Show takes Floyd lovers to the Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd Niagara conjures classic rock at Kingston College

The flying pig was going to cost $15,000. Not a problem for the Pink Floyd. But Pink Floyd Niagara had to draw the line. It’s one of the few corners Larry Swiercz was willing to cut this summer. Everything else - from the sound system, to the lights, to the 11-piece band required to pull it off - wasn’t an issue, it was all essential to putting on one of the most meticulous, mindbending Pink Floyd re-creations Niagara has ever seen.

But still … that pig would have been nice. “It would have been a 20-foot helium pig we would have flown outside, to catch attention,” says Swiercz. “You’d be able to see it from the States.” He’ll have to settle for a show that’s drawing raves as it wraps up a two-month stay at the Niagara Centre for the Performing Arts.

Located in the non-touristy area of Epworth Circle, the two and a half hour concert revisits Pink Floyd’s elaborate 1994 “Pulse” tour, which set new standards for sound and stage design. It’s not as well-regarded as the “Animals” or “The Wall” tours among serious Floyd fans (for one thing, singer Roger Waters was long gone by that point), but for pure spectacle, it was tough to beat. “The ‘Pulse’ tour was the most bombastic,” says Swiercz, who first saw Pink Floyd in the early ‘70s. “That over-the-top production … it was one of their first tours you could actually watch.”

After a bevy of Floyd classics, the band returns from intermission to play the “Dark Side of the Moon” album in its entirety. Lots of bands do it, admits Swiercz, but many of them “cut corners” by prerecording some segments. The way Swiercz sees it, even Pink Floyd needed 11 people on stage to do “Dark Side” justice. “Why set the bar low?,” he says. “Set it high. “It’s such an iconic album. If you put it on with headphones, guaranteed you’ll hear something you didn’t hear the last time. It’s a masterpiece even by today’s standards.”

The long road to Pink Floyd Niagara started in the ‘70s for Swiercz. He formed the prog rock band Spectrum with two friends from Fanshaw College, Greg Johns and Rick Neufeld, and toured the country for six years. After they disbanded, Johns actually worked for Pink Floyd as a sound technician for 1987’s “Momentary Lapse of Reason” tour. He also played in the Floyd tribute band Think Freud.

A few years ago, Swiercz started thinking about a Floyd-ish show for Niagara Falls. The two biggest hurdles were finding a band up to the task, and a venue to put them in. The Avalon Ballroom at Niagara Fallsview Casino was considered, but the band required one theatre it could stay put in for the whole summer. The only other option was the 1,000-seat Niagara Centre for the Performing Arts, inside Kingston College. It allowed the band to set up a few hundred thousand dollars worth of lights and equipment and fine tune the show throughout the summer. Among the big selling points: A quadraphonic sound system that pumps in music from all four corners of the theatre. Johns had to contact a Hollywood company to get what he wanted. The theatre’s lighting system had to be removed to install the Floyd show’s requirements. In total, about 250,000 watts are used. The band even uses authentic Moog Music Inc. equipment. In the 1970s, Moog’s synthesizers were a crucial component of prog rock. “It’s a custom, patented sound,” says Johns.

Everyone in the band plays key parts, from the guitarist who also controls the background visuals via computer, to the back up singers who steal the show during “The Great Gig in the Sky.” “It’s a really highly choreographed show” says Johns, “if you’re not on, you’ll blow it.”

After tonight, the band performs four more shows – Saturday night, Aug. 30, Aug. 31, and Sept. 1. All shows start at 8 p.m. Swiercz is looking to bring the show elsewhere over the winter, possibly Hong Kong, but intends to be back in Niagara Falls next summer. ”We’ve learned a lot about how Niagara Falls operates.”

Niagara Review
Author: JOHN LAW
Date: August 24, 2007