Comfortably Dumb

The Pantages Theatre is three blocks from where I work and seven blocks from where I live (well, ten blocks now that I've moved). When I saw that The Pink Floyd Experience was coming, I knew I had to check it out. So check it out I did.

What I sought was a conditioned response. I listened to Dark Side of the Moon hundreds of times in college dorm rooms, and probably saw the midnight movie of The Wall eight or nine times. Needless to say, few (if any) of those times involved keen mental acuity. Those experiences were soft, mystical and dreamy and I figured the music was so imprinted to that state of consciousness that just hearing it again would reprise it.

Nope.

At one point I was so bored, I entertained myself by coming up with scathing review headlines (Comfortably Dumb being my obvious favorite, with Shine On You Crazy Cubic Zirconia in 2nd place). I worried about things I'd forgotten to do at work that day. I rolled my eyes at the poorly executed "If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding!" Damn. Couldn't they have gotten that right? I love that line. I've been known to walk by someone's desk and say that line just because I feel like it.

One segment, an unexpected one, was brilliant. It was a tribute to Syd Barrett. I didn't recognize the song, but it was gorgeous and the accompanying visual effects were water color-y and sublime. If the whole show had been like that I would have been in heaven. Unfortunately the lighting was garish and overdone, consisting too often of shining woken-from-a-nightmare glaring blue light into the audience, producing a "Stop it, dammit!" reaction (perhaps the less high strung perceived it differently).

Take a second and try to picture the audience. If you are picturing 60 year old men in tie dye t-shirts and long gray ponytails you've pretty much got it right. You can't go back again, but perhaps they never left. I have in no uncertain terms moved on from who I was 30 years ago. I've had to. I hate to say it, but The Pink Floyd Experience underscored for me the fact that I am so centered in the harsh reality of the real world that I can rarely, if ever, relax. I miss the times when I could not only relax but float to the edge of a world so vast, so beautiful, and so mysterious that just a glimpse was an enormous priviledge.