Pink Floyd

Oakland Coliseum, May 9, 1977 preserves one of the most storied and talked‑about nights of Pink Floyd's "In The Flesh" tour, a performance at the Oakland‑Alameda County Coliseum that has circulated among collectors for decades as one of the era's standout audience recordings. The show took place in front of 20,000 fans who paid $8 a ticket, with doors opening at 4 p.m. and the band taking the stage at 8 p.m. What makes this particular concert legendary is not just the band's scorching performance of their newest work, but the encore: a one‑off revival of "Careful With That Axe, Eugene," a volatile, explosive track from the late‑60s that had not been performed since 1973 and would never be played by Pink Floyd again.

The setlist follows the arc of the "In The Flesh" tour, built around the recent Animals album and the still‑resonant Wish You Were Here. The band opens with "Sheep," then moves through "Pigs on the Wing (Part 1)," "Dogs," "Pigs on the Wing (Part 2)" and "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" before shifting into the Wish You Were Here suite: "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1‑5)," "Welcome To The Machine," "Have A Cigar," "Wish You Were Here" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 6‑9)." The encores include "Money" and "Us and Them" from The Dark Side of the Moon, followed by the shock closer, "Careful With That Axe, Eugene."

Why Pink Floyd chose that night to resurrect "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" remains something of a mystery. Rumors have circulated that the band performed it as a special request for legendary promoter Bill Graham, who reportedly wanted to hear the song. When asked about it years later, drummer Nick Mason offered no definitive answer, treating it as just another "deep fan question." What is certain is that the performance marked the end of an era: this was the final time David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Mason would play the piece together, closing the door on a track that had been a setlist staple since early 1968.

The Oakland recording, taped by Reinhardt "Rhino" Hohlwein, is considered one of the finest audience documents from the tour, with photography by Larry Hulst capturing the visual atmosphere of the night. Released as a limited edition triple‑LP bootleg (350 numbered copies), the album gives listeners a front‑row seat to a band at the peak of their live powers, delivering newly minted Animals material with raw intensity and revisiting Wish You Were Here and Dark Side classics with the precision and grandeur that defined their mid‑70s reign. For fans and historians, Oakland Coliseum, May 9, 1977 stands as both a superb document of the "In The Flesh" tour and a bittersweet farewell to one of Pink Floyd's most visceral early compositions, played one last time under the California sky before disappearing from the repertoire forever.