Concert review: Roger Waters at the Bell Centre, Montreal, June 26

By Richard Burnett

As the likelihood of a Pink Floyd reunion becomes increasingly distant with each passing year, this second go-round of Roger Waters’ The Wall Live Tour serves as good a Pink Floyd finale as any fan could ever hope for – and then some.

While Floyd’s iconic 1979 The Wall album dealt mainly with abandonment and personal isolation, the live performance has evolved from personal confession into a more troubling anti-war, anti-capitalism and anti-authoritarian narrative.

“Giving our governments too much power is a steep and slippery slope to tyranny,” Rogers told the audience.

But last night’s concert at the Bell Centre was no downer: It kicked off with some major pyro and a plane  – yes, a plane – that crashed into an enormous wall of white bricks that stretched across the stage. That wall (which doubled as a video screen) rose brick-by brick, song-by-song, until eventually it finally hid Waters’ top-notch 12-member band (including Waters on bass guitar) by the end of the first act.

The second half began with a rousing version of Hey You played live behind – you guessed it – the wall, while Waters struck front-of-the-stage rock star poses worthy of Liza Minelli in Cabaret which, incidentally, shares much with The Wall.

But Waters worked hard for the money (top ticket price last night was $268), with grotesque marionettes and hallucinogenic multi-media projections worthy of Syd Barrett, not to mention a clean, crisp audio wall of sound that made sonic rock classics like Comfortably Numb absolutely soar.

The inflated pig was also back for an encore – with messages like “Drink Kalishnikov vodka” printed on it sides – as Waters further fine-tuned The Wall, focusing his attacks on such targets as organized religion and rapacious multi-national corporations. During a thundering version of Run Like Hell aimed at corporate overlords, the screen flashed iPod-style phrases like “iTeach,” “iLearn,” “iBelieve,” “iPaint,” “iKill” and “iPay.”

Pink Floyd’s original, ill-fated The Wall tour back in 1980 lost millions, something Waters’ 2012 version most surely will not. New technology has transformed this rock opera into a fast-paced and seamlessly orchestrated spectacle for fans raised on MTV and weaned on video games.

For those who can’t get beyond The Wall’s hoary 1970s rock band origins, even Waters poked fun at himself before accompanying a younger video version of himself – filmed at Earls Court in 1980 – singing Mother. “This may even be narcissistic,” Waters cracked.

But in this city – even during Montreal’s maple spring/summer of discontent – Waters can pretty much do no wrong, not even after his famous onstage meltdown at Olympic Stadium in July 1977 during a Pink Floyd concert that is often cited as the catalyst for Waters writing The Wall.

“I was a miserable young man 30 years ago,” Waters said last night. “I’m happier now.”

Fittingly, when the 15,323 fans at the Bell Centre gave him a five-minute standing ovation, Waters wiped his eyes with his hand.

Photo by: Marie-France Coallier/THE GAZETTE

From:montrealgazette.com

Roger Waters’ “The Wall” tour continues to stun - Atlanta Music Scene,June 14, 2012

The smoke and fire were mere background compared to the rest of the toys in "The Wall" tour, shown here from a February show in Australia. All photos: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Those who saw “The Wall” tour in 2010 left the venue with their jaws scraping the parking garage floor.

How not to be impressed by the technical masterpiece that Waters re-invigorated for the 30th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s seminal album?

How could fans do anything but bow at Waters’ feet for revisiting the 1980 tour, but this time with a 240-foot-wide “wall” doing double duty as a video screen and updated illustrations by the legendary Gerald Scarfe?

The 2010 tour was such a success – it grossed almost $90 million from 56 concerts in North America on its first leg – that Waters decided to trek overseas in January and head back to the U.S. for this current run through July.

On Wednesday night, “The Wall” returned to Philips Arena. And it was no less stunning.

The opening “In the Flesh?”, with its criss-crossing red flares, curtains of pyro and dive bomber plane tearing across the arena ceiling to crash into the wall in a fireball, was more exciting than most concerts in their entirety.

What makes “The Wall” such a marvel, though, is that all of the mechanical awesomeness isn’t an empty façade designed to distract from an otherwise hollow show.

These songs hold up both in meaning and musicality, and their retelling in this format is a stark, sad reminder of the potency of a well-crafted concept album – a dying, if not already dead, art.

Regardless of your opinion of his politics, Waters proudly declares an anti-authoritarianism stance (he even pokes a little fun at Apple’s Kool-Aid-drinking methods) and dedication to peace.

 Those values are smeared all over this live version of Floyd’s rock opera, notably in an addition to the show – an acoustic coda to “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2),” that he dedicates to Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian man mistakenly shot eight times by London police after the 2005 subway bombings – and later during a heartfelt “Bring the Boys Back Home.”


