Witness the man who raves at The Wall

A Floyd tribute band undertakes a full-scale re-creation of Waters' masterpiece

by Mike McInnis

At about 2:30 on a sunny Sunday afternoon, a small group gathers along a mostly-deserted street. There are about a dozen people there when I arrive, but the numbers keep growing. Here, a family of four. There, a pair of 30-somethings wonders aloud whether beer will be served inside. Off to one side are three young teens, looking at once sullen and mischievous. Though he was probably in diapers the last time Pink Floyd toured, one is wearing a Wall t-shirt. A couple in their mid-60s arrives, looking a bit sheepish and somewhat out-of-place, with someone's grandmother in tow. When Pink Floyd last toured, she was already collecting Social Security.

We are waiting to watch a full performance of Pink Floyd's The Wall by Dallas-based tribute band Bricks in the Wall.

"You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't" should be the motto for all tribute bands. They can't win; fans will be disappointed if they don't recreate the sound and atmosphere of the original band well enough, but if they are too faithful to the original, you might as well be at home listening to your old vinyl collection.

Nonetheless, tribute bands are becoming increasingly popular. Perhaps it is the tendency of so many current major acts to rely upon slick production and overblown visuals to compensate for their woeful inadequacies as musicians and performers. Or perhaps it is the fact that so many great bands of the past no longer have the energy or the desire to tour endlessly, leaving new generations of fans longing for the opportunity to classic acts in concert.

Several years ago, amateur guitarist Travis Satterfield decided to try his hand at the tribute band game. He had never been in any other bands, and had basically gotten interested in playing guitar because he wanted to learn how to play Floyd music. He took out an ad in a Dallas-area weekly entertainment newspaper, in hopes of finding some like-minded musicians. Among the first to respond was keyboardist Todd Guinn, who was also a serious Floyd fan. They recruited a few others, and met at Guinn's house to jam. A few false starts aside, things clicked, and Bricks in the Wall was born.

Bricks in the Wall performs about twice a month in a variety of venues around the Dallas-Fort Worth area, sometimes taking the show on the road to Austin, Tyler (Texas), and Ardmore (Oklahoma). They incorporate psychedelic projections (using computer-generated animation instead of liquid oil slide) and films into their show, and strive for an authentic recreation of the Pink Floyd concert experience. Their band is composed of two guitarists, two keyboardists, bass and drums, a saxophone player, and two female backing vocalists.

This lineup allows Bricks in the Wall to perform most of the Floyd's repertoire pretty easily, especially the classic Floyd sound of the mid- to late-1970s. Says Satterfield, "Floyd layered so many parts on their albums there is no way to properly pull it off with one guitar or keyboard. I don't think having all of this [including the backing vocalists and saxophonist] necessarily steers us to the later material. Floyd was layering multiple tracks on their albums before Dark Side. There are multiple guitars and keyboards on most of the albums anyway."

That said, the band's typical setlist is heavy on tunes from Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall. They have explored the post-Waters material on occasion, and their version of "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" features an extended bellydance by one of the ladies. Both Satterfield and Guinn express interest in performing even more early material, such as "Astronomy Domine" and "Careful With That Axe, Eugene". But as Guinn says, "We have worked up some of the early stuff, but it tends to leave several people with nothing to do."

And then there is the question of keeping the audiences happy. Like it or not, most audiences at a Floyd tribute show are going to be much more interested in hearing "Money" or "Run Like Hell" than a 20-minute rendition of "The Embryo", or even "On the Turning Away".

Lights and films help Bricks in the Wall recreate the Floyd experience. (photo from a performance at the Tivoli Theater in Adrmore, Oklahoma)

Like the Floyd, Bricks in the Wall enjoys putting on a good spectacle. When the Floyd released Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd in 2001, the band did a special performance of Dark Side of the Moon at a CD release party. And then about a year ago, Satterfield hit upon the idea of recreating the Floyd's legendary Wall shows. They had played shows at Fort Worth's Ridglea Theatre, a converted cinema that hosts many local bands as well as touring acts looking for an intimate setting. The Ridglea's owners happen to be great Floyd fans, and when the band started talking about the concept, light bulbs started going off, says Guinn.

