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Roger Waters, The Wall
Sep. 20th, 2010 08:00 pmI wasn't sure I wanted to go to the show. I mean, I wanted to see it, but it was expensive. I decided it would be worth it. It was. I had a certain historical interest in seeing it, because I'd never seen any footage of the original tour, and I wanted to know how it was done. Plus, it was The Wall. It's an awesome album. One that I listen to only rarely, but awesome nonetheless. Anyway, I kinda had to go. I didn't get the $250 seats, but this still may have been my most expensive show ever, at $125. We ended up in the club level. The seats weren't that awesome, but we had better amenities outside. Not that we took advantage of the bars, the cushy lounge chairs or the fancy restaurant.
Steve got the tickets a few months ago. Several days beforehand, he hurt his back, and wasn't sure if he could go. He was in a lot of pain. He didn't decide to go until about 4:00. He got hold of me at about 4:30 and was surprised to hear I wasn't leaving work until 5:00. He sounded a little panicked, so I left at 4:45. I rushed home, grabbed the tickets, rushed down to meet him, waited a bit, then hurried down to Chicago. I realized when I hit the first toll, that I had forgotten my iPass. And drove through the second toll without paying. Got to our seats with about 20 minutes to spare.
The stage was dressed sparsely, with only the trademark round video screen at the back. The partly-built wall stretched out from the sides of the stage.
The show closely paralleled the movie. They reenacted the fascist scenes, with the crossed hammers and banners. But much of the video was updated or just plain new. They used the original animation from "The Trial" projected onto the wall. They used the original video of the sexual flowers for "Empty Spaces", but they added some sinuous computer generated roots snaking across the wall below the round screen. They did the movie version of "Empty Spaces" and did "What Shall We Do Now?"
Early in the show, during "The Thin Ice", they showed photos of victims of war on the round screen, and also tiled across the bricks on the side wall. There was footage of a child in black and red, behind the sinister tones of Another Brick in the Wall part 1.
A searchlight spotlight and the sound of a helicopter marked the beginning of "The Happiest Days of Our Lives". At this time, there was graffiti projected onto the wall. An enormous marionette of the teacher descended. It slowly moved back and forth and up and down at the side of the stage. When the chorus was about to start, a line of children ran onstage. They were stepping and clapping and chanting. We don't need no education! They were apparently from a local school. Toward the end of the song, they ran to the side of the stage, pointing in unison at the teacher puppet until it shrank back out of sight. During this song, the line, "all in all, we are all just bricks in the wall," marked the beginning of the construction of the wall across the front of the stage.
From here, to the intermission, workers continually brought 5'x2.5' bricks out and added them to the wall. As each brick was set into place, whatever video was being projected, would "turn on" on that brick. Apparently, the projectors were aligned within a couple of inches, and a technician would key in that spot of the video at the right moment. Amazing. During Brick 2, when the graffitid wall was displayed, I saw the shadow of a child walk briskly across the stage. And a subway train went by.
"Mother" included an inflatable version of the cartoon Mother from the movie, and a large security camera on the screen, that was watching everything. It was all in black and blood red. "Goodbye Blue Sky" was all animated bombers against a blood sky. The bomb bay doors opened to release payloads of crosses, hammers and sickles, stars of David, crescents and stars, dollar signs, oil company logos, etc.
Did I mention the themes of anti war, anti imperialism, anti corporate/government? Waters has become more outspoken, and some might say heavy handed about this stuff in recent years, but you may not have noticed if you didn't listen closely enough to care about the message in The Wall or Dark Side of the Moon. It's pretty blatant in Animals, though. Alienation is the most obvious message in The Wall.
As they built the wall, they left three openings in it, so you could see the band as the wall grew. During one song, I could see the keyboardist's hands lit by spotlights during a solo. Near the end of the first half, the wall was almost complete. After "Another Brick in the Wall Part 3", they did an instrumental called "Last Few Bricks". It was a new tune (as far as I know) that was sort of an amalgam of The Wall's sound. As you can imagine, they placed the last few bricks in the empty spaces through which we could still see the band. There was one last brick still missing. A spotlight shone out, and Waters sang "Goodbye Cruel World". The moment he finished, the last brick was put into place, sealing off the band from the audience.
