Velez Sarsfield Stadium
From: Mario Pasco (Canito), Lima Perú
I had been in 2 previous ITF shows, in the US, but this was different: I wanted
Roger to like South Americans, and of course I really wanted the Argentinians to
be satisfied with the show.
I was confident it would be allright, but was not expecting the decree of success
that I was about to witness. I have to thank Mr. Waters and crew, and I thank
Buenos Aires, for a splendid night.
Lots of people outside the stadium, long lines, party atmosphere. The way in was
closed so I had to leave the taxi I had taken, and walk a bit to the stadium. Got
in about 8:20 pm, just dark; the show was scheduled for 8:30 but an anouncement
was made: 10 minutes more of waiting because of traffic conditions. Peter
Gabriel's music made the wait easier while Velez Sarsfield's "Jos Amalfitani"
Stadium was getting fuller and fuller. People of all ages, from 13 or 14 years
old kids - along with their fathers sometimes, - to, well, older people, we all
know... ;)
And then it started. Shit, very weak, Roger's voice almost failed, and there was
- among the cheering - kind of an uncertainty: will he make it allright? he
doesn't seem to be fit to sing loud ... It was not only me, I could notice some
dubious faces along my neighbours. Luckily, that lasted for about 7 or 8 seconds,
or at least it felt like that. From then on he got strength, and it was perfect, brilliant.
There are strange ways in which the mind works. Now afterward, I remember some
things like...
the millions of flying bugs in the air (funny), and on a horizontal lighting
(it rained but not long nor hard) which brought cheers from the crowd,
musicians not understanding much because it had been behind them, and the sound...
that eventhough we were in a football stadium, was perfect, and with bolder quad sounds
than in the smaller venues I had been in the past years.
The main beneficiary of the quads was of course Harry, who seemed to really enjoy
sending those marvellous sounds from the front to the back of the stadium and
back again, using a joystick I think. But it was also beautifully noticeable with the
sound effects in Dogs, in AtD, and in the DSOTM songs; oh I can remember, it was a
joy...
As for visuals, the main differences from (my) previous shows was the use of films
along with stills. The most important one being of course the one with Alf
Razzell in it: they had more or less the same emotional impact in me, in the
concert as they did the first time I saw them on the DVD. Other films I remember:
marching hammers in The Wall parts, syncronized cartoons
in Welcome to the Machine, as well as some more for Money (with some gorgeous old
model briefly shown...), and animations inside a (projected) TV on AtD.
I think I can understand better why Mr. Waters has hard times with stadiums. A
concert in a big venue is a completely different thing as one in a smaller one:
crowds are not that controlled, their reactions are slower and less synchronized,
and of course it's much louder. As a matter of fact, I might be wrong, but I
have the feeling that crowd noise - not "bad" noise but cheering - forced the
band into some errors and mismatches: clearly during ABiTW2, when for a little
while the band was out of synch regarding the kids' singing.
And of course there had to be a privileged class: the one conformed by people
who entered the stadium late, and people who invaded the front passageways. Some
two-hundred kings and queens, who did not pay the ticket price but ruled over the
paying ones on when to sit and when to stand, and the girls and boys in charge,
who would take the late attendees through all that - one saying sit another saying
stand - and breaking havoc among the whole front part of the crowd. It was kind of awful
and made you break concentration in some of the musical passages... But, nonetheless,
the atmosphere was great! I had this small somewhat fat girl
sitting on the floor besides me, one of those queens I was talking about. But she
was enjoying the music so much, clapping in sync, loving it, that I just had to
forgive her inside my heart and continue to be happy :)
But what I am writing are just details. Back to the first paragraph ... the
important thing is the Love. Argentinians - 30,000 or 40,000 of them - love Roger
Waters and they showed it last night. You know, things are different down here,
people are football stadium people, so when they cheer they don't just clap, they
sing football anthems: Oe,oeoeoe, Roger, Roger! As a matter of fact, I remember
very clearly with an Argentinian accent so it really sounded like: Oe, oeoeoe,
Rosshher, Rossshher!!!
