Okemos - Not even a mile away from a clustered Grand River Avenue, paved roads turn to dirt and the noise of traffic is absorbed by towering trees.
Where the quiet serenity of the countryside on a sweltering hot Sunday is interrupted only by a breeze carrying brief relief from the heat and a few muffled guitar notes.
Rolling into a crowded driveway, drums, keyboards, bass and women's voices fill in the sound that becomes recognizable as none other than Pink Floyd.
The tranquil location is the practice space for Lansing's Floyd tribute - The Surrogate Band.
In a small room, filled with almost too many keyboards and amps to count, the band's seven members are gathered for their weekly eight-hour practice. Half-smoked cigars rest in ashtrays as the band breaks into one of Floyd's better known tunes, "Have A Cigar."
Keyboardist Mark King's haunting vocals are extremely reminiscent of Roger Waters, and lead guitarist Alex Gonzalez nailed David Gilmour's guitar and vocals as the band practiced "Us and Them."
Though the lengthy practices are part of the band's weekly schedule, on this particular Sunday, The Surrogate Band seems extremely excited to be practicing for their next show Friday at The Temple Club, 500 E. Grand River Ave., in Lansing's Old Town.
"It's an outdoor concert, depending on the weather," King said. "We actually prefer to play outside."
The band headlines Friday's show, which will be a tribute to some of the best rock music ever made.
Opening for The Surrogate Band are the Hammer Gods, Lansing's tribute band to Led Zeppelin. The show starts at 8 p.m. and The Surrogate Band will take the stage a little after sunset - as the dark is needed to properly exhibit the band's authentically Floyd light show.
"We have top notch lighting," King said, adding the illumination is more of a soft-core light show.
"We still haven't quite got to the level of Floyd, that's about a $100,000 away."
The band's bassist, Phil Reed, said in order to rock out the outside show, the band's sound system will have to be beefed up a little bit.
The show will be held in the parking lot behind The Temple Club, which can accommodate up to 3,000 people. But in the event of fierce weather, the concert will be moved inside to the club's main stage upstairs, which has a capacity of 600.
Either way, the show should be a hit - thanks to The Surrogate Band's sound, which is incredibly identical to Pink Floyd.
The Surrogate Band consists of seven talented Floyd freaks: King on keyboards and vocals - playing the part of Roger Waters, Jason Adams on drums - playing the part of Nick Mason, Keith Billik on guitar, saxophone, accordion and other instruments - playing the part of Snowy White and Dick Parry, Phil Reed on electric bass - playing the part of Roger Waters and Rick Wright, Alex Gonzalez on lead guitar and vocals - playing the part of David Gilmour, Jill Messing provides sexy, bluesy backing vocals and tambourine - playing the part of Durga McBroom and Jen Johnston's beautiful voice completes the group as Rachel Fury.
The show will go on until about midnight, but The Temple Club will remain open until 2 a.m. in order to encourage mingling of Floyd and Zeppelin fans.
"We hope people will be focusing on the lights and music," Gonzalez said, adding that The Surrogate Band's show will offer a thriving mix of both old and new, popular and obscure Pink Floyd tunes.