The second half of the show started with "Hey You", performed from behind the wall. It sounded live, and the spotlights were moving as if the band were performing it, so they must have been. But fifteen thousand people were starring at a blank wall, while Roger Waters and crew were playing "Hey You"... out there beyond the wall...
Surreal.
A spot soon opened up in the wall so we could see the guitarist for one song. The Waters came out to sing from in front of the wall. The rest of the band stayed behind. For "Bring the Boys Back Home", they showed video of children surprised in their classrooms when their fathers returned from Iraq. I'll bet there were quite a few tears in the arena.
Waters was down front for "Comfortably Numb". The guitarist did the solo from the top of the wall, as did the second vocalist for his parts.
Then came the fascist part again. Not my favorite, generally, but "Run Like Hell" rocked. Funny I saw this on Monday, with the Nazi-esque group, and then saw Cabaret on Tuesday.
Then came "The Trial". Waters sang all the parts, but I think the music was all the original recording. Then the bricks came crashing down. Tear down the wall!
The band came out to the front to play "Outside the Wall", with an assortment of folk instruments. Accordion, banjo, etc. Waters had a trumpet. In the movie, this moment was rather bleak. Here, at the end of the amazing show, it was rather more jubilant.
The band was Robbie Wyckoff (vocals) longtime Floyd and Waters sideman Snowy White (guitar), GE Smith of SNL fame (guitar and bass), Dave Kilminster (guitar) Jon Carin (guitar and keyboards), Graham Broad (drums), Harry Waters (Hammond organ) and Jon Joyce, Mark Lennon, Kipp Lennon and Pat Lennon (backing vocals).
Here's video footage of about four songs near the beginning, including Brick 2.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ressurection9#p/u/7/9TlpWGKfeas
It's 14 minutes long, but if you don't want to watch it all, skim. And make sure to check it out starting about 9:20, for the bricks and the kids and the puppet. And 12:43 is where that ghost walks across from left to right. And then check out that user's channel for about half the rest of the show, if you're interested.
This was among the best concerts I've ever seen.
Steve got the tickets a few months ago. Several days beforehand, he hurt his back, and wasn't sure if he could go. He was in a lot of pain. He didn't decide to go until about 4:00. He got hold of me at about 4:30 and was surprised to hear I wasn't leaving work until 5:00. He sounded a little panicked, so I left at 4:45. I rushed home, grabbed the tickets, rushed down to meet him, waited a bit, then hurried down to Chicago. I realized when I hit the first toll, that I had forgotten my iPass. And drove through the second toll without paying. Got to our seats with about 20 minutes to spare.
The stage was dressed sparsely, with only the trademark round video screen at the back. The partly-built wall stretched out from the sides of the stage.
The show closely paralleled the movie. They reenacted the fascist scenes, with the crossed hammers and banners. But much of the video was updated or just plain new. They used the original animation from "The Trial" projected onto the wall. They used the original video of the sexual flowers for "Empty Spaces", but they added some sinuous computer generated roots snaking across the wall below the round screen. They did the movie version of "Empty Spaces" and did "What Shall We Do Now?"
Early in the show, during "The Thin Ice", they showed photos of victims of war on the round screen, and also tiled across the bricks on the side wall. There was footage of a child in black and red, behind the sinister tones of Another Brick in the Wall part 1.
A searchlight spotlight and the sound of a helicopter marked the beginning of "The Happiest Days of Our Lives". At this time, there was graffiti projected onto the wall. An enormous marionette of the teacher descended. It slowly moved back and forth and up and down at the side of the stage. When the chorus was about to start, a line of children ran onstage. They were stepping and clapping and chanting. We don't need no education! They were apparently from a local school. Toward the end of the song, they ran to the side of the stage, pointing in unison at the teacher puppet until it shrank back out of sight. During this song, the line, "all in all, we are all just bricks in the wall," marked the beginning of the construction of the wall across the front of the stage.
