at the State Theatre<\/a><\/strong> with a show built not just to recreate Pink Floyd\u2019s music, but to inhabit it.<\/p>\nFor drummer and founding member Tahrah Cohen, the relationship with Pink Floyd\u2019s catalog isn\u2019t nostalgic. It\u2019s personal. The first single she ever bought was \u201cAnother Brick in the Wall\u201d, a moment she remembers as an early emotional jolt that never really faded. While she didn\u2019t consider herself a die-hard fan at first, everything shifted when she met guitarist Joe Pascarell at 16 and watched him bring Floyd\u2019s music to life.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a 16-year-old watching somebody play the music the way he did, I became infatuated,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n
What began as friends playing music for fun quickly took on a life of its own. By the late 1980s, The Machine was drawing crowds beyond its local roots. By 1990, the band had an agent, left day jobs behind and committed fully to the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody else left their jobs and it was a pretty exciting moment,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cEverything just kept growing and growing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That growth has since carried the band around the world, through orchestral collaborations in Europe, stripped-down acoustic shows and full-scale electric productions. Each format bends the Pink Floyd catalog in a slightly different direction. Acoustic performances might feature upright bass, accordion and a small drum kit. The electric performances, like the one planned for State College, bring the full force of lights, video and immersive sound.<\/p>\n
Still, Cohen is quick to emphasize that the spectacle is an enhancement, not the point.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still keep the focus on our music,\u201d she said. \u201cThe production is fun. It goes along with the aesthetic of Pink Floyd. But we\u2019re musicians looking to deliver music as purely and honestly as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
That philosophy also drives the band\u2019s ever-changing setlists. Rather than repeating the same show night after night, The Machine builds each set with intention just days before taking the stage. The process balances fan favorites with deeper cuts and long-form pieces that leave room for improvisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to hit the obscurities and the deep cuts,\u201d Cohen said, \u201cbut we also want to give people the songs they really want to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ask Cohen to name a favorite Pink Floyd album and she won\u2019t. Not because she\u2019s dodging the question, but because the catalog has become inseparable from her daily life. From early material like \u201cSee Emily Play\u201d and \u201cSet the Controls for the Heart of the Sun\u201d to later staples such as \u201cComfortably Numb\u201d and \u201cShine On You Crazy Diamond\u201d, the music has become, as she puts it, \u201cpart of the fabric of my existence.\u201d Some songs, she said, never lose their pull.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will never, ever get tired of playing \u2018Shine On You Crazy Diamond.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Cohen\u2019s presence behind the drum kit has also become part of The Machine\u2019s identity. While female drummers were once a rarity on major stages, she sees that landscape shifting.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately it becomes a genderless experience,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re everywhere now. There\u2019s so many fantastic, powerful, musical female drummers and people notice, and ultimately it becomes a genderless experience for people.\u201d<\/p>\n
That same openness shapes her advice to younger musicians trying to find their footing. Her message is simple, but hard-earned.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever stop,\u201d she said. \u201cNo matter what the feedback is, you just keep doing it because you love it. I\u2019ve seen that pay off for so many bands.\u201d<\/p>\n
After years of club stages, theaters like the State Theatre now feel like a natural home for The Machine. Cohen remembers playing early State College shows at The Crowbar, slowly working their way up. Today, the theater setting better suits the band\u2019s production and its audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople prefer to be in a comfortable seat,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd a show that starts at 8 o\u2019clock.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Cohen, the draw remains the same as it was decades ago: the shared electricity of live performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re playing great music and you\u2019re playing it as passionately as possible, and at times spontaneously, those are the ingredients for a great night,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s what keeps us going, and that\u2019s what keeps the audience coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n
When The Machine steps onto the State Theatre stage this April, it won\u2019t be a museum piece or a greatest-hits jukebox. It will be something closer to a conversation across generations, carried by light, sound and songs that stood the test of time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.statecollege.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Machine will perform at the State Theatre on Friday, April 3, 2026. Courtesy of The Machine This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette. STATE COLLEGE \u2014 The room goes dark, the lights swell and suddenly time loosens its grip. For more than three decades, The Machine enters Pink Floyd\u2019s world not to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2300997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2300996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/The-Machine-Returns-to-State-College-With-Immersive-Pink-Floyd.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2300996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2300998,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300996\/revisions\/2300998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2300997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2300996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2300996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2300996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}