Posted on 10/01/2006 9:50:09 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Given his legacy as the key songwriter and conceptualist for Pink Floyd, one of the most theatrical bands in rock history, fans could expect that Roger Waters' show at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre on Friday would be a visual tour de force.
Considering his infamous perfectionism, it was a given, too, that the sound and musicianship would be top-notch, especially since half of the set would be devoted to the 1973 audiophile masterpiece, "The Dark Side of the Moon."
What came as a surprise was that Waters' three-hour performance in Tinley Park packed such an emotional wallop in the form of a very poignant running commentary about the tragedy of war in general and of America's involvement in Iraq in particular.
Unifies 5-decade career Reviews of earlier gigs on the tour found some critics scoffing at the politics, as if strong anti-war sentiments hadn't always been a key theme in Waters' work, from "Corporal Clegg" in 1968 through his final album with Pink Floyd, "The Final Cut," a 1983 meditation on the Falklands.
But even for hard-core fans who've followed Waters' philosophical evolution, the extent to which his set list drew together songs from throughout a five-decade career to make a unified thematic point seemed extraordinary.
The first part of the evening gave us "Fletcher Memorial Funeral Home," "Perfect Sense," the new song "Leaving Beirut" and "Sheep," a comment on a slumbering electorate illustrated with a version of Pink Floyd's inflatable pig decorated with the slogans "Impeach Bush now" and "Don't get led to the slaughter, vote Nov. 7." The second set, which included all of "Dark Side," had the anti-war anthem "Us and Them," with photos of President Bush at the now-infamous "Mission Accomplished" photo-op, and video of oil rigs pumping in time to "Money." And finally, there was the overwhelming one-two punch of "Vera" and "Bring the Boys Back Home" during a generous encore.
Basks in fan adoration Though Waters certainly made his message clear, the cumulative effect was less like preaching and more like a summation of one strain of his life's work, which has sadly become more timely than ever. And the show made the welcome point that, despite the popular perception, Pink Floyd has never just been the perfect band to fire up the bong to -- there has always been much more substance when the band was at its best. In contrast to the dour front presented on some tours, the amazingly well-preserved, 63-year-old Waters gleefully basked in the adoration of his fans, who cheered his political messages as enthusiastically as his blasts of classic-rock nostalgia.
Always the third-best singer in Pink Floyd, the bandleader did his best with the vocals he recorded on albums, leaving the rest to a crack 11-piece band that included his son Harry on Hammond organ and MVP Dave Kilminster in the role of guitarist David Gilmour.
In fact, the only way this extraordinary evening could have been better was if Waters finally buried the hatchet with Gilmour and his other former Floyd bandmates. As at Gilmour's show at the Rosemont Theatre last April, the night came close, but it still wasn't quite Pink Floyd, and you still couldn't help thinking that, as Waters sang in "In the Flesh" at the start of the show, "Pink isn't well, he stayed back at the hotel / And they sent us along as a surrogate band."
jimdero@jimdero.com
Oh, for sure, I love much of Floyd's music, particularly DSoftheM and The Wall. I also love Green Day, Springsteen, The Beatles, etc. but I choose not to buy into their message.
Hell, I'll listen to Accept but I won't go out and become party to their perversion.
Sheep follow. Shepherds lead. But I am human.
I go to see him on Wed @ Hollyweird Bowl. I'm gonna try like heck just to get into the music but after watching clips on YouTube I don't know if that will be possible.
This whole "Free Speech" thing is not a two way street. Rog is over here politicking against President Bush (Impeach Bush Now) and advising Americans how to vote.
Go over to Venezuela and criticize Chavez from the stage and get back to me about the problems your tour experiences, Rog.
Can American bands go to England and advise the audiences not to vote Labour?
Grace Slick got tons of grief in the 1970s for getting drunk and chastising her audience for Germany's Nazi past when she played Germany.
"Hope I die before I grow old." Pete Townshend, The Who
Promises promises..........
I just saw this show last night in Indianapolis.
I read the garbage about his themes and statements in the show, but he has always been like this. You need to expect it going in.
All that aside, with the exception of 2 solo pieces he did, the show could not have been better. The vocals and especially the guitarist licks we as near perfect as you could get. The beginning to end performance of Dark Side of the Moon as an unforgettable experience.
I gotta tell you, i was choked up when he did Any Color you Like. It was powerful.
Set your views aside and ignore his... go see this show if you are a fan. I heard tale of lip-syncing and all that, but there was none here. He has lost some of his ability, but he still has that power behind his voice when he needs to call on it, it made it a genuine sound and sent a shiver up my neck a few times.
I'd pay to see it again if I could.
Fortuantely, I'm not a huge Floyd or Waters fan; a few gems among a bunch of overproduced overhyped schlock.
If anything his anti-war message came across as laughable.
For one thing, his new anti-war anthem "Leaving Beirut" pictured a comic book presentation behind him on the giant screens. It was about his travels in Lebanon in the mid-sixties when he was 19 years old. His car broke down and he was treated nicely by the Lebanese Addams Family (dad was missing a leg, mom was a hunchback, and their kid had one eye - I kid you not.)
In the comic book narrative, young Rog wonders why we are bombing these poor people, even though its supposed to be 1966 or something. Then he ends it all by attacking "the right wing Christians" for doing this to them. I didn't have the heart to tell Roger that very very few Israelis are right wing Christians.
Then his pictures of evil world leaders was very balanced - leftist dictators who murdered millions of their own citizens(Stalin, Mao, etc.) until they died and Republicans twice elected by the American people who peacefully retired when their terms were up.
But the funniest thing was the goofy flying pig. I have some advice for Roger - if you want your message (Impeach Bush Now) to be taken seriously by more people than the playdough-brained reviewer who wrote the posted article, you might want to find a better place to express it than the ass end of a cartoonish flying pig with blinking red demon eyes.
Then again, this is a knucklehead who is still mad at the allies for standing up to Hitler and imperial Japan.
Hmmm ... I don't seem to recall Rush repackaging his shtick for an "emotional anti-war wallop."
"I was at the Indy show last night. Do you think the pig was supposed to break loose and float off? It looked like it was the same I had seen in pictures from recent shows on this tour."
I wondered about that too. It did look like the same pig as I'd seen earlier. I also thought it's not good that a liberal lets that pig float away and become trash somewhere.
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