A tribute band can allow one to hear music from a favorite band that may have broken up, had band members die or just been too expensive to see for real. For Pink Floyd fans, Saturday is their day to shine on, you crazy diamond.
Pigs on the Wing, a Pink Floyd tribute band, will play at 9 p.m. Saturday at John’s Alley. A $5 cover will be charged.
“This was intended as a one-time show,” he said. “We had so much fun doing it that we just kept doing it.”
The “we” is Oxcart, an original-material rock band whose members make up the majority of Pigs on the Wing. Oxcart will open the Saturday night show.

“We’ve played as Oxcart for three years,” Baker said. “With Pigs on the Wing, we have a chance to attract a larger audience than an original band would. People wouldn’t have heard of Pigs on the Wing but they’ve probably heard of Pink Floyd.”
Playing Floyd songs isn’t new to the band members, either.
“We’d always put Pink Floyd songs into our original sets,” Baker said.
Led Zeppelin, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Radiohead have also found their way into Oxcart’s repertoire. In its hometown of Portland, Ore., Pigs on the Wing has shared the stage with Stairway Denied, a Led Zeppelin tribute band.
Pigs on the Wing, however, is different from many tribute bands, in that the appearance of the group is not front and center.
“We’re not trying to dress like them or look like them,” Baker said. “We’re just trying to play good rock songs.

Someone who likes Pink Floyd will have a good time at the show, but it really is up to the audience to decide how well we do.”
The one concession to appearances is in the lighting.
“Seeing a Pink Floyd show without that production element wouldn’t seem right,” Baker said. “Dwight (Carlisle) is an integral part of the show. He’s a performing member, too.”
Carlisle, who is also a member of the group Groundscore along with Pigs on the Wing ‘s female vocalist Courtney Sproule, is so important to the band that he is listed as lighting/production manager on the group’s MySpace page along with the other members of the band.

“It’s great for us to have someone out front, telling us how things look. We can’t get that from the stage,” Baker said.
As for the songs, Baker is partial to “Comfortably Numb.”
“I’m a guitarist so that song is it for me with its great guitar solo,” he said. “If you ask Matt (Jones, the keyboardist) he’d say something different.”
Pigs on the Wing specializes in playing “Dark Side of the Moon” in its entirety.
“When we get to ‘Us and Them’ and ‘Any Colour You Like,’ those songs really seem to get people going,” Baker said. “There’s a real driving groove.”
The nature of the album lends itself to Pigs on the Wing’s take on it.
“‘Dark Side’ is like one long song and we play it all the way through,” Baker said. “It’s great. When you get to moments like ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’ with its vocal solo, you feel like you are playing something really special.”

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