Palau St. Jordi
From: Javier Benito Pérez Member of REG
My friend Jos Abelln had even been worried that the show might have been
cancelled, as 2 or 3 weeks before, only about 6,000 tickets had been sold. But
last night I learnt that the attendance had risen to about 12,000, many fans
buying their tickets directly from the box offices (not in advance).
This time Roger tried some Spanish I didnt catch his greeting to the public
but later he said gracias. There was quite a lot of room in the general standing
zone (you know, we
Spanish people (or Portuguese) havent yet come to the civilized schedule of
watching a show seated). But as the show progessed it became more packed. The
usual obnoxious stoned guys (or girls) making the ones near them miserable, and
there was some fist punching in the air, and lighters lit during some of the songs, although
not that many. But the whole atmosphere was good: some people seemed curious
about seeing Roger as compared to Pink Floyd, and of course the audience went
wild with Dogs, Wish You Were Here, Perfect Sense, and Comfortably Numb, etc.
The modesty of Andy F.Low playing is only proportional to Rogers affection
for him. After his playing in Every Strangers Eyes, Roger said: 'The one and
only... Andy Fairweather Low'. Although I had expected the funny kissing gesture
Roger had made to him on the In the Flesh video, at the end of Welcome to the Machine,
when they synchronized stop playing looking at each other.
Some guy mentioned at the end, the issue of the quadraphonic sound, and I then
realised that perhaps it hadn't been very noticeable; maybe only on Money
and the missile explosion. But nonetheless, the sound was very good, better than
in Lisbon, according to some of my colleagues.
About Flickering Flame, it does not seem to set well set with peoples liking.
Although I had known the lyrics previously, it was I think the first time I had
heard it, and I don't think I like it as much as Each Small Candle. Maybe its
because it is quite long and has a lot of changes of key and rhythm. But,
fortunately I keep myself from believing that Roger can compose something
lacklustre or not of high quality. With more listenings I'm sure it will fit nicely with
all other songs by Roger. But others had commented that he had killed the enthusiasm of
Comfortably Numb by playing that slow of a song after it. I replied that it takes somebody
as courageous as Roger to do just that, and not the typical ending climax of a fast loud song.
I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't get to meet Roger, despite my friend Jos
Abelln having tried to get me a pass. But everyone of us has his own personal
aspirations, and mine was just to shake hands with him (I didnt particularly
care for the autograph), thats all I wanted. But in the end Jos and a small
group only got autographs from him, there was no chat or shaking hands with him.
Apparently the rules of promoter or management were very strict. Staff members told us
they were flying straight from the venue to Milan for the Friday show.
Again it seemed that I have skipped a generation and that I wasn't destined
to meet Roger, though I did meet his son again! I had wanted to shake hands with Harry,
as I hadnt been able to in Lisbon. He graciously agreed, and in a rush I told him
again how much love I had for his father that I couldn't put it into words.
Well, for me, it seems a circle has been completed. After having seen Pink Floyd the
four times they played in Spain, and now Roger twice (whom we had never dreamed of).
And after a last (failed) effort to meet/greet him, I feel now at ease and
consider myself fortunate and privileged to have been able to enjoy live the
music, magic and humanity of our hero (or God on Earth).
P.S. I handed out the remaining leaflets I printed for our club outside the venue after the show.
Here also it seemed there was some 'skinning' (profiteering) going on, as the same T-shirts which
had been sold at the stalls inside the venue, costing 28 Euro, could be bought outside for just 10!
P.S.S.
Perhaps naively I had written my e-mail address on the stickers on the wine
bottles (given for him in Lisbon), expecting that maybe Roger or some of his
assistants bothered to say/send something to me; but if by chance, Roger, you
read this; please receive my utmost respect and love, and if one day I happen to
meet you and shake your hand I'll consider myself blessed with the biggest
happiness and peace of mind I can think of.
The set was the same as the Lisbon one. The sound seemed more compact and
put together. Here I spotted some fans in their fifties and quite a lot of them,
too. I had recovered physically from my long journey to Lisbon, and was able to
dig and enjoy the show much better.
I knew I was going to witness something I had been long waiting for and that was somewhat disturbing. No matter it'd be on the whole perfect, a truly satisfying experience - the realization it'd be over so soon was far from reassuring. Once it was over, I'd never have the chance to imagine it again. I'd have just lived it and the hazy sense of mystery and excitement surrounding the event I had been waiting for so many years would no longer exist. The chance to picture the meeting in my mind would be forever history, a small yet important part of the burden of experiences one keeps piling up along the way, a tiny snapshot in the family album, so to speak.
