All-star group the Gilmour Project revisits Pink Floyd classic at Sweetwater
SAN FRANCISCO -- An all-star collective of musicians with ties to such luminaries as the Tubes, Crosby Stills & Nash, Ray Charles and members of the Grateful Dead bring their Pink Floyd tribute the Gilmour Project to the Sweetwater Music Hall for two nights exploring the classic album Dark Side of the Moon.
There is no shortage of bands paying homage to the enormously popular music and live spectacle made famous Roger Waters, David Gilmour, the late Richard Wright and Nick Mason, with such established cover acts as Brit Floyd and the Australian Pink Floyd Show earning big enough followings to tour the globe playing large theaters and even arenas. Drummer Mason himself even launched his own Saucer Full of Secrets band in 2018 that focused on the band's pre Dark Side of the Moon catalog.
The Gilmour Project is a collective of seasoned players with an impressive pedigree. Guitarist Jeff Pevar may be best known for his long stint working as the lead guitarist for Crosby Stills & Nash as well his collaborations with David Crosby (both in his live band and as the "P" in the group CPR with Crosby's son, keyboardist James Raymond), but he has also played extensively with Rickie Lee Jones, Donald Fagen, James Taylor, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Dr. John, and the instrumental Grateful Dead tribute band Jazz Is Dead.
Guitarist Mark Karan has more direct ties to the Dead, having played with Bob Weir and his group Ratdog, Dead bassist Phil Lesh, drummer Mickey Hart's Planet Drum and the Other Ones as well as Dave Mason, Sophie B. Hawkins and Delaney Bramlett, while keyboardist Scott Guberman also played with Lesh and a variety of Dead-affiliated groups.
Rounding out the Gilmour Project is a rhythm section featuring a pair of legendary players: Bay Area drummer Prairie Prince -- co-founder of the Tubes who has played with everyone from George Harrison, Todd Rundgren, XTC and Jefferson Starship to Brian Eno, John Fogerty, Tom Waits and Dick Dale -- and bassist Kasim Sulton, another key collaborator of Rundgren's (on both his solo work and as a member of Utopia) who also has played with Blue Öyster Cult, Meat Loaf, Hall & Oates, Cheap Trick and Patti Smith.
Taking an exploratory mindset similar to that of jamband tribute group Blue Floyd that both Pevar and Prince performed onstage with at points, the Gilmour Project uses the wealth of original Floyd material along with a few of the guitarist's solo hits as a springboard for jazz-influenced extended psychedelic excursions without completely abandoning the melodic thread and structure of the songs.
The band had planned to hit the road in April of 2020 before the pandemic intervened, but the Gilmour Project soldiered on, rehearsing the material and performing a couple of marathon sets that were livestreamed for a paying audience. One of those performances was actually staged at the Great American Music Hall.
The band made its Bay Area debut at the Regency Ballroom last February, unspooling two extended sets of music that Pink Floyd played at its legendary January 1972 show at the Brighton Dome where the group performed "Dark Side of the Moon: Pieces for Assorted Lunatics" for the first time, a full 14 months prior to the blockbuster album's release. The Gilmour Project returns to the region with these two intimate shows at the Sweetwater Music Hall starting Thursday night that will once again focus on the songs from Dark Side of the Moon filled out by some additional Floyd classics. VIP tickets are available that get purchasers early entry to listen to the band soundcheck along with a download of recording of the night's show and a commemorative laminate.
The Gilmour Project
Thursday-Friday, Feb. 23-24, 7 p.m. (8 p.m. Friday) $50-$73
Sweetwater Music Hall