the DVD Cool new cover art graces the 2 DVD set looking like two giant eyeballs set atop one another on a beach. The pupils of the eyes look like planets passing by a total eclipse of the sun. Inside on the right, two DVDs are set inside slightly overlapping each other. You have to remove the first DVD to get the second one out. On the left is a postcard, reminding you that David Gilmour's solo album is out, and liner notes telling you what is on the DVD along with some photographs of the concert. It is nicely done and will fit well next to Pink Floyd-Live at Pompeii, Pink Floyd - The Wall, Roger Waters the Wall, Roger Waters In the Flesh, and David Gilmour in Concert which I know all you Floyd fans already own on DVD. The concert itself is 145 minutes (thats 2 hours and 25 minutes!) of Pink Floyd goodness.

The Band As many Pink Floyd fans know, by 1994, the acrimonious split between Gilmour and Waters had occured, so Roger Waters is not in this concert performance.

Pink Floyd is: David Gilmour- Guitar, Vocals Nick Mason - drums Richard Wright - keyboards.

Also featured: Sam Brown, Claudia Fontain and Durga McBroom- backing vocals, Jon Carin - keyboards, Dick Parry - saxaphone, Guy Pratt - bass guitars, Tim Renwick - guitars and Gary Wallis - percussion.

Setting the Stage The stage set is incredible, a giant half clam shell with a giant circular video screen behind the band. Even the back of the clamshell acts as a screen for various psychedelic lighting effects and video backdrops. Multicolored Lights and laser effects abound with the band performing on a huge stage amidst the smoke and lighting. The video screen behind shows clips of various things ranging from live action video and imaginative cartoons, all perfectly in time with the music. If you've ever seen Pink Floyd in concert, you will know just what I mean. This DVD set does a great job of capturing the incredible presence of the band from a crashing plane to a giant expanding mirror ball that closes the show.

The Performance The band is just fantastic that is really what I think The show starts off with the Syd Barrett tribute song, a long incredible version of Shine on You Crazy Diamond.Come on you boy child, you winner and loser, Come on you miner for truth and delusion and SHINE. From the opening notes reverberating from Gilmour's shiny red Fender Stratocaster, you just KNOW, you are in for a treat. The three back up singers sing the chorus beautifully and Dick Parry is incredible as he blows into a huge alto saxaphone, then in one quick movement, switches to the alto sax strapped behind him. An incredible spatial backdrop is behind the band, and the childlike innocence of the 60's that Barrett founded the band is shown on the giant video screen. It is a powerful moving song and a great start to a great show.

The band then launches into their post Waters material, performing Learning to Fly, High Hopes, Take it Back, Coming Back to Life, Sorrow and Keep Talking from Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. Stephen Hawkings comptuer like voice opens Keep Talking while cool images of computer chips and fractals loom behind the band. A simple busy signal on the phone interrupted by the sound of a helicopter flying around the room introduces Another Brick in the Wall (part 2). Afterwards One of these Days (from the album Meddle.) closes disc one. Drummer Nick Mason utters his infamous line one of these days I'm going to cut you up into little pieces! at the end of this cool instrumental. (Mason's line is the only lyric in the whole song)

The second disc features the band performing the ENTIRE album Dark Side of the Moon rock history's longest charting album and in my opinion one of the finest albums ever released in the history of music. (DSOTM was on BillBoard's Top 200 selling albums for eleven YEARS, placing it squarely in the record books). Dark Side makes great use of the 5.1 sound, because Pink Floyd, even in concert makes extensive use of rear channels set up around and behind their audiences. Footsteps can be heard running all around on Speak to Me and the classic clang of cash registers can be heard on Money. I also thought that it was very amusing to see images of George Bush, Sr., Margaret Thatcher, Saddam Hussein and other world leaders on the giant video screen as Glmour sang the lunatics are on the grass in the song Brain Damage. The show closes with three more Pink Floyd classics Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb and Run Like Hell. The performance on this concert was incredible.

