Estranged bandmates David Gilmour and Roger Waters have taken radically different approaches with Pink Floyd’s catalog during their most recent solo tours.
Only two of their former band’s songs appeared nightly on the set list: The title track from 1975’s Wish You Were Here and 1979’s “Comfortably Numb.”
But even then, Waters dramatically re-worked the latter track for his 2022-23 This is Not a Drill Tour, stripping “Comfortably Numb” down to a create haunting sound – and notably removing Gilmour’s iconic song-closing guitar solo.
David Gilmour Leaned Heavily on Post-Waters Output
Gilmour’s brief four-city, 23-show 2024 tour found him splitting the set list evenly between his solo career and his time in Pink Floyd. He played the entirety of 2024’s Luck and Strange every night, and played more songs from 1994’s post-Waters Pink Floyd album The Division Bell than he did from their 1973 landmark The Dark Side of the Moon.
READ MORE: Ranking Every Pink Floyd Live Album
Like a divorced couple, Gilmour and Waters divided Dark Side‘s songs up almost exactly in half, with Gilmour performing three songs from the album’s first side while Waters’ show climaxed with a performance of the entire second half, from “Money” to “Eclipse.”
Gilmour used a relatively straight-ahead but still impressive stage show, with his traditional circle-shaped video screen behind the band, and top-notch lighting and lasers. One particularly inventive moment came during “High Hopes,” when giant beach balls were released in coordination with their appearance on the screen.
Roger Waters’ Stage Show Casts New Light on Classics
Waters, as usual, pushed the boundaries of arena show staging to inspired new heights on his tour, performing in the round with an innovative cross-shaped stage that was often covered with dazzling visuals. (Hopefully, a pro-shot version of this tour will be released on home video at some point soon.)
He devoted 17 of his typical set list’s songs to Pink Floyd’s golden era, with big doses of Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and 1979’s The Wall. Three more came from his well-received 2017 solo album Is This the Life We Really Want?, and the tour also featured the debut of a brand-new song entitled “The Bar,” which appeared at two points during the show.
You can see the set lists and fan-shot video from both tours below.
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