There is little difference between this version of “The Wall” and its predecessor, including his intro of “Mother,” when he told the sold-out crowd of his plan to sing along with a black and white video of himself when he was “miserable, f-ing Roger” from years ago.

But Waters did break character, if you will, to greet the audience and thank the group of local children who joined him onstage for “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).”

Those kids, donning black T-shirts reading “Fear Builds Walls,” came from the Atlanta Music Project, and followed Waters’ minimal direction to sing, clap and defiantly shake their fingers at the hideous schoolmaster puppet, a leering tower of bulging eyes and scaly fingers, hovering onstage.

Throughout the show, a group of stagehands unobtrusively stacked the “bricks,” made of corrugated cardboard, to build the symbolic wall, a stately monster that completely obscured the stage by the end of the first set and remained that way through its implosion during “The Trial.”

But Waters and his band, an impeccable team who played so clean and crisp that every thump of the bass resounded during “Young Lust” and each smack of the snare drum could be heard during the various parts of “Another Brick,” found ways to circumvent the wall.

The hazy “Hey You” was performed with the band and Waters completely obstructed (anyone else wonder if they were really playing and singing back there?), but for “Nobody Home,” Waters, sounding pleasantly gravelly all night, appeared in a small living room setting in a space that folded out of the wall.

For the aching “Comfortably Numb,” a song that causes involuntary body swaying, Robbie Wyckoff, a tremendous singer who handled David Gilmour’s parts throughout the show, and guitarist Dave Kilminster, stood atop the wall to perform. The way that Waters, parading the stage below, thrust his arms in the air to lead the crowd through the soaring chorus made you feel as if these songs are more than a continuous cash machine to him; he actually seems to feel the material.

The appearance of the black floating pig – a remote controlled fellow with sayings such as “Trust Us” and “Them Not Us” painted on his side – floated above the crowd (via remote control) as Waters and the band, donning their black fascist attire with marching hammer armbands, tore through “Run Like Hell.


All these years later, it remains a tense, thrilling piece of music – and automatic air guitar song – and its relevance hasn’t diminished with age.

By the end of “The Wall” live, it becomes obvious that while Waters is the ringleader and messenger, the real heavy lifting in the show comes from the superior technology and array of props.

At 68, Waters is still a vibrant presence. Let’s hope he has the stamina to keep this beautiful beast of a show on the road indefinitely.

By Melissa Ruggieri, Atlanta Music Scene

From: blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-music-scene 

Roger Waters The Wall - Quebec - July 21st, 2012

Roger Waters The Wall - Quebec - July 21st, 2012 from Roger Waters on Vimeo.

Gallery: Roger Waters at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, June 6, 2012

Photos By Chris Clark

From photos.mlive.com

Roger Waters in concert Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Review: Roger Waters' 'The Wall Live' an immaculate sound-and-vision spectacular at Van Andel Arena.

There’s a fine line between triumph and fiasco.

Roger Waters’ immaculate sound-and-vision extravaganza, "The Wall Live", is very much the former. Without the ex-Pink Floyd singer/bassist’s exacting eye for detail (and, arguably, his massive ego), the show presented Wednesday night at Van Andel Arena could easily have been a cheesy, psychedelic rock opera for the extraordinarily stoned. But as it stands, it’s amazingly elaborate, impeccably executed and possibly unforgettable - even for the stone-sober.

Waters is easily the grand-poobah professor of Rock Spectacle 101, using grandiose imagery to tell a story about war, repression, corporate influence and rebellion. As he and his band – including guitarist David Kilminster and singer Robbie Wyckoff playing estranged Floyd partner David Gilmour’s parts – worked their way through the entirety of Pink Floyd’s 1979 double album “The Wall,” crew members slowly and steadily stacked large bricks into a literal wall across the stage. The show was divided into two hour-long sets with an intermission. The first built the wall, the second presented the oppressive massiveness of it, and tore it down. It’s a metaphor, you see.

Although the presentation sounded more clear and crystalline than any arena show I’ve ever attended, and Kilminster’s guitar work during “Comfortably Numb” soared majestically, I’m sure none of the crowd of nearly 10,000 went home talking about that. It’s the over-the-top visuals that stick with you: Insane hallucinatory footage from the “Wall” movie (fornicating flowers, etc.) was often projected on the wall and, most memorably, a digital animation of bomber planes opening their bays and dropping corporate logos and religious iconography. Also powerful was footage of soldiers returning from war to their families during “Bring the Boys Back Home.”

And then there were the inflatables: the flying pig, the dancing teacher, the ominous Mother character the scary praying-mantis woman. For “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2,” the giant teacher loomed menacingly over a children’s choir – Waters recruits local kids for every show – with beady LED eyes, eventually deflating under the chanting youth. It was as bizarre as it was endearing.

