Roger Waters, a concert in revue: watersmachine

watersmachine

Roger Waters, a concert in revue

Sep 07, 2006 15:54

Roger was very nice. We had tea. He is British and talks funny... kinda like daddy after too many drinks... right before he starts hitting mommy.

There, I got that out of my system.

So last night was the Roger Waters concert... which completes my Pink Floyd Lite '06 Tour. By PF Lite i mean I saw Dave Gilmour and Richard Wright a few months ago in NYC with Julie, and I saw Roger Waters last night with Amanda. I'm still, however, missing Nick Mason from my little collection... I think I'm going to fly to England and hunt him down... he shouldn't be hard to spot, he's the older distinguished looking British gentleman.

Right.

So this was my 3rd time seeing Mr. Waters in concert, and for the most part it was the best show I've seen...even better than the side-stage front row seats in Rhode Island back in 2000. The sound was fucking amazing, being in Quadrophonic (meaning coming from 4 ways for you mongoloids out there). We were sitting next to the back left speaker... and jesus christ was it loud. They used the sound to PERFECTION!!!

During "Wish You Were Here" they kept playing footage of Syd Barret on the screens... cue me becoming an emotional mess because I'm a big girl on the inside when it comes to Pink Floyd... and I'm not ashamed to admit that. Then came the real suprise... during "Perfect Sense Part 1" off of "Amused to Death" it started out with an giant inflatable Spaceman... then during the part with Marv Albert... PYRO FUCKING TECHNICS!!!!! It scared the fuck out of me... and amazed me... and I almost wet my pants with glee. Then during "Sheep" out came the giant inflatable pig... which the handlers then lost when they took it up onto the lawn... taken by the wind sadly... at the very end of the concert when Roger was saying goodbye he said "And where the fuck did my pig go?!". Hahahahaha. Imagine driving on the parkway and seeing a giant inflatable pig... hilarity ensues.

So he ends the first half, we go smoke, and sit back down just in time for the beginning of "Dark Side of the Moon"... the complete album. Now I would like to take this time to say... honestly... DSOTM is my least favorite Floyd album. I LOVE every album, but if I had to pick one to like the least... this would be it. That being said... seeing it done live... I would have fucking killed myself if I had missed seeing this concert, not only as a Floyd fan, but also as a music fan in general. Here we are talking about one of the greatest, and best selling, albums of all time. Every song flows into the next, it's got a message but doesn't bash you over the fucking head with it, amazing songwriting and music... it's, for lack of a better word... perfect. Seeing it done live... I honestly fell in love with the album all over again, and no longer do I like it the least... that position now belongs to Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

So they finish DSOTM, and they go off... and not a single person leaves and the volume of everyone screaming for more was AMAZING. So out they come for an encore... and it's a fucking amazing encore. They start out with "The Happiest Days of our Lives", then go right into "Another Brick in the Wall part II", which is ALWAYS amazing live, then into Vera Lynn, one of my favorite songs off "The Wall", right into "Bring the Boys Back Home"... which they used the pyrotechnics as the cannon booms in the song... fucking god damn amazing... and of course they go right into "Comfortably Numb"... cue me turning into an emotional girly mess. And so they ended the concert on an amazing note... i left emotionally cleansed.

Two things were wrong with the concert though. 1 technical thing... and 1 major faux pas on Waters part.

Technical Issue- One of the backup singers came in WAY early on "Money" and was singing by herself... oh how I laughed.

Faux pas- Ok. Roger told a story about how when he was 17 he took a road trip to the Middle East and how he was taken in by a family in Beirut when his car broke down... nice little story... wrote a short story about it. He then took it upon himself to rewrite said short story into a diatribe against president Bush and what he's doing in the Middle East.

I have never, in my entire concert going existance, heard a person booed more than he was at the end of that song. Not only was it poorly written, a huge suprise for me since I fashion my writing style after that of Waters, but just a terrible message. My friend Jess put it best... "You're british, don't worry about our government, worry about your fucked up Parliment". I love Waters, and I know a lot of his music has a political message behind it... but nothing like this. This was heavy-handed... obvious... not his usual subtle style. This song wasn't Pro-Arab or Anti-Jew or Anti-War... it was honestly just Anti-Bush. He finisehd the song... EVERYONE booed (my seat was shaking)... and then he won them back with an awesome Floyd song... but just... wow.

I mean, I give him credit for putting his neck out there... but I don't like to hear anyone that isn't from this country insulting how MY president runs MY country.

So in closing... fucking AMAZING show (aside from the song "Leaving Beirut)... here's the setlist... and now I should go work.

Set One

Set Two (The Dark Side of the Moon)

Encore

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