The Ridglea Theater sponsors a small theater company, called the Box Theater, which performs everything from Shakespeare's King Lear to original plays by Michael Johnson, the company's director. Early on in the planning for the Wall shows, the Ridglea's owners suggested getting the Box Theater involved, to act out some of the story alongside the music. It was an idea that appealed to both the band and the actors. "I believe that if Roger had it to do all over, he may have done it more like this," says Satterfield, "using actors and such. Not so much band involvement."

As plans developed, the band looked for ways to reinvent some of the Floyd's famous staging. "We actually had a plan to build a gigantic teacher," says Satterfield. "But we just ran out of time." "Initially, my idea was to do it exactly like the original Wall show: lots of animation from the movie, and have the whole band come out in front '"In the Flesh' through 'Waiting for the Worms'. But we just couldn't pull it off due to logistics. It would have required two of everything, and re-micing out front. It just would have been too difficult. So we scrapped that idea and just had the Box Theater stage that."

The band gave director Michael Johnson free rein over the actors, although they were allowed to make some suggestions about the costumes and such. Johnson was given a copy of the Is There Anybody Out There live release, and was told that the band would be following the live performance pretty closely (including the performance of "What Shall We Do Now?", extra organ solos in "Another Brick in the Wall, part 2" and "Young Lust", and the extra verse in "The Show Must Go On"). Johnson did request that a few songs be lengthened by a few measures here and there, to accommodate the actors' entrances and changes of scenery. Kids from local schools were recruited to perform "Another Brick in the Wall, part 2", and a high school drama department provided extras for the fascist rally scenes on side 4.

In the weeks leading up to the May 15-16 performances, the band did as much as they could to promote the shows. A local classic rock radio station ran some promo spots, and the morning DJs talked up the performance. An AM sports talk station gave away tickets to the show on the air.

But for the most part, it seemed that the local media outlets weren't sure what to make of this ambitious endeavor. A columnist in the Dallas Observer (that same weekly newspaper that had played such an important role in the band's genesis) seemed genuinely surprised that anyone (especially families with children) could enjoy The Wall without being stoned. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's pre-performance article began by saying that the show would "either be very cool or very comical". In fact, the band itself was a little nervous about the public response, and though a Sunday matinee had been scheduled to follow the Saturday night debut, they weren't certain they were going to go through with it.

But Saturday night's show changed all that. The Ridglea was packed to overflowing. Some 700 people made it in the doors, and between 200 and 300 were turned away. Guinn said, "Saturday night's show was by far the most magical crowd we have ever played for." The audience roared, and cheered, and swayed, cigarette lighters held aloft. There was no doubt about the demand for a Sunday show, which had an audience of about 100.

Upon entering the theater, the audience was greeted by the music of Vera Lynn, including well-known songs such as "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "We'll Meet Again". The band's equipment took up the entire stage, but there was a large area in front of the stage that was clear of chairs, which is where the actors did their performance. I couldn't help notice that there was no room onstage for a wall to be built, and couldn't help but feel a little let down.

Eventually, Michael Johnson came out and introduced himself, and made some announcements requesting that there be no flash photography... and no fireworks. The performance had begun. "I think the band is about ready to start... no... no... not quite yet."

The last time I saw Bricks in the Wall I had been much more impressed by their handling of the Wall material than anything else in the repertoire, so I knew that the music would be solid. They certainly did not disappoint on that score. "In the Flesh?" was tight (and, from my seat just in front of the soundboard, loud). "The Thin Ice" saw the first appearance of the actors, as a small (blond!) boy representing Pink sat in the center of the stage area and played with some toys on the floor. His mother watched him lovingly from a distance, and I was surprised when his father sat on the floor beside him and joined him in his games.

As the song faded into "Another Brick in the Wall, part 1", a man delivered a letter to young Pink's mother, who looked it over and reluctantly handed it to Pink's father. He stood, read it over, hugged his wife, and then solemnly began dressing in a military dress uniform as Pink watched frozen in his place. The father then approached the boy, hugged him warmly, and waved goodbye to mother and child. He then walked over to the stack of large white boxes (which I swear I hadn't really noticed until this point), took one, and slowly made his way to the bandstand and placed the first brick in Pink's wall at the center of the stage.

