The Australian Pink Floyd Show is a tribute band, but not just any tribute band. TAPFS is considered the best tribute band in the world today, a title they have defended since 1988.

By Alex Smallridge.

TAPFS -- An amazing multimedia light show. Photo: Alex Smallridge.

TAPFS “ran like hell” into Boston last week. To those who don’t know the letters, here are the words: The Australian Pink Floyd Show ran like hell into Boston last week.

You might be saying to yourself, “Why should I know TAPFS? They’re just some tribute band.”

Yes, TAPFS is a tribute band, but not just any tribute band. TAPFS is considered the best tribute band in the world today, a title they have defended since 1988 and a title they secured at Boston’s Wang Theater on last Wednesday.

Yet, it’s not just that TAPFS is the best. You attend a TAPFS show to hear who they represent, Pink Floyd, the premier, psychedelic rock band in history, whose multifaceted and complex music is loved the world over. The audience displayed this universal appeal: all the demographics were present: from grandfathers with beards down to their bellies and tears in their eyes to young children dancing on their seats waving the sign of the horns.

TAPFS ... music with universal appeal. Photo: Alex Smallridge

This enthusiasm shows why TAPFS is called “the best”; they bring Pink Floyd’s music to the audience pure and unadulterated.

As keyboard player and founder Jason Sawford said in my recent Fuse interview, TAPFS approaches their work as a classical orchestra approaches a piece from Mozart; they work hard to reproduce the exact sounds of Pink Floyd, being as faithful to the original as humanly possible.

And they pull it off, turning the recreation of the sounds of Pink Floyd into an art, reproducing exactly what the well-trained audience’s ear was expecting.

TAPFS at work ... Photo: Alex Smallridge

This ability to reproduce an original suggests an interesting question. The music of Pink Floyd and many other rock bands have become contemporary classics. This is music that many know and love and that has seeped deep into the DNA of our culture. Still, tribute bands like TAPFS aren’t given nearly the credit of a classical orchestra, which plays the canon of orchestral music. I would hope to see this change. I dream of one day going to see an orchestra that will play Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and the Jackson 5.

However, it is not just their faith to the music that earns TAPFS the title “best tribute band,” it is also their creative multimedia performance. TAPFS’s show uses hundreds of lights along with lasers, video, inflatable characters, 3D images, and a disco ball. All of these constantly flash and spin, while the professor from The Wall and TAPFS’s own giant, pink kangaroo dance around the stage.

At the end, the audience at the Wang clapped so loud one could barely hear the encore above the roar of the crowd. TAPFS produced an incredible show, reproducing the intoxicating sounds of Pink Floyd in a live setting—keeping rock classic alive.