The mild sense of fear I felt was hence on the post-event days, not in the event itself, despite I was well aware there was no space left for surprises. From the very first note I was going to stand right at the center of a very familiar place, both in space and time, a room of musical tunes where time would stop for a while and everything would start to make sense suddenly, perhaps perfect sense, where the different pieces would fill the right slots as the performance developed to fully unfold.
My apprehension began wandering in my mind and I began to question even attending the concert. Being that the tunes so familiar, being that everything that will happen during the show is so accurately known in advance, being that the playing of all the recorded works is done so faithful to the originals, why go to the concert at all? I asked myself this question a good many times before the show, finding no real answer other than to satisfy my curiosity, to come to terms with something that just had to be done, as if it were inevitable to do it, to attend the show, to meet figuratively one of my possible destinies. It couldn't be otherwise and that was both appealing and scary.
I wrote the above paragraph a few days before the concert. Now my watch tells me it's 11:16, the morning after the gig. I'm back from the appointment in time. First thing I should say is that I didn't rush to the laptop last night, when I reached the hotel room after the concert, to write down fast my first impressions as soon as they had been imprinted in my memory, when they were sharp and vivid, before their amplitude lowered. The reason I didn't do it is because, as I was expecting, there was no real need for the rush. There had not been any surprise, which might also be interpreted (or misinterpreted, depending on who reads it) as if there was nothing worth mentioning.
The aftermath of the concert is slowly focusing now to, unfortunately, confirm my suspicions. The concert was great, technically superb, the playing awesome, the faithfulness to the music on record worth stressing, amazing to what a newcomer to our man could find a dubious extreme. So the question arises: why didn't it fulfill my expectations?
The answer has two sides. Part of the concert did, for the single fact that I really had no choice to judge the event, to remain unbiased - if you know what I mean - and part didn't for a number of reasons. The setup and the set list was too-well known in advance - entirely my fault - and it was played with a sort of military rigidity which largely stripped the performance of any subtlety, of anything unexpected which would've been mostly welcome. (But as a friend put it: could Beethoven's Pastorale be played any different from what the composer wrote?)
The fact that the music is fantastic and the band's musical skills excellent is not enough, at least to me. That is taken for granted. One could say I'm being too demanding. I don't think so, I think we need something else, we need to hear the music from a different angle, from different perspectives, we need - let me stress it once more - to be surprised. Otherwise, a concert - any concert - is purposeless. A concert hall is not usually the right place to listen to music - sound too loud, bad acoustics, crowded. This is perhaps particularly true for Roger's music, no matter how sensible, attentive and responsive the audience may be. The absence of intimacy makes it just impossible to enjoy it fully. You find yourself surrounded by strange people, you are constrained.
The best way to enjoy any sort of art which moves one's emotions and feelings is in complete solitude. There's no way around it. That's just impossible to achieve in a large concert hall - let alone a stadium - in which plenty of disturbances are ready to perturb the required concentration. Prior to the show I thought I was going to cry, sooner or later, I thought I was going to be deeply moved. I wasn't. Halfway through the second set I even looked at my watch. Time hadn't stopped. The length of the concert is too long, in absolute terms. Of course it lasts nothing in relative terms but the current setup - way too ambitious - makes it feel too long. It is to me a real wonder how the musicians don't get tired always performing mechanically the same song list night after night for something close to three hours every night. Their effort and professionalism in this respect is worth praising.
The aftermath of the concert has turned out to be slightly bitter then. This impression will take little to dissolve, though. Time is going to help - it always does - and in a few day's time I'll be firmly convinced the experience was perfect from all points of view. Anyway, I had to go and I went. Roger Waters still remains my favorite song writer - the second coming a long way behind - in particular as a lyricist. However, as strange as it may seem, I don't think I would repeat the experience (am I a hundred per cent sure?) had I the chance to see him again live in the future. The homework is done. Now it's time to go back to fiction, to the records, to enjoy them fully. Fiction, at least to me, appears sometimes more attractive than the real thing, appears to be in fact the very real thing.
