Pink Floyd is back. Sadly, their latest tour stop is not UB. However, their music, four lasers, and a visual show aptly named "Spectacular" will be bringing Pink Floyd from the record bin to the stage.
Paramount's Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular will be performing at the Center for the Arts at 8 p.m. Saturday night in what promises to be a mind-blowing experience with cutting-edge laser technology, computer-generated graphics and video animation, with Floyd's music blaring in the foreground.
In its 19th year touring internationally, the Laser Spectacular has developed a cult following. They perform about 90 dates a year and as technology progresses, so does the show. The new graphic and laser technology has helped the show evolve year after year.
During the two-hour-and-20-minute show, graphics and animations are projected onto three huge screens while colored lasers fly over the crowd. It's not your typical laser light show.
"If you've ever seen a planetarium laser show, this is nothing like it," says Laser Spectacular producer Steve Monistere. "It's a rock show, and the music really comes at you and tells stories."
Pink Floyd's evocative and imaginative rock complements the chaotic multi-colored, criss-crossing lasers.
"Pink Floyd's music is very dramatic and visual," Monistere said. "You can see or imagine images when you listen to their music. Without any lighting effects at all, there is still a show in your mind. Now imagine using lasers, lighting, video, and other special visual effects to interpret what your mind is seeing. That is why people love this show so much."
The show proves that you don't necessarily need a band to have a great concert. The dazzling visuals replace the stage presence of a band and with the 10,000 watts of booming concert-quality sound, it will sound like Pink Floyd is right in front of you.
According to Monistere, the first half of the show is comprised of Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" and ties it to the "Wizard of Oz." Fifteen minutes of the classic film is featured during the show and strangely, "The Dark Side of the Moon" fits the film exquisitely well, as the legend dictates. The second half is a showcase of the Best of Floyd, mainly songs from "The Wall."
"Lasers are beams of highly concentrated light, a light that's brighter than the sun," Monistere said. "They are like no other light source."
Lasers are so concentrated that they are normally used in industrial and medical procedures, and they are often used to cut metal.
Or in this case, they can be used for psychedelic rock shows.
The Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular gives the band's music a visual representation, a kaleidoscopic display that brings their music to life.
Tickets are $21 in advance and $23 on the day of the show. You can purchase special prism glasses for $2 that create an illusion of one image as six images, which should probably make the experience much more enjoyable. Perhaps six times as enjoyable. Six times the more-powerful-than-the-sun laser lights.
