Brit Floyd at the Midland Theatre, Kansas City MO (03 June 2025)

Tour Dates

On a stormy weeknight in Kansas City, if you were “staying home to watch the rain” instead of donning a jacket and heading out downtown to The Midland to see Brit Floyd; your friends that did go probably “wished you were here” to take in the spectacle with them, of this high-caliber tribute show.

The Liverpool, UK band has returned to the stage with a brand-new production that celebrates fifty years of the classic 1975 Pink Floyd album, Wish You Were Here, including playing the record in full, during its over two-hour evening. Plenty of other very familiar hits helped make up the set, from the band’s early days, up to its late ‘80’s David Gilmour-led era.

The band began back in 2011 by its founder, long-time guitarist/vocalist and musical director Damian Darlington, who was actually a member of the similar Australian Pink Floyd (who we caught live in Minneapolis back in 2016), but thought he could put on a more authentic and more entertaining show; and over 1,000 performances later, he’s still proving his point.

The band also featured longtime members Ian Cattell – vocals, bass; Edo Scordo – guitars, vocals; Matt Riddle – keyboards, synths; Arran Ahmun – drums, percussion; Eva Avila-backing vocals; and other expert musicians to faithfully re-create that distinctive Floyd sound.

With Pink Floyd themselves likely never to reunite again (besides the fact of keyboardist Rick Wright’s death in 2008) and each pursuing solo ventures, this is the closest to see the classic Floyd in its prime years; and for the younger generations in the crowd, about the only way to, in-person.

We also have to mention the band’s generous photo/video policy – they not only allow but encourage respectable cellphone pictures and video filming and social media sharing, something we wish more bands would realize the value of. As a credentialed photographer, we were allowed to shoot the entire show (instead of the first three songs) This again was a very welcome and appreciated exception to the “standard rule”.

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The two-set evening smartly got underway with the later years first – those commercially successful songs and albums without bassist Roger Waters’ participation, but still somewhat polarizing to some purist fans. Despite that, one can’t deny the widescreen scope of “Learning to Fly”, the ferocity of “Dogs of War” and Gilmour’s signature riffs on those later songs.

Things then shifted to “The Wall”-era songs, complete with very similar (though not exact) vintage graphics from the familiar large circular screen, images that reflected the original animation from the film and that tour, not the later ones that Waters would update to reflect more current politics.

The set would then transition back to the timeless “Dark Side of the Moon” 1974-era with stopwatch images on-screen for “Time”, the pulsing of “Breathe” and a stunning vocal performance on “The Great Gig in the Sky” (as well as on “Mother”, a few songs later). Even 1983’s “The Final Cut” album was represented with an on-screen apocalyptic animated storyline playing out on the visuals.

“Pigs (Three Different Ones)” would end the first set, but without any inflatable pig roaming above the crowd by remote control. Though people looked up searching for it, the band not relying on expected props (no stagehands building a Styrofoam wall in front of the band either) made it clear that the group is putting the music first, and without any distractions.

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After a twenty-minute intermission, lights again dimmed and the signature bassline of 1971’s “One of These Days” drew any remaining straggling audience members back to their seats quickly. Wish You Were Here in its entirety was next- the band’s follow-up to the perpetually selling “Dark Side” album (that must have been high pressure to deliver on), and served as a fitting tribute to original bandmember Syd Barrett, whose mental state and drug use, made him unable to continue in the band.

The album counterbalances the longer instrumentals of the title track, against the more brief and catchier tunes like “Welcome to the Machine” (complete with gears, clicks, and tech images) and that timeless title track ballad, that brought cellphone lights swaying back and forth in the air, and the multi-generational crowd singing along to every lyric.

“Comfortably Numb” ended the second set, with bassist Cattell putting on a white lab coat and singing, “Just a little pin prick” as he flashed a giant syringe (I know we said no props, but this was pretty minimal). In terms of playing the familiar songs, there a very fine line for a tribute band- to authentically re-create them in a version that everyone seems familiar with, balanced with a small opening for creativity, for the players to interpret the notes as they see fit, and Brit Floyd collectively managed to stay within that ‘sonic sweet spot’ for their performance.

No one plays like the signature sound of David Gilmour’s guitar but Darlington managed to honor that sound (both on guitar and sitting on lap steel) while embellishing here and there with his subtle differences; guitarist Scordo played similar to Eric Clapton at times, when EC went on tour with Waters in the mid-80s for his first solo album, and interpreted many of the Floyd classics; and keyboardist Riddle stayed faithful as well, but the longer instrumental passages allowed him some freeform as well.

The three-song encore consists of two classics from “Dark Side” with lasers and vari-lites on full display (along with politician images from all sides of the aisle), and culminated with a shaking “Run Like Hell”, prefaced by an echoing Darlington solo, amidst enough lasers and lights flashing that it was hard out make him out on stage.

A sustained standing ovation as the band bowed and waved good night, and all had truly been “eclipsed by the moon”. Brit Floyd managed to bring back that classic version of the band usually only seen in older memories and vintage video clips – Shine On!

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