Fans can expect to get blown away by the rock, when the Pink Floyd Experience plays the ShoWare Center Jan. 21 in Kent.
Tom Quinn, lead guitarist for the tribute band playing the Jan. 21 ShoWare gig, described the quadraphonic sound system used on tour during a recent phone interview from his San Diego home.
“We will have speakers behind, in front and all around the crowd,” Quinn said. “It will be like you put on a giant set of headphones. When we play “Money,” you will hear the cash registers swirling around you.”
With six musicians, a massive light show and eye-popping videos, Annerin Productions, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, puts on a tribute show aimed to give fans a trip back in time to Pink Floyd concerts.
“We take the stadium shows of the 1970s and 1980s that Pink Floyd became famous for and put it in smaller arenas,” Quinn said.
Pink Floyd, originally hailing from London, played from 1965 to 1995 and became renowned for its lavish stage shows. The concerts also included a giant inflatable flying pig, which became an icon for the band, appearing on the cover of Floyd’s 1977 album “Animals.”
Pink Floyd Experience continues the pig tradition with a 20-foot inflatable hog blimp that will motor around the ShoWare Center. The tour even includes a pig technician who uses remote control to fly the pig inside arenas.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Quinn said. “Part of it is even distracting because you want to watch the pig pilot.”
But music remains the primary draw. The band focuses on songs from the albums “The Dark Side of the Moon,” “Wish You Were Here,” “The Wall,” and “Animals.”
“We also reach into the psychedelic music to please the purists,” Quinn said of the earlier Pink Floyd music. “But there’s something for everybody, even if they only know “Another Brick in the Wall.”
Quinn, 54, became a Pink Floyd fan in high school in the early 1970s. He closely followed Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and eventually formed a tribute band to the group in 1994, playing in the San Diego area.
In 2003, Annerin Productions searched for a tribute band in order to launch the Pink Floyd Experience. Company officials found Quinn’s band and launched the Pink Floyd Experience in the fall of 2003 in Calgary.
“They found us in a sleepy bungalow in Ocean Beach,” Quinn said.
The band opens its 2010 tour with nine dates in Canada before arriving in Kent for the first of 32 stops in the United States. The band also plays Jan. 22 in Bellingham, the only other stop in Washington.
“It’s a retooled show,” Quinn said. “The lighting is different and the video is top notch. And we still have the flying pig and the surround sound.”
The performances have been a hit.
“People line up for the shows,” he said. “They love this.”
Quinn loves playing as well. At home, he even has an office so full of Pink Floyd artwork and other items, including pigs, that he calls it a “Pink Floyd shrine.”
“I can’t charge admission, but I’m getting close,” Quinn said of his collection.
But nothing compares to playing the shows.
“There are a lot of rewarding moments for me and the crowd,” he said.
What: Pink Floyd Experience
When: 8 p.m. Jan. 21
Where: ShoWare Center, Kent
Cost: $42 for VIP, $34 for premium, $27 reserved
Tickets: /www.showarecenter.com or call 253-856-6999
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