Video Quality/Choreography This DVD set is in outstanding DVD quality picture. I had no problems watching this on my movie screen (Dalite Cinamavision 105" widescreen movie screen). Color, sharpness and detail looked great. Widescreen fans may be a bit disappointed that it was shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio, but that was how it was filmed, so that is how it is presented. The band is clearly shown, you can watch sweat dripping down David Gilmour's face as his fingers bend the notes on his red Fender Stratocaster (or Telecaster or acoustic, he switches guitars frequently) Laser light effects look terrific against black backdrops, and the lighting effects the band uses are captured very well. The only thing better truly would have been to be there.

Audio Quality Wow! audio here is amazing! I've seen Pink Floyd twice, Roger Waters 3 times and David Gilmour solo once, and I can tell you that the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix really captures this show with great sound! Pink Floyd is a band that uses rear surround channels behind the audience for amazing spatial effects and the same sort of effects are fully utilized here. The Dolby Digital mix is offered in two versions, and I regret to say I couldn't play the higher resolution mix, I am not sure what sort of equipment would have been necessary to play it. (I use Pioneer Elite DVD players, the 45A and the 47A). Pulse also includes a stereo mix. It doesn't include a DTS mix, but the Dolby Digital mix was so well done here that I am most happy. The sound stage will fill your living room or home theater room with sound, this is a concert meant to be played loudly. The concert also has amazing bass. My subwoofer was pumping out some of the low bass sounds on a regular basis, some notes just resonate into those lower frequencies and can be felt in your chest just like at a concert! (assuming you have a subwoofer up to the task of recreating concert level volumes, I use a Velodyne SPL 1000 series II, with 1000 watts RMS, 2000 watt peak) The sound is Pink Floyd perfection!

DVD Extras Disc 1

Bootlegging the bootleggers is a collection of four songs that were filmed by bootleggers apparently. The songs are What Do You Want from Me, On the Turning Away, Poles Apart and Marooned. They are all also of surprisingly good audio and video quality.

Screen Films allows you to watch just what was on the giant video screen behind the band. It's kind of cool, and the audio portion is the same.

Videos Two music videos are included, the ones for Learning to Fly and Take it Back.

Tour Stuff This has Maps showing all the cities the band played in, Itinerary showing all the dates, and stage plans showing sketches of the elaborate concert stage.

Pulse TV Ad This was pretty cool, since I had apparently missed it on television. It's a very cool imaginative television ad for the release of Pulse.

DVD Extras Disc 2

Screen Films Like what you saw on the giant circular video screen behind the band ? If you want to, you can watch just the video portions with the music! Hit the film screen option, and you will just be watching the crazy visual montages that accompanied the band performing Dark Side of the Moon and the encore songs.

Say Goodbye to Life as We Know It A behind the scenes look at the band before the concert! The intense effort to set up the fantastic stage of Pink Floyd is shown.

Photo Gallery is a photo gallery of the concert.

Wish You Were Here with Billy Corgan When Pink Floyd was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, Smashing Pumpkin's singer Billy Corgan gave a moving poignant speech introducing the band. His speech was very emotional and moving as he discussed how Pink Floyd's music personally touched him as he grew up in the 70's and 80's. He had found solace in the song Wish You Were Here when his grandmother was diagnosed with cancer and died from it. This introduction made the song even more meaningful and deep when the band performed it with Billy Corgan playing on the acoustic guitar. so, so you think you can tell? heaven from hell? blue skies from pain? It was the most moving performance of this song I have ever seen. how I wish, how I wish you were here

Cover Art showcases the legendary cover art and album art of Pink Floyd.

Additional Credits gives credit due to EVERYONE involved in the production of the concert and the concert film right down to tour bus drivers and road crew.

Summary This is one outstanding concert in all aspects, audio quality, video quality, and performance. Five Stars.