The evening opened with sounds of war chattering around the arena via surround sound, and an airplane crashing into the wall. It ended with Waters donning a double-breasted cloak and wielding a machine gun and megaphone, mimicking a fascist totalitarian rally before pre-recorded chants of “Tear down the wall!” mingled with the audience’s shouts, and the wall crumbles – a little bit anti-climactically - amidst cheers and dust and smoke.

What does it all mean? Peace, man. All we need is peace. It also means Waters can outdo his big-venue competitors with outrageous, entertaining extravagance. The legions of rock fans tuned in to Pink Floyd’s brand of art rock devoured it, singing along and pumping their fists. It is a little disconcerting to see a show with such a pro-human, anti-greed message charging upwards of $200 for a ticket and $40 for a T-shirt. But that’s the price of doing business. It isn’t cheap to stage a rock spectacle, you know.

By John Serba

LIVE REVIEW

Roger Waters: The Wall Live

3 ½ stars (out of 4)

When/where: Wednesday night, Van Andel Arena

Attendance: Just under 10,000

Time on stage: Two one-hour sets with a 25-minute intermission

Highlight: Midway through the second set, Waters led the crowd on a sing-along of anthem-to-end-all-anthems “Comfortably Numb. David Kilminster’s guitar song-ending guitar solo was soaring and powerful.

From www.mlive.com

Roger Waters floors Joe Louis crowd with ambitious 'Wall' - The Detroit News, JUNE 6, 2012

Roger Waters floors Joe Louis crowd with ambitious 'Wall'

Roger Waters performs Pink Floyd's towering epic "The Wall" to a near-capacity crowd at Joe Louis Arena on Tuesday night. (Photo by Ricardo Thomas / The Detroit News)

Is there anybody out there?

There were plenty of people out there Tuesday at Joe Louis Arena as Roger Waters brought Pink Floyd's towering epic "The Wall" to full life for a near-capacity crowd, the second time he's brought the live staging of the 1979 classic to Metro Detroit.

The first time was a riveting show in October 2010 at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Waters has presented "The Wall" more than 140 times since on three different continents, but it shows no signs of wear, and aside from an exasperated "ugh!" he let out mid-show, neither does Waters.

That's because "The Wall" touches on universal themes of alienation and mistrust of authority and takes an anti-government, anti-corporation stance that resonates just as deeply today as it did when "The Wall" was first released. And it's also because this presentation of "The Wall" is, quite simply, one of the most astounding rock spectacles that's ever been staged, an exquisite visual masterpiece that takes its cues from rock theater and is daring enough to capture "The Wall" in all its ambitious, over-the-top glory.

Here's the quickie version of the two-and-a-half hour show: A wall stretching the width of the arena gets built, images are projected on to it, the wall gets knocked down. In between there is a choir of local schoolchildren, some ghastly inflatable characters, an airborne pig and enough messages of anti-capitalism and anti-greed to make you never go to the store again. At one point Waters pulls out a tommy gun and mock-mows down the audience. Show's over, thanks everybody for coming out!

But the pinpoint timing of the show, the masterful lighting and the unbelievable staging make it an out-and-out event for the ages that everyone should experience at least once. And once it's gone, it's gone. Where is the next "The Wall" going to come from? Does Taylor Swift have something hidden up her sleeve, is Drake sitting on something big? "The Wall" is a big idea made even bigger by Waters' grand, exacting vision, and it takes a certain level of crazy to even attempt something on the level at which he's working. Even U2's gargantuan stadium epics don't touch the rich detail and grand sweep of "The Wall." So whomever is stepping up to the plate next has some pretty big shoes to fill. Let's just hope it's not all downhill from here.

"The Wall's" first act, where the wall is being built, is startling, but the second act is where it towers. "Run Like Hell" was a grand piece of showmanship, but the chilling "Comfortably Numb" remains the highlight, with Waters at the base of the wall while vocalist Robbie Wyckoff and guitarist Dave Kilminster fill in David Gilmour's parts from atop the structure. Tuesday night at the Joe, it rang out as one of the most electrifying songs I've ever heard in concert.

The messages and questions from "The Wall" still ring out: The show must go on; tear down the wall; is there anybody out there?

And fans know that thanks to Waters' masterful presentation, "The Wall" remains as strong as it ever was.

By ADAM GRAHAM 

From www.detroitnews.com

   

Gallery: Roger Waters in the flesh at Rexall, May 28, 2012.

Roger Waters performs The Wall at Rexall Place in Edmonton on May 28, 2012.

Photograph by: John Lucas, edmontonjournal.com

From: www.edmontonjournal.com