From here, to the intermission, workers continually brought 5'x2.5' bricks out and added them to the wall. As each brick was set into place, whatever video was being projected, would "turn on" on that brick. Apparently, the projectors were aligned within a couple of inches, and a technician would key in that spot of the video at the right moment. Amazing. During Brick 2, when the graffitid wall was displayed, I saw the shadow of a child walk briskly across the stage. And a subway train went by.
"Mother" included an inflatable version of the cartoon Mother from the movie, and a large security camera on the screen, that was watching everything. It was all in black and blood red. "Goodbye Blue Sky" was all animated bombers against a blood sky. The bomb bay doors opened to release payloads of crosses, hammers and sickles, stars of David, crescents and stars, dollar signs, oil company logos, etc.
Did I mention the themes of anti war, anti imperialism, anti corporate/government? Waters has become more outspoken, and some might say heavy handed about this stuff in recent years, but you may not have noticed if you didn't listen closely enough to care about the message in The Wall or Dark Side of the Moon. It's pretty blatant in Animals, though. Alienation is the most obvious message in The Wall.
As they built the wall, they left three openings in it, so you could see the band as the wall grew. During one song, I could see the keyboardist's hands lit by spotlights during a solo. Near the end of the first half, the wall was almost complete. After "Another Brick in the Wall Part 3", they did an instrumental called "Last Few Bricks". It was a new tune (as far as I know) that was sort of an amalgam of The Wall's sound. As you can imagine, they placed the last few bricks in the empty spaces through which we could still see the band. There was one last brick still missing. A spotlight shone out, and Waters sang "Goodbye Cruel World". The moment he finished, the last brick was put into place, sealing off the band from the audience.
The second half of the show started with "Hey You", performed from behind the wall. It sounded live, and the spotlights were moving as if the band were performing it, so they must have been. But fifteen thousand people were starring at a blank wall, while Roger Waters and crew were playing "Hey You"... out there beyond the wall...
Surreal.
A spot soon opened up in the wall so we could see the guitarist for one song. The Waters came out to sing from in front of the wall. The rest of the band stayed behind. For "Bring the Boys Back Home", they showed video of children surprised in their classrooms when their fathers returned from Iraq. I'll bet there were quite a few tears in the arena.
Waters was down front for "Comfortably Numb". The guitarist did the solo from the top of the wall, as did the second vocalist for his parts.
Then came the fascist part again. Not my favorite, generally, but "Run Like Hell" rocked. Funny I saw this on Monday, with the Nazi-esque group, and then saw Cabaret on Tuesday.
Then came "The Trial". Waters sang all the parts, but I think the music was all the original recording. Then the bricks came crashing down. Tear down the wall!
The band came out to the front to play "Outside the Wall", with an assortment of folk instruments. Accordion, banjo, etc. Waters had a trumpet. In the movie, this moment was rather bleak. Here, at the end of the amazing show, it was rather more jubilant.
The band was Robbie Wyckoff (vocals) longtime Floyd and Waters sideman Snowy White (guitar), GE Smith of SNL fame (guitar and bass), Dave Kilminster (guitar) Jon Carin (guitar and keyboards), Graham Broad (drums), Harry Waters (Hammond organ) and Jon Joyce, Mark Lennon, Kipp Lennon and Pat Lennon (backing vocals).
Here's video footage of about four songs near the beginning, including Brick 2.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ressurection9#p/u/7/9TlpWGKfeas
It's 14 minutes long, but if you don't want to watch it all, skim. And make sure to check it out starting about 9:20, for the bricks and the kids and the puppet. And 12:43 is where that ghost walks across from left to right. And then check out that user's channel for about half the rest of the show, if you're interested.
This was among the best concerts I've ever seen.
