David Gilmour – Air Canada Centre, Toronto – March 31st, 2016

Review by Mike Bax
Photo by Darren Eagles

“Are you having a good time here tonight? Please say you are!”

An utterly moot question from Mr. David Gilmour during the second lengthy set of songs at the packed Air Canada Center on this evening. EVERYBODY was having a good time!

This first night of two back-to-back, sold-out Toronto shows for David Gilmour (the much revered Pink Floyd guitarist) went off without a hitch. Well, a small hitch as Gilmour gaffed the vocals to start ‘Faces of Stone’ but quickly corrected himself. I don’t think anybody really paid it much mind to it at all. Arranged in front of a large circular video screen rimmed with bright directional lights, there were up to ten musicians on stage for some of the songs, including Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera.

Accompanying David Gilmour on stage for this tour were Phil Manzanera (Guitar – Vocals), Joao Mello (Saxophone), Guy Pratt (Bass Guitar – Vocals), Jon Carin / Kevin McAlea (Keyboards – Vocals), Bryan Chambers / Louise Marshall / Lucita Jules (Backing Vocals) and Steve Distanislao (Drums). The North American tour touches down in only four cities – Toronto, L.A., Chicago and New York and fans and fanatics showed up in droves. The two gentlemen seated behind me both from outside North America were thrilled to be seeing Gilmour.

Seventy years old now, Gilmour worked his way through the first three songs on his 2015 release Rattle That Lock before interspersing material from his extensive back-catalog of music, casting the net as far back as 1967 with ‘Astronomy Domine’ from Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn album. This evening played out as two hour-long sets of material with a two-song encore. Everything he played from his solo career was taken from Rattle That Lock except for one song; ‘The Blue’ from 2006’s An Island. His Pink Floyd material lifted from both pre and post Roger Waters’ inceptions of Pink Floyd, three of the songs included ‘Money’, ‘Us and Them’ and ‘Time’ from 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon.

Fans of all shapes and sizes showed up for this – men and women spanning 5 generations of music fans swooned along to ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ as Gilmour and company time warped everyone back forty years in time with his illustrious guitar solos.

From a man of his caliber, I expected nothing less than what this evening was – a celebration of a musicianship delivered to perfection by a celebrated musician. He’s going to do it all over again tonight. There were some last minute side view tickets released for this show yesterday and there are still a few left on Ticketmaster. It’s not too late to say you saw a living legend when he plays again this evening. TICKETS

Set 1
5 A.M.
Rattle That Lock
Faces of Stone
Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
What Do You Want from Me? (Pink Floyd)
A Boat Lies Waiting
The Blue
Money (Pink Floyd)
Us and Them (Pink Floyd)
In Any Tongue
High Hopes (Pink Floyd)

Set 2
Astronomy Domine (Pink Floyd)
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) (Pink Floyd)
Fat Old Sun (Pink Floyd)
Coming Back to Life (Pink Floyd)
The Girl in the Yellow Dress
Today
Sorrow (Pink Floyd)
Run Like Hell (Pink Floyd)

Encore:
Time (Pink Floyd)
Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd)

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