Wow. Such symbolism. It was at that moment that I knew without a doubt that I was in for something really special. I knew that the director of this show really understood what The Wall is about. And watching the father being taken away from his family by two masked figures (representing death and war, I believe) made the reality of young Pink's loss all the more real to me.

During "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" and "Another Brick in the Wall, part 2", Pink was joined onstage by a dozen schoolchildren in uniforms who played games for a few minutes, and then were herded into a formation by 4 or 5 maniacal teachers. After berating Pink and the other children, the teachers each took a brick from the pile and added it to the wall onstage. The children sang their chorus, and then erupted into a frenzy, swarming over the headmaster and carrying him offstage.

Throughout the performance, the actors continued to bring the story alive. It was chilling to see Pink cuddled by his mother, who was now wearing a mask that turned her face into a yonic symbol of which Gerald Scarfe himself would have been proud. Later, a gaggle of groupies seduced the concert security guards--much to the chagrin, I am told, of some of the mothers of the children in the chorus. One groupie escorted the mature Pink backstage, where he threw her around, smashed a guitar, overturned a TV set and table, and chased her off. (There was one unintentionally funny moment when we heard the familiar line, "Are all these your guitars?", and the groupie motioned toward the lone guitar propped up against the stage.)

During "Don't Leave Me Now" we saw Pink's wife and her lover (who had been identified to us earlier) engaging in very convincing simulated sex right on stage, as Pink hovered over them, glowering fiercely. (At the performance I attended, there were five or six teenaged boys who took an intense interest in this scene, which took place just a few feet from their seats. Meanwhile, a few rows back, there was a very young girl sitting with her parents who had apparently been instructed to cover her eyes during certain parts, and she obeyed dutifully.)

Familiar animated sequences were projected behind the band during "Goodbye Blue Sky" and "What Shall We Do Now". And all the while, a single stage hand was gradually adding bricks to the wall, leaving a few gaps here and there. As the intensity built during "Another Brick, part 3" and the "Last Few Bricks" instrumental, Pink--looking quite haggard--found himself surrounded onstage by a haunting collection of characters from his past: his wife and her lover, the groupies, the schoolchildren, the teachers, and his mother. Then the masked figures of death and war brought in the lifeless body of Pink's father, and dropped it at his feet.

Overcome with emotion, Pink fell to the ground and cried, and the crowd drew in closer around him. In another stunning bit of dramatic symbolism, the entire group picked up Pink and passed him through a small gap in the wall, then turned en masse and quickly finished putting the remaining bricks in place, walling Pink in. As "Goodbye Cruel World" played, we saw Pink staring out from the last hole in the wall, a spotlight framing him. As the song finished, he placed the final brick in the wall.

Material from The Wall makes a regular appearance in Bricks in the Wall's regular setlist. (photo from a performance at the Tivoli Theater in Adrmore, Oklahoma)

After a brief intermission, "Hey You" was accompanied by some computer-generated psychedelic swirls and such. While this did provide something to look at besides the blank wall, it sadly neither enhanced the experience nor added to the storytelling. Through the next few songs, Pink appeared in front of the wall, sitting in his chair and staring at the television in a psychotic catatonia reminiscent of Bob Geldof's performance in the Wall film.

In "Comfortably Numb", a doctor wearing another eery mask appeared and attempted to rouse Pink, finally resorting to jabbing him with a large hypodermic needle. During the final extended guitar solo, Pink rose from his chair and stared out at the audience with a creepy and genuinely frightening, crazed look in his eyes, while more psychedelic swirls were projected across his face and onto the wall behind him, this time to much greater effect. He eventually straightened, put on a black shirt and military cap (his Hammer uniform) and a faceless mask reminiscent of the Pink doll from the film and original concerts. His transformation into a faceless, unthinking fascist 'worm' was complete.

The band, in addition to the faithful recreation of the music, also managed to recreate one of rock's great guitar hero moments. During the original Wall concerts, David Gilmour performed his choruses and guitar solos from atop the massive wall. The Ridglea's Wall was only about 12 feet high and 30 feet wide, but still it seemed unlikely that they would be able to get anyone on top of it.

