Pink Floyd songs generally come in two moods: anger and melancholy. Roger Waters used to sing most of the angry songs, hissing at “certain teachers” on Happiest Days of Our Lives, while David Gilmour was the melancholic one, “swimming in a fishbowl” on Wish You Were Here.

Yet there was Waters on Friday night at Sound Advice Amphitheatre, west of West Palm Beach, singing Gilmour's Wish You Were Here as wistfully as his hard-edged voice would allow.

Waters, 62, didn’t assume too many of Gilmour’s vocal duties on the first U.S. date of "Dark Side of the Moon Live.” Touring singer and guitarist David Kilminster was the de-facto replacement -- and a capable one -- for Waters’ former bandmate. But the absence of Gilmour, or any ex-colleague of Waters, was not so glaring in this welcome revival of classic Pink Floyd.

Friday's showpiece was Dark Side of the Moon. That 1973 album, a masterpiece of total immersion, represented a peak in the Waters-Gilmour partnership. It’s also become one of the best-selling records of all time, handed down like an heirloom and, unfairly or not, celebrated more for its technical brilliance than its themes of alienation.

The Waters-led band played Dark Side in its entirety, in order, on Friday night, and bookended it with other material. The arranging, playing and singing were impeccable throughout a 26-song set. Dark Side was by no means the only source of highlights during a sold-out performance for nearly 20,000 people.

The change in tone of Mother, from 1979’s The Wall, still came as jolt, as Waters’ voice rose from an insistent plea (“Mother, do you think she’s dangerous to me?”) to a demanding scream (“Mother, will she tear your little boy apart?”). Shine On You Crazy Diamond, an endearing tribute to Pink Floyd’s founding guitarist, the late Syd Barrett, swayed between gentle verses and a booming chorus.

Some concertgoers in Europe have said that Waters is occasionally using pre-recorded vocals to buttress his singing. But if that was the case on Friday, the pairing of Waters’ voice with any taped tracks was too seamless to be detected from the seats

But then, Pink Floyd was the epitome of rock as a form of perfectionism. Dark Side of the Moon is still one of the most exquisite-sounding albums ever made, and while it’s not bereft of emotion or meaning, its overall effect is trance-inducing. Dark Side is ultimately an escape vehicle, an immaculate sonic cocoon — however much it addresses greed (Money), modern-day paranoia (Brain Damage) and existential dread (Time).

But those three songs were timely on Friday, since the chaotic world they describe hasn’t gotten any calmer since 1973. Waters made his topical references more explicit during the dreamy-sounding Us and Them, flashing images of war planes and oil machinery on the video screen.

The Great Gig in the Sky had no claim on current events. It was simply a stand-alone, showstopping performance, with its spacey gospel aria sung majestically by backing vocalist Carole Kenyon.

Along with first-rate sound, the concert boasted tremendous visual pop. The old, push-button tabletop radio that served as a motif was nothing but pixels, but the screen showing it was so stunningly high-def, the radio looked real enough to touch. There were deep-space vistas — a nod to those “Laser Floyd” planetarium shows? — and acid trails and grainy reels of people and places.

As it happened, the most eye-catching prop of the night was also the lowest-tech: a giant, graffiti-covered pig floated over the crowd during a song called Sheep. If Waters’ anti-war, anti-Bush sentiments weren’t obvious to anyone one before that moment, seeing the the name of the sitting president printed across the big pig’s posterior removed all doubt.