By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
It was the summer of ’74.
I could hear the growling engine of my brother’s black ’68 Chevy Camaro as he pulled into our driveway. I raced to get outside before he shut off the engine.
Something was coursing through the undercoat of that car, up through the engine block, through the interior haze and out the just slightly lowered front door windows, taking me from elementary into 8th grade adolescence… my first exposure to the synthesizer styled “On The Run” from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album.
On Feb. 15-16 my feeling of youthful independence, now elderly remembrance, will be ignited again by a live tribute to the entire Pink Floyd album (first released in March 1973), at the Performing Art Center.
The show is the brainstorm of Drew Sherman, on bass, and Joe Mantagna, guitar, who have assembled local performers including: vocals - Andrew Hames, Jen Reid, Abby Saiz; guitar - Bob Jacobs; drums - Ed Littlefield; percussion & electronics - Gus “and Them” Cannizzaro; synthesizer - Peter Apathy; piano & synth - Cora Dow.
Drew Sherman mixes sound today at the Odess Theater. Sherman will be one of several musicians playing at the upcoming tribute to Pink Floyd. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
The band is age-related to Pink Floyd, except for high schoolers Saiz and Dow, and has rehearsed for more than six weeks.
Mantagna said it’s been his favorite album since he was a young child. He owned it on cassette and now has a remastered copy on vinyl. Sherman has an original vinyl pressing.
Mantagna said it was the first album he listened to from start to finish at age 12, not selecting a track, just experiencing the full recorded bliss. Sherman remembers driving around in his VW Campmobile late at night just waiting for this album to finish before heading to bed. No matter the number of plays he always heard something new in it.
Sherman said the capabilities of the PAC will showcase a video backdrop, moving-light show, haze, a re-tuned PA, and 360-degree quadraphonic surround sound. Mantagna said Andrew Hames, doing most of the lead vocals, is “the guy’”and Jen Reid sings a hauntingly beautiful version of “Great Gig In the Sky” that gave him goosebumps the first time it was heard in rehearsals.
As for me, that Camaro was long ago laid to rest… but I still have the bell bottoms, V-cut shirt, and blocked-heeled shoes of a wannabe rebel, and those same tunes that keep him moving along down the highway in his twilight adventures to come.
Peace.
See you at The Dark Side of the Moon. Or as Abbey Road Studios doorman Gerry O’Driscoll says in an interview cut into the end of “Eclipse,” the album’s closing track, “There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark.”
• WHERE - Sitka Performing Arts Center.
• WHEN - Feb. 15-16 (Fri-Sat). • TIME - 7 p.m.
• TICKETS - $10 at Old Harbor Books, online at fineartscamp.org and at the PAC door.
Q&A With Producers DREW
SHERMAN & JOE MANTAGNA
Q: HOW DID THE TRIBUTE HAPPEN?
DS - We met when Joe moved here and our musical tastes are very similar, we hit it off immediately. After jamming a bit and doing a few live shows our love for Pink Floyd, particularly the album Dark Side of the Moon, made us both wonder if we could ever do it live here in Sitka. When I said we should do it, we have some time here, he replied “Done! When’s first rehearsal?!” Roger Schmidt from SFAC overheard, immediately supported us and booked us two nights at the PAC so we HAD to start rehearsals between SlackTide holiday gigs, Austin’s basketball games, Drew’s SFAC duties, most of us getting the flu... but we made it happen.
JM - When I first moved to Sitka the PAC had just opened and I produced a locals-only show “Sitkapalooza,” so us locals got a taste of what that stage was like and it was mind blowing! Then a year later my KiSS tribute band “Dressed to Kill” came from NYC we rocked the PAC in full makeup - so the time was finally right to continue my enjoyment of bringing theatrical rock, this time psychedelically through Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.”
Q: WHY THIS ALBUM?
DS - We wanted to start our full album concerts with something people knew, but maybe hadn’t sat down and listened to in awhile. There’s a ton of subtle things going on in the record, and we wanted to dive in deep to really see what the album was about. It contained not only great playing and singing, but many odd sounds and things people had not heard before...
JM - The songs are great. The textures are beautifully pieced together from start to finish starting mellow, haunting vocal climaxes in the middle and big choruses to end with a singalong of happiness. It’s amazing how long this album broke records by being on the charts in the top 200 longer than any other album in history.”
Q: WHAT DID THE ALBUM MEAN TO YOU GROWING UP?
DS - The first time I heard it, I listened to it front to back, then again, and again. It’s discovery coincided with being able to drive, so I wore out several tapes of it while cruising around town. It was the background music to my high school career 28 years after it was released.
JM - It was the first time I felt I had “experienced” a full album of recorded music and was completely blown away, if it didn’t shred like Van Halen in 1984 for me it didn’t matter - except for Dark Side of the Moon. I had a similar experience with “The Wish You Were Here” record, especially “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”- but Dark Side I would get lost inside my headphones with that one.
Q: WHAT SHOULD WE WATCH/LISTEN FOR?
JM - We don’t have real English accents for one, but our vocals will capture the vibe and we are bringing visual aids of all sorts utilizing things at the PAC that have not really been down before, especially with a live rock band, we’re going to “show off” what that amazing theater is really capable of.
Dark Side of the Moon, a Bright Side of Youth