Just to complete the basic information: the setup was identical to the "In the flesh" CD. The solo in "Another brick in the wall II" was shortened leaving outside the part Snowy plays in the CD as well as the keyboard bit. The guitar solo in "Time" was flawless, impossible to get closer to David's original notes. David, yes, David's voice was missed. The homage Rog pays to Syd was nice, with the martyr's image projected on the screen slowly blurring to get into focus again as "Shine On" proceeds. The old, previously unseen footage projected during "Set the controls for the heart of the sun", showing the early Pink Floyd line-up, had a point of interest for historical reasons. The projections were in general appealing apart from the one during "Welcome to the machine", perhaps over-pretentious and failing to convince.
During the bit of poker playing at the weird central part in "Dogs" I had the chance to use some binoculars a man on my left kindly lent me. Roger's face was serious. He looked indeed poker-faced. Were they perhaps not having fun? The few times Roger addressed the audience directly were also pretty predictable, accurately matching those on the "In the flesh" DVD. The same applies to supposedly casual things he did, like naming Andy after "Every stranger's eyes" or the movement of his fist-clenched right arm to start off "Comfortably numb". All way too foreseeable and rigid. The encore was "Flickering Flame" and by the time it was played I was just too tired to be able to pay a minimum attention.
One last thing: his visit to Spain has gone, on the whole, largely unnoticed. There have been no reviews of the concert in the major national newspapers other than "La Vanguardia" which, to be honest, would have been better not published at all, such is the quality and knowledge of the crap the ignorant journalist wrote. The conclusion of this absence of information on the media is both funny and cynical: not having the Pink Floyd tag attached to himself has turned Roger into a cult musician.
I'd like to thank Roger for including Barcelona in his tour. And, of
course, I'd also like to extend my gratitude to REG for the nice
ability you offer to include concert reviews from fans. You guys are doing a
great job!
Any comments are welcome.
Anacleto Smith-Garcia
cleto35@yahoo.com
www.geocities.com/cleto35
On the 8th of May Roger presented the "In The Flesh World Tour 2002"in Barcelona. I was quite surprised as I never thought he would ever tour again let alone come here. And I also had never imagined that destiny had yet another surprise in store for me: I was one of only a very few people who had the privilege of seeing and meeting the great Roger Waters. I was able to attend the sound test, and was one of only a few fans that met with him afterwards for autographs. He signed the "Music From The Body" album for me; and I got a picture taken of myself with him, which I'm thrilled about.
The concert was fantastic! It has been the best concert I have ever seen. Roger will never stop surprising me; he's better and better day after day. He's a genius and he has all my admiration and respect.
I will never forget it. I've been listening to him for more than 25 years, and it's an important part of my life.
I think this world needs more people like him.
Yours sincerely.
Teresa Pons
Montmeló (Barcelona)
España
Before the concert started, one part of the audience attracted our attention; in several cases it seemed that no generation gap existed because father and son attended the show together. Fans from the old days enjoyed the music from the beginning of the concert and gradually, as the newer songs were played, each new generation of fans joined in. Specially with "Another Brick in the Wall," a significant highpoint of the show andthe best level of quality sound, up to that moment (the Palau San Jordi is made from a lot of cement and it must make a lot of difficulties for accoustic engineers).
So the first half was a magical remembering from the past, images feelings and meanings. AlsoI expect that for most younger people, it must be a mix between discovery and appreciation. In Spain, Pink Floyd and Roger Waters a little less, were not well known before"The Wall". We must remember that Spain suffered a peaceful dictatorship until 1977.
By the end of first half, at least for most every body, it was a special moment because everyone seemed to be involved with the music. After the glance back at the past, and at the beginning of second half, I decided to go down in the general standing zone in front of the stage, expecting the result of Roger Waters' special care for the sound quality. I must say that the result was fantastic. Also, I think that the quest of offering the best posible sound allows you to follow a specific program. I agree with the idea of striving for the best quality sound.
The tracks from the latest works of Roger Waters were very great and shows allhis lyrical and musical maturity. A great number of people in the audience felt a special communion with the performers. Even if Roger Watershad only a medium audience response when performing "Perfect sense".
Special mention should be given to "Every Strangers Eyes" and" Amused to Death". Finishing with "Confotably Numb" was both special and tough, but still necessary today. The musical part was fantastic and excellent. But "Each Small Candle" blew me away.
I think it is very important to express to Roger Waters our gratitude
for coming to Barcelona and how we apreciated the concert.
Thank you,Roger! I also want to extendmy gratitude to you Mr. Simone and all you do with
the Reg site and fanclub.
Antoni Teran
