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
No comments:
Post a Comment