Travis Satterfield said, "I originally wanted to rent a lift for Gunter [Heydman, the guitarist who handled the solo in "Comfortably Numb"], but there wasn't enough room and the lift was huge. So I kind of shelved the idea. We didn't even try that on our final rehearsal with the cast. On Saturday when we were doing set up and sound check I told someone to get a ladder and have Gunter climb up and see if he would clear the wall, and also make sure it was stable so he wouldn't fall. So the show was the first attempt. We had two people behind Gunter in case he got off balance."

It paid off. Heydman's solos were dramatic and beautiful, even we could only see him from the waist up. One of the stage lights was positioned to cast his shadow upon the theater's wall behind him, and it really worked. Coupled with the action on floor below him, there was no lack of impressive visuals. Roger Waters would have been proud.

As mentioned previously, the production did not attempt to bring a surrogate band out in front of the wall for the last few songs. Instead, the Box Theater company acted out Pink's fascist rally. In a way, this worked very well. It provided a certain continuity with the actors that had already been part of the performance, and it allowed the band to be a little more faithful to Waters' original concept for the project: build a wall between the band and the audience, and perform the second half entirely hidden by it.

(photo from a performance at the Tivoli Theater in Adrmore, Oklahoma)

After Michael Johnson reprised his M.C. speech at half-speed, a group of Hammer Guards came out and flanked the masked Pink, who stood behind a lectern. When he pointed out the assorted 'riff-raff' in the audience, the guards grabbed people out of the audience, threw hoods over their heads, and forced them to kneel onstage. In light of the recent images of American soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners, it was quite gripping. Once again, the presence of live actors brought the entire spectacle to life in ways that seemed both fresh and disturbingly familiar.

During "Run Like Hell" the guards began beating their prisoners, and a horde of actors, clad in black shirts bearing the familiar hammer emblem, led a procession into the audience and up and down the aisles, waiving their giant hammer banners. "Hammer! Hammer!" they chanted, and they cheered as Pink raised his megaphone and spurred them on to a little ethnic cleansing during "Waiting for the Worms". It was quite a dizzying sight: banners waving, followers chanting (including teens--which made it all the more shocking), Pink jumping about and shouting, and the animated hammers marching across the wall again and again and again.

"The Trial" was performed entirely live on synthesizers by Bricks in the Wall's two keyboardists, and they did an amazing job recreating the sound of an entire orchestra. The actors pantomimed the roles of the judge, barrister, schoolmaster, wife, and mother, all wearing various masks, with Pink standing before them in judgment. During the choruses ("Crazy... over the rainbow"), the fascist followers--still standing in the aisles amongst the audience--sang along, to further chilling effect. And when the sentence was pronounced, the whole cast (and much of the audience) joined in shouting "Tear down the wall!" until the band did indeed knock it all down before our eyes.

It was a moving performance, from start to finish, far surpassing my expectations. Satterfield had promised the Dallas Observer, ""This isn't going to be some thrown-together community theater affair," and the band and actors and crew delivered. The post-show feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. As I mingled with the band and the cast after the performance, Guinn and Satterfield made sure everyone involved signed one of the cardboard bricks, but kept the rest of them intact... just in case they perform The Wall again.

"I really enjoyed performing The Wall," said Satterfield. "We will do it again, and hopefully in different cities. We are talking about how to take the show on the road, and will probably be back at the Ridglea in three or four months with it."

"Tons of people love Pink Floyd, but if you weren't lucky enough to see them in the past, then you're probably out of luck. I would really love to see them live again, and especially with Waters, but I don't think it's going to happen. Gilmour doesn't seem to be in any hurry to tour again. So the only way you get to hear the music live at all is through tribute bands. The Wall is 25 years old now, and there are tons and tons of younger fans that are starting to get into Floyd and seen the movie, but have never seen Floyd. I get parents coming up to me all the time after shows with their kids, telling me how they saw Floyd but their kids never have, and they want to at least let them hear the music live, even if it isn't by the actual band. Why do they sell about a million copies a year of Dark Side of the Moon? Kids are getting turned on to the music everyday."

Mike McInnis is a staff writer for Spare Bricks. Special thanks to Todd Guinn, Travis Satterfield, and Bricks in the Wall.