My Review of the Wall Live

[Alternative 4]

I have never really been a Roger fan, part driven by the myth that he was not the musical side of Pink Floyd. The talk of Rick tuning his bass, the relative musical blandness of the Final Cut made me think this. However this show blew that away. The fact that he included "the last few bricks" (even though it was originally to give the builders time to complete the wall) and the extra solos (in "ABITW pt.2" and "Young Lust") as well as the pacing, dynamics and orchestration of the showed me he more than matches the others musical ability.

Although there was no David Gilmour it didn't matter in the slightest, during "Hey you" I almost thought it was Dave singing. The band had knowledge of the material that made this highly staged event sound natural. The highlights of course were Snowy's solo on ABITW pt.2 and What shall we do now. The vocal harmonies particularly impressed me, the surrogate bands parts were epic. The layers or keys, vocals and guitars created a layer of sound which impressed me far more than the DSOTM tour Roger did.

I can almost find no negatives but I didn't like the drummer's snare sound, it was too 80's and I thought they played "Is there anybody out there?" too fast. But these are very minor points and in no way distracted from the spectacle.

The technology involved is simply amazing. The way the bricks fill in with projections as erected amazes me. Also the way something could be projected over the whole wall or just one part created an intense show. Of course the Goodbye Blue Sky - One of my turns part is awesome, it is possibly my favorite musical suites, especially with the projections. Its so nice to see the classic animation films projected so large. It was also nice touch showing the obituaries during the intermission.

Overall the most amazing thing about the show is Roger's re-framing of the story into a modern context. Even a song like Comfortably Numb can mean something completely different when viewed in a context of media over saturation of war, famine and consumerism. The tone also is much more positive that it left me feeling each person can make the world better by tearing down walls of intolerance and anger. It is now a smarter more focused story.

Over two nights I had two different vantage points, the 2nd night was towards the rear and the better of the two. Although on the first I could see the band, then 2nd took in the whole experience. Also the quad effects made it far more intense as they were more prominent towards the rear.

The best thing overall? It exceeded what I thought it was gonna be. Having watched the bootleg many times and hear the wall live I expected it to pale in comparison to the legend of the original shows. In the end I left feeling that Roger's show is better than I ever imagined the Pink Floyd show was. I really could go every night and never get tired of it

[Enish]

Great review! It gives me an idea of what to expect when I see Waters in July. I'm a little afraid he'll be burnt out by that point, though, because the show I'm going to will be towards the end of the tour. Then again, if he's doing all this at his age, then I shouldn't be worried.

[admiral panther]

thanks, im going in june for the 1st time, been getting in shape with berlin and the mp3, all fun huh?