Australian Pink Floyd Show Comes To Huntington For 50th Anniversary Of Wish You Were Here

HUNTINGTON, NY — The Australian Pink Floyd Show is set to return to Huntington in September in time for a pair of big milestones: the 60th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s formation in 1965 as well as the 50th anniversary of their album, "Wish You Were Here."

The show is scheduled for 8 p.m. Sept. 17 at The Paramount, at 370 New York Avenue. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased here.

The Australian Pink Floyd Show has been based out of the United Kingdom since 1993 and features members from various countries.

For the 50th anniversary of "Wish You Were Here," the 2025 Australian Pink Floyd Show tour will perform the album in its entirety, kicking off the show with the album.

The Australian Pink Floyd Show lead singer Chris Barnes said "Wish You Were Here" has its own vibe and is "completely different" from other Pink Floyd albums. There are five songs on the album, bookended by the "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" suites. The songs, featuring parts one-to-five and parts six-to-nine, run 13 and 12 minutes, respectively.

"They're like a song suite," Barnes told Patch. "What's really good about it is those tracks on the album take you on a sonic journey. Things kind of unfold slowly."

The band performed "The Dark Side Of The Moon" in its entirety two years ago for that album's 50th anniversary. Barnes contrasted the two albums.

"'Dark Side' is here's a song, here's a song. It's got 10 tracks," he said. "Some songs are seven minutes, but it's pretty concise in its message. There are lots of instrumental sections in 'Wish You Were Here.' As a vocalist myself, there's less I need to do. I love listening to that music being played live. One of my favorite bits of the gig is 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts 6 to 9,' which I'm only on for what, 90 seconds? I just come out and do that last verse and get off. What happens on either side of that, to me, is some of the best parts of the gig. You've got the long, moody instrumental section with the wind, the bass, the slide guitar, and the synth builds in tension and slowly gets more of a vibe to it. Then bang! The theme comes back and you're singing again. There's the funky section and then the outro. The whole thing, '6 to 9,' to me, is a real highlight of the gig even though I'm only on it for a tiny, tiny bit. It's just amazing."

Barnes called it a "45-minute journey."

"It's kind of, 'Oh, wow,' Barnes said. "That's how we feel about it. It's just a different type of album. It's not like anything else in the Floyd catalogue. You can see why David Gilmour and Richard Wright always stated that as one of their favorite albums. Very guitar, synth and organ-based."

After the band performs "Wish You Were Here," Barnes plans on speaking to the crowd for a few minutes. Then the band will perform a few songs from another album, take a break, and then perform more Pink Floyd classic hits.

"Over the course of the evening, there's literally everything from the Syd Barrett era up until 'The Division Bell,' which is an Aussie Floyd mission statement kind of thing," Barnes said. "Cover all the bases, because everything in that catalogue is so vastly different from everything else. It's not like an AC/DC kind of vibe where every album has got that sound and you know what you're going to get. With Floyd, you can pick any album out of the catalogue, and it's completely different from anything else."

Each tour, the band aims to juggle the classic hits it plays every show along with deeper cuts or an album celebrating its anniversary. Naturally, there's overlap. The band will always play "Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts 1-5," regardless of whether "Wish You Were Here" has an anniversary, Barnes said. Then there are the big hits like "Time," "Money," "The Great Gig In The Sky," "Wish You Were Here," "Another Brick In The Wall," "Run Like Hell," and "One of These Days."

"If you were going to see a Pink Floyd tribute, you'd be a bit disappointed if you didn't get the big numbers," Barnes said. "It's what everyone expects to hear. It's what you do elsewhere in the set that makes it interesting, year on year, mixing it up a bit."

The Australian Pink Floyd Show has already filled out next year's set, Barnes said. The group likes to "throw a curveball every now and again," the singer said.

"Last year, we did "Marooned," the instrumental off "The Division Bell," which is a proper guitar showcase," Barnes said. "One of our guitarists plays the entire thing. It's stunning. I don't think you need to know that song to sit there and witness a beautiful guitar piece. It's things like that I really enjoy that we do. It's lesser-known, but it still gets a great reaction because it's enjoyable to listen to. It's an experience with the lights and the mood that gets set up in the room. It can really take people on a journey, I think."

The show includes a world class light and laser show, video animations, state-of-the-art, high resolution LED screen technology, the flawless live sound that was the benchmark of Pink Floyd shows, and other special effects.

And, in true Pink Floyd tradition, there are several huge inflatables including a giant pig, and their own unique Pink Kangaroo.

While the band has a handful of numbers it plays every show, Barnes said the various venues and crowds prevent touring from getting stale.

"People ask, 'Does it get a bit boring?' What's different every night is, number one, the venue is different, and the stage is different," Barnes said. "You might be further apart from each other. It could be an old [venue], it could be a modern one, it could be an arena, it could be outdoors. It could be glorious sunshine, and you need to wear sunglasses, because the sun is blasting on your face. The other variable in this experiment is the crowd, because they're different every night. It can change during the gig. The unknown factors make this job. Obviously, it's wonderful and it's an honor to play this music. It's an honor to work with the people in the band who become like family."

Barnes said the band also enjoys playing different places, traveling to different countries and experiencing different cultures and foods — "which, as a vegetarian, can be difficult at times,"Barnes added.

"What makes it never boring is the crowd," Barnes said. "You don't know what you're going to get. You can have a very loud, vocal crowd, or it's very quiet, and some guy is like, 'GODDAMN!' That just happened over here. For some reason, it's appropriate to shout out in the quiet bits. And then you go play in Europe or the United Kingdom and that doesn't happen. There's a reverential vibe of, 'We're going to sit and listen, clap at the end of the song and be quiet.' It's just how cultures are when you play in different countries. I find it fascinating."

Barnes said the crowd at The Paramount in Huntington is always a "good crowd and good atmosphere."

"It's nice to go back to places. It's a nice part of the world. I like touring America. It's fun," he said.

Barnes said Pink Floyd's music is "so unique" and the band tries to replicate the Pink Floyd live experience.

"If you know anything about how Pink Floyd used to play live and how the show used to look, you're going to get that," Barnes said. "If you never experienced Pink Floyd back in the day, then we've got you covered no matter what era of Floyd is your favorite era. Come down and have a good time."

American crowds "look to have a great time," Barnes said, and The Australian Pink Floyd Show strives to provide the soundtrack.

"We're like this anonymous orchestra," Barnes said. "The show is the thing people come to watch. They don't come to watch the people. There's the circle screens, the films, the lasers, inflatables, this really big light show. This all syncs with the music. We're just really small cogs in this big machine. If people want to come down and experience a concert that isn't like a regular concert, because Floyd just wasn't a regular band. That's the thing. There was no Mick Jagger running around or Freddie Mercury. They were kind of anonymous. That's kind of our role. It's not about us, it's about the music."