On a beautiful Fall evening under immense live oaks, two hundred music lovers gathered at the Bel Canto Farms in Driftwood to hear Will Taylor and the band “Strings Attached” perform Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.”
One of Taylor’s innovative Concerts in the Dark, which the band performs outdoors on the Barton Springs Greenbelt and in other non-traditional locations, the lightsout performance encouraged listeners to experience the music of Pink Floyd on a deeper, visceral level. He has been performing these unique sound bath concerts for the past 35 years.
Before the concert began, the audience, stretched out on blankets or hammocked in camp chairs, sipped wine and luxuriated in the light of a waning full moon. String lights in the trees provided adequate illumination as people found places under the trees and settled in for the performance.
After a few brief remarks by Taylor in which he told listeners this was the largest Concert in the Dark he’d ever played, he thanked Bel Canto owner Suzanne Warmack, for providing the outdoor venue. To the sound of singing bowls played by percussionist Jason McKenzie, an invitation went out to the audience to close their eyes and to center themselves with a few moments of box breathing and guided imagery. Once the lights were extinguished, the band began to play. With Taylor on viola, Dave Madden on piano and vocals and McKenzie on percussion, the musicians gave a memorable 90-minute performance of the album’s entire song list with minimal amplification, greatly enhanced by Madden’s agile vocals and the rich timbre of Taylor’s viola. Murmurs of appreciation from the audience could be heard as the band faithfully filled in the spoken dialogue heard on many of the album’s tracks.
Understandably missing from the performance were Clare Torry’s iconic vocals on “The Great Gig in the Sky.” Craig Jenkins at “Vulture,” the online entertainment destination, once wrote, “Torry’s performance manages to express the full range of human emotion without relying on words.” Similarly, Fraser Lewry of “Louder,” a digital hub for alternative music, said her vocals “lifted the song to celestial heights.”
Considered by many as the ultimate “chill out” album for a generation, Dark Side of the Moon was Pink Floyd’s eighth studio album. It was released in 1973 by core group members Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason.
An additional Concert in the Dark at Bel Canto Farms, featuring the music of Radiohead, is planned for the coming months. Watch for announcements.
