Pink Floyd tribute band bring 'Moon' to Oz

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By Daniel Thai
Special for The State News
On Saturday night, munchkins marched to the beat of Pink Floyd.

More than 500 students came to the International Center as the sounds of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" meshed with the sights of Victor Fleming's "The Wizard of Oz" to create the "Dark Side of the Rainbow."

Urban legends have been floating around for years about the coincidental occurrences of events when the album and movie are played simultaneously. University Activities Board Film Chairwoman Emily Money, who said she had heard the myths about the correlation, came up with the idea of bringing a live synchronization show to MSU.

"I thought it'd be something we've never done before," she said. "Lots of people in UAB were very excited about this event."

During a Pink Floyd song, some munchkins seemed to be marching to the exact beat. Others in attendance noted the mood of the songs changed with the mood of the movie, and in some parts of the movie, lyrics seemed to describe the scene.

Kevin Holsapple, a microbiology sophomore and Pink Floyd fan, had never heard of the connection before seeing it on a UAB advertisement, but said he came because the concept sounded interesting.

"The lyrics did match up to the movie a little bit," said Holsapple, who added that he's convinced it's probably just coincidence.

Money said another UAB officer saw The Surrogate Band, a Pink Floyd tribute band that performs throughout Michigan, playing at a local club and recommended them to her to perform at MSU.

Even though the band promotes themselves as "North America's Most Authentic Pink Floyd Tribute," they had never played a show like Saturday's.

Lead guitarist and lead vocalist Alex Gonzalez said they had been practicing the performance for a month - a month in which the band also has had to adjust to a new bassist.

"It's hard to do (the synchronization) live because you have to be perfectly on time," he said.

Before the movie started, the band played a couple songs from another Pink Floyd album, "Obscured by Clouds." Afterward, "The Wizard of Oz" was projected onto screens on both sides of the band as they transitioned into "Dark Side of the Moon." They played the entire album with the first half of the movie.

Gonzalez said he has heard about people synching their VCRs with their CD players but thinks the commonalties are just coincidences.

"People will find what they want and see what they want," said Gonzales, adding that he has seen Web sites linking different Pink Floyd albums to various movies, such as "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Political science senior Bob Murphy saw the connections, but said they required "a bit of imagination."

He was more impressed with the performance of the band, saying they sounded almost exactly like the album.

"I'm a little leery of cover bands," he said. "But they surpassed my expectations a lot."

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