I’ve been a Nick Mason fan ever since I first Googled “Who was Pink Floyd’s drummer?” three days ago. After I scored tickets to see Mason and his band live in Indianapolis on Friday night, I brushed up on my knowledge, just in case the Murat Theatre security guards asked me to name every pre-Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd album. Thankfully, my mega-fan BFF brought me up to speed on our four-hour drive to Indy. Even with my limited prior exposure to Pink Floyd, I recognized Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets Tour as a rare, special moment in time for all involved.
For those of you not privy to the expository conversations that took place inside my Honda Accord: legendary rock band Pink Floyd endured a messy, public divorce. As solo artists, lead singer Roger Waters and guitarist David Gilmour have tasted superstardom while drummer Nick Mason has stayed mostly out of the spotlight. Apparently, Mason wanted to wait for the band to reunite before headlining another show. His hopes never came to fruition, so in 2018 he formed Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets. Their focus: rarely-performed Pink Floyd material from before the band’s meteoric rise to fame.
Of course, the music wasn’t so obscure to the diehards in the audience. As one of thousands who helped guide Ariana Grande through “thank u, next” in D.C. a couple weeks ago, I’m familiar with concerts where everyone knows every word to every song. Nick Mason’s fans took their passion to another level. Not only did they have every lyric memorized, they knew every beat too. As if under a spell, fans played along with Mason’s every move, battering their invisible drums with their invisible drumsticks. Some of them may have seen Pink Floyd and its members on dozens (or perhaps even hundreds) of occasions, but not even the passage of time and sheer quantity of shows could dampen their fervor.
Even as a casual observer, I appreciated all of the setlist, and enjoyed most it. The highlight of the night had to be the medley of “If” and “Atom Heart Mother.” It began by spotlighting a single guitarist, then added arrangements one-by-one from the other guitarists and the keyboardist. Mason brought the performance spectacularly into full gear with the blasting drums shortly thereafter. The lyrics echoed with the “what-if” examinations that accompany the regrets of paths not taken. I imagine it elicited the same question in many attendees’ minds: What if Pink Floyd had stayed together? Certainly, it wouldn’t have taken so long to see Nick Mason again. However, the waxing and waning number beckons fans not to fall into that line of thinking. Hypothetical questions won’t change anything, and the moments that are meant to happen will happen.
Indeed, Nick Mason and his band’s performance truly felt like it was meant to be. It doesn’t take a music historian to see how much the guitarists enjoyed losing themselves in “dumb-ass rock and roll” (Guy Pratt’s words, not mine) like “The Nile Song,” or to feel the utter satisfaction that Mason received from playing the gong on “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.” When the stage faded to black after “One of These Days,” I cheered loud and clear for an encore along with the 2,599 aficionados around me. Even after two nearly deafening hours, we wanted more. Whether we waited three days or 25 years for this concert; we weren’t going to let it end so easily.
Of course, the band returned to the stage. The finale, “Point Me in the Sky,” perfectly encapsulated the night. A poignant look towards an uncertain tomorrow, it longs to the listener, “If you survive ’til 2005…” Upon the song’s release in 1968, no member of Pink Floyd would have dreamed of playing it to rabid fans 37 years later. Yet, here we were, 51 years later, hearing it in the flesh. Pink Floyd’s music has lived on so long that 2005, once the distant future, now is the distant past.
I don’t always understand how time works, but this show definitely felt like a crossroads. No matter how long each attendee followed Pink Floyd in the past, and no matter when — or if — they will see its drummer again in the future, we congregated together for one night in the present to celebrate life with Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets.
Mindful Entertainment 