Yada Yada Yada
By David Haerle
May of 1977 was a pretty good month for me, and I look back on it with great nostalgia.
A couple months earlier, I had been accepted to my first-choice college — the University of California at Santa Barbara (of course I chose a campus perched right above numerous beaches) — and I was coasting through my final month of high school.
The Bay Area was blessing us with wonderful weather for such outings as Senior Ditch Day. Late in that month, I waited in line for two hours to see a new movie everybody was talking about called “Star Wars,” written and directed by a local kid nobody had really ever heard of named George Lucas. We all know how that worked out.
But the highlight of my month — and what I truly consider one of the greatest nights of my 61 years on this planet — came on May 9, 1977, when I had the privilege of seeing Pink Floyd perform live at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena (now called simply the Oakland Arena).
What I did not know going into that somewhat psychotropic-fueled evening was that I was about to witness what many now consider one of the iconic band’s most historic shows. During the close to four-hour production, the band played the entire “Wish You Were Here” album (my personal favorite, btw) in its actual running order — something they’ve only done a few times.
On top of that, they returned for a surprising second encore demanded by one of the most appreciative concert audiences I have ever been a part of. That second encore was the rarely performed “Careful with That Axe, Eugene” — an instrumental piece that was originally released as the B-side of their single “Point Me at the Sky,” and also featured on the “Relics” compilation album.
But it was that performance of “Wish You Were Here” that has stayed with me through the years. It’s a beautifully vivid memory every time I hear a track from that album.
OK, so where am I going with all this?
Well, on Friday, March 27, a Portland-based tribute band called Pigs on the Wing is going to take on that same “Wish You Were Here” feat right here at the 7th Street Theatre in Hoquiam.
“Pigs on the Wing” has been performing around the Northwest for the better part of a decade, and I had a chance to chat with one of the founding members — Jason Baker — earlier this week about the upcoming show.
Baker said his Pink Floyd tribute efforts began in 2006 in one of the band’s earlier incarnations. It wasn’t until some years later that things got a bit more serious.
“At first it started slowly, and then over a couple of years it sort of evolved,” he said. “In 2012, we sort of reformed and really decided to push whatever we could into this project.”
At 42, Baker is a little young to have experienced Pink Floyd’s heyday. But when you consider that the classic 1973 album “Dark Side of the Moon” spent 917 weeks on the Billboard charts — far surpassing any other album in history — you begin to understand that Pink Floyd has become a multi-generational treasure.
“I think I learned about them through my parents, actually,” said Baker, “because I know they were into Pink Floyd.”
So this second-generation Floyd fan now spends a significant portion of each year performing Pink Floyd’s compositions in venues around the Northwest, including multiple performances at Rhythm & Rye, a cozy little nightclub in downtown Olympia.
“That’s been a stalwart spot for us now for a few years,” said Baker. “It’s one of the smallest venues on our tours, but we keep going back.”
“Pigs on the Wing” has never made it to Grays Harbor before, but Baker said the band is looking forward to performing at the 7th Street, having heard about its historical nature and interior art-deco style.
“That’s part of why were coming,” he said. “I guess it’s exactly the type of venue for the scale of this show.”
And the Hoquiam show — the first stop on their upcoming tour — is centered around that “Wish You Were Here” album, which the band will perform from beginning to end as its first set.
“This is the very first night of that production,” which the band has been rehearsing for months, said Baker. “It’s a pretty big operation. … We have a full little entourage that comes with us to handle lights, sound and projection. We have a great team of people.”
He said it will be about a two-hour show, with the second set featuring numerous Pink Floyd standards.
“If you like Pink Floyd, that will be the place to be,” he concluded.
Pigs on the Wing band members are Baker (guitar, vocals), Matt Jones (keyboards, vocals), Eric Welder (bass), Bryan Fairfield (drums), David Lindenbaum (guitar, vocals), Holly Brooks (backing vocals) and Pete Galluzzo (saxophone).
General admission to the March 27 show is $22 (plus a small service charge), available only through brownpapertickets.com.
I will see you there.
David Haerle is city editor of The Daily World and a resident of downtown Hoquiam. He paid $14 for reserved floor seats to see Pink Floyd’s “In the Flesh” tour in 1977. Reach him at dhaerle@thedailyworld.com.
Pigs on the Wing band members goofing around, from left: Eric Welder (bass), Holly Brooks (backing vocals), David Lindenbaum (guitar and vocals), Pete Galluzzo (saxophone), Bryan Fairfield (drums), Matt Jones (keyboards and vocals) and Jason Baker (guitar and vocals).
