It's terrific to see Pink Floyd playing well together in their mega-dynamic way here in the PULSE concert, now remastered wonderfully for a DVD set. They go through many of their hits, most notably all of Dark Side of the Moon, and seeing the band go through Shine on You Crazy Diamond is as amazing as it gets from the group (a great opener that is hard to top). And overall the core of the musicianship of David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright do gel together at times. But then there's the thing of it being such a HUGE event live, lasers and special videos on a big screen behind them included, that they have to work that much more harder to keep up with the theatrics. They're up to task, but there's something missing from it all too, and not just the obvious (Roger Waters, who is now doing his own version of this show more or less on his Dark Side tour). Maybe it's me putting it too much into perspective; seeing the film that preceded this one some twenty years before, Live at Pompeii, PULSE isn't as forceful and tremendous even on such a scale as playing in Earl's Court to who knows how many people.
I guess this is my way of saying that the concert, for me at least, is not a flawless one like Pompeii comes close to (even if that is, by turns, not in the same style of performance as in PULSE). And in comparison with many of the classic Floyd songs of the 70s, the newer work (with a couple of exceptions like Learning to Fly and Keep Talking) sort of falls up short, with a song like High Hopes one that I fast-forward past. But this aspect of the concert is not very detrimental, just a minor liability for more die-hard old-school Floyd fans. In terms of just capturing the band live, and the band with its immense ensemble of back-up players and singers, the director gets it all down without a hitch. If it also has a little added historical value to it too, it may also be because, unless something happens in the next few years (and in 2006 both Gilmour, with the occasional Mason and Wright in tow, and Waters went on their own solo tours), this might be the last time Pink Floyd are seen live on video.
