›› MUSiC
Marin-agumma! Another Floyd in Marin, part II... by G r e g Cahill
I
n one of the more obscure chapters of Marin County’s lauded rock history, the British band Pink Floyd—in all its psychedelic glory—performed at Pepperland Auditorium, a small ballroom on East Francisco Boulevard in San Rafael. The date was Oct. 17, 1970, and the band tripped its way through 20-minute versions of “Atom Heart Mother,” “A Saucerful of Secrets” and other bona fide psyche classics. Eddie Berman wasn’t there. But Berman, then a 15-year-old tucked away in the bedroom of his family home, became a fan that same year listening to those same songs from Pink Floyd’s sprawling Ummagumma album on his stereo. “I experienced my first [Pink Floyd] show at a junior college in New York in 1971, where they did ‘Atom Heart Mother’ and other material of that era,” Berman says. “The following May, at Carnegie Hall, I saw the band perform an early unfinished version of Dark Side of the Moon, called Eclipse back then, and then saw the finished Dark Side at Radio City Music Hall the week the album came out. “Back then, my life revolved around
Pink Floyd, the Dead, the Allman Brothers and Zappa.” These days, life for drummer Berman— who did a long stint during the ’80s as a member of the popular Motown dance bands the Zasu Pitts Memorial Orchestra and Big Bang Beat—still revolves around Pink Floyd: He’s the timekeeper with House of Floyd, a committed Pink Floyd tribute band. The band is the brainchild of Mark Showalter, a Bay Area singer, keyboardist and saxophonist who worked as a sideman with the Gregg Allman Band. These days, the seven-person roster includes Berman (drums), Showalter (lead vocals, keyboards, sax), his wife, Sheri Showalter (vocals), Pat Potter (guitar), Lou Portela (bass), Joe Bartone (guitar, lapsteel, keyboards, vocals) and Mellissa Harley (vocals and percussion). The shows feature a computer-generated laser light show, a flying pig and film projections. House of Floyd plays everything from early Syd Barrett-era Floyd to more recent David Gilmour material. And it performs entire albums, including Dark
‘And any fool knows a dog needs a home, a shelter from pigs on the wing’— Eddie Berman, et al, recreating that live Floyd experience in Big Sur.
Side of the Moon and The Wall. But, Berman points out, House of Floyd’s real strength is that it endeavors to capture the essence of Floyd’s live shows, like that legendary Pepperland concert. “I’ve been a collector of live recordings [since the ’70s], and what I bring to House of Floyd is the aesthetic and recollections of the old Floyd,” Berman explains. “While too many know Pink Floyd from the post-Roger Waters era, where the band basically performed a well-rehearsed set night after night, I opened this band’s eyes to the days when Pink Floyd experimented, when each show was new and different, even if the songs were the same. We certainly can’t have that
magic, but we can at least use their live performances as starting points, rather than trying to replicate the studio versions. “It’s really too bad that they never released any live material from those early years, because it’s very good music. They swung for the fences, not unlike the Allmans and the Dead, sometimes missing, but often scoring big.” ✹ Journey through the past with Greg at gcahill51@gmail.com.
›› READ OF THE WEEK The Beatles vs. the Rolling Stones: Sound Opinions on the Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Rivalry (Voyageur Press) by Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot This was rock’s greatest rivalry. Or not.The Beatles were white (think White Album), the Stones were black (as in“Paint It Black”); the Beatles were poppy (except when they weren’t), the Stones were bluesy (except when they were poppy); the Beatles were clean-cut (except when they were leatherclad or bearded), the Stones were unkempt and unruly (well, sometimes).The fact is, the Beatles and the Stones were friends and colleagues: For their second single, the Stones recorded the Lennon/McCartney song “I Wanna Be Your Man,” the Stones can be heard on the Beatles’“All You Need is Love” and the bands reportedly timed the release of their albums so as not to compete.Yet, the debate rages in the pages of this thoroughly entertaining book from college lecturer Jim DeRogatis and Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot, who stake out their respective positions. I’m not looking for a fight, but I love this stupid book, which is chock-full of rare photos and sonic sundry.—GC
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›› pacificsun.com/music 28 PACIFIC SUN DECEMBER 17 - DECEMBER 23, 2010