COSMIC + WAVES

Roger Waters, In The Flesh

So, I saw Roger Waters preform The Wall in entirety last night at the BankAtlantic Center. So far, this has been the greatest concert I’ve ever experienced. Ever. 

The venue was completely sold out; My friend Kevin and I were lucky to get tickets during presale, so we had seats on the floor. The show was beautiful. The 30 foot (or maybe even higher) puppets and a giant pig flying around the room was still  nothing compared to the massive wall built on stage during the show.

At some points the show, each brick in the wall had it’s on image; I distinctly remember during one of the many tributes to war victims, each brick casted a picture of a veteran. The show, much like the album, was a very tense show. The Wall isn’t like Dark Side or Animals in the sense that you could just sit down and play the whole thing through to just absorb the music - The Wall, and all the messages within it, is far from an easily digestible experience, even with songs like Comfortably Numb and Another Brick in the Wall (Part II). The show was filled with anti-war messages, anti-big corporation messages, and anti-government messages.

During the song Mother, when Roger Waters said the line,

“Mother, should I trust the government?”

Big, red text was cast upon the wall saying “NO FUCKING WAY!”

The messages were strong; after the first disc of the album was preformed, there was a 30-minute intermission (perfect time to get out and buy some $45 t-shirts!) and there was a memorial projected onto The Wall. Roger Water’s asked fans to send in pictures of loved ones who passed away during war, along with the years they served and where they died, all projected onto the wall. 

The show was an incredible audio/visual overload mindgasm; they projected a lot of the animated portions of the film (some of which I’m having trouble remembering and thinking it may have been unused footage from the movie) and rich, vibrant textures and animations created for the tour. 

Truly amazing concert. Once in a lifetime.