David Gilmour Live - Madison Square Garden Show Review
Wednesday, November 13, 2024 at 01:12PM On November 10, I had the privilege of seeing Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour live at Madison Square Garden in New York City. You might recall I bought tickets for his California show at the Hollywood Bowl. A few days later the NYC dates were announced, so I decided to get tickets for one of those dates and sell the California show. The NYC dates worked out better all-around regarding work and travel time. I tacked a Thursday Night Football game between the Bengals and Ravens in Baltimore to the front end of my trip and then took Amtrak on to NYC from the Charmed City.
While in New York I also saw a Steely Dan cover band called The Royal Scam at the legendary Iridium Club in Times Square. The Iridium was made famous by Les Paul. The Royal Scam were great and very authentic – the sold-out crowd had a blast. I openly cackled listening to “Gaucho” live.
The David Gilmour show was a bucket list item. So was seeing a show at MSG so two birds, one stone! Before the show began, longtime Gilmour bassist Guy Pratt (also of Whitesnake and tons of other acts) addressed the crowd and asked the sold-out crowd to not spend the entire show “behind a cell phone.” He reminded folks that having a cell phone up and recording nonstop is distracting to everyone else and he also made a plea for people to not use flash when taking photos. Naturally, folks took videos and photos here and there, but for the most part, people seemed to really be into the music.
The setlist is below - the show opened with instrumentals, including “5 A.M.” and “Black Cat.” Eric actually said “Is that him playing?” because the sound was so true to the album. I laughed and was like, “Yeah don’t you see him?”
We were on the floor and the aisle too, so I was able to scoot out and stand without bothering folks behind me. The audience largely sat during the show but as songs went on, more and more people started standing and dancing around. The guy next to me said “No one else on earth is better at anything than David Gilmour is at playing guitar.” Accurate.
Gilmour’s new album is called Luck and Strange and he performed nearly every track from it – including those songs including his daughter Romany Gilmour. A high point was their duet on the cover of “Between Two Points.” Romany plays harp on this and other tracks and that was very cool to see live. Naturally, one of my favorite moments was “High Hopes” live since I love The Division Bell album. There were videos to match some of the songs and on “High Hopes” a man opens a car filled with balloons… at that moment, the balloons all floated from the stage to the crowd! These white orbs were special and remote-controlled. As soon as “High Hopes” ended, someone pushed a button and the balloons were gone as quick as they came.
There was a 15-minute intermission after “High Hopes” and then the second part of the show featured slower tracks including “The Great Gig in the Sky” which allowed for Romany and Gilmour’s other female singers to shine.
“Sorrow” was another highlight and the set ended with “Scattered.” At this point, Gilmour thanked the crowd for coming and we all stood clapping, waiting for the top of the mountain: “Comfortably Numb” live with all its soaring guitar solos. This encore did not disappoint with the solos lengthened and Gilmour in rare form. I swear the man could play “Happy Birthday” and everyone would know it was him just by the tone.
Here’s a very high-quality video from a side vantage point:
Here’s “Sorrow”
Like other Pink Gloyd and Gilmour Shows, Marc Brickman designed the lights for this run. He also does the lighting for the Empire State Building. He is so important to the Pink Floyd universe that Guy Pratt mentioned him specifically from the stage before his cell-phone use warning.
And “High Hopes” with the balloons!
Finally I will add that I spoke to people from all over at the show. I found another Ohio couple at our hotel (of course!), a couple from Arkansas, a woman from Costa Rica (!) and folks from Great Britian were behind us. That’s another reason why I love shows: you get to meet and interact with so many different people. Definitely money well spent.