And when the crowd clapped after a deeply felt song, scores of Argentinians would
shout "Thank you, Rosshher, thank you, Rosshher", meaning they are people like
all of ours in this board, listening to his music for years, finally having the
chance to be near him (in my case, lucky very lucky, in row 11) and thank him
for the music.
Which brings me to something I've been thinking the whole day today, back in
Lima. Mr. Water's songs get to people because they make us identify feelings, most or
some of ours do not have the mental or social problems "The Wall" or "Dark Side of
The Moon" are about, but all of us who appreciate Mr. Waters' music feel it
because we can identify in one way or another with some of the things he says i.e.
- You shout and no one seems to hear; - the child is grown the dream is gone;
- and you believe at heart everyone's a killer, so on and on. Many of
those things are about isolation, and some others are about people reaching
other people, beating isolation. Those are in some ways pretty "effective"
lyrics, because they are felt by people.
Well, where am I going? One of the things one truly enjoys in the Roger Waters'
show is the chance to identify oneself with other people around. For example
my fixation point in Velez, was at one point, a girl (who, as most Argentinian
girls are, was astonishingly gorgeous) two rows in front of me - row 9 for her.
Well, she was just a back of a head in the crowd for me, most of the concert,
until Brain Damage started. She took her head with both hands, and the hands
stayed in her head the whole song, and then through Eclipse. She sang along,
not shouted but sang along. I don't know if she was remembering something or
what the story was, the thing is
that it was evident that she just couldn't believe that she was hearing live
the songs she had listened to, probably hundreds of times, alone many times,
feeling that those were lyrics created and fitted for her life or her soul or her
mind. And that was the same thing that was happening to me 2 rows behind, and to
thousands at the same time. That is what's beautiful in a show like the one in Velez.
And Roger loved it, I can guess. And he must have loved them Argentinians too.
At some point there was some guy in "first row" (in the passage way of course)
probably shouting something during a sensible part. Roger made a clear ssshhhh -
finger on mouth - telling him with the signal to shut up. But as the song ended,
he made evident thank you gestures to that same guy or group of guys, like if he
was saying: "ok guys, now, after you listened to what I came to say, go on with
the noise, thank you very very much".
And it was evident that Roger wanted the lyrics to get trough, even if it is
quite hard in a stadium show. It was evident in "Take Your Filthy Hands Off My
Desert," he was in obvious anticipation of the Argentinian reference, and the
response was an overwhelming boooing and whistling for Galtieri. And, as
somebody has already pointed out, it was evident as well - with less success -
during "It's a miracle."
I still do not understand why Mr. Waters or anyone else does not tell concrete
messages to the audience, specially in a country like Argentina these days.
I mean, it is a beautiful country, a great marvellous city with gorgeous people,
which is going through terrible and bad times. Mr. Waters' visit heals, but it would
have been very very nice to have him say something, anything to them, a bit
more than the usual "Gracias" and "well ... Gracias!" ... routine!! I don't know...
Some more bits I remember: Chester is a great replacement for Doyle, Harry
makes it very well to, and was ecstaticly happy when he saluted at the end of the
show. Really happy.
Ahhh, and my camera...
I would never risk my girlfriend's camera (I do not own one) to a confiscation,
so I went for a discardable one. Unfortunately, the ones with flash were too
expensive, I refused so I got a "sunny weather" one and sneaked it in. Took all
30something pictures, and only got 4 or 5 developed in which you can clearly see
... some small blurry lights ..., the others are blank.
Hilarious ... yeah right stupid me, wanted to save some pesos and got away with
no pictures and some pesos ... lost.
Just for finishing: I had to leave in the middle of Each Small Candle, in order to get a cab
before the crowds. It was ok, they - Roger and my fellow SouthAmericans - were
already brothers, it was ok to leave them alone for a while.
Strange feeling, like when you take your girlfriend (or boyfriend, depending who
you are) to meet your parents and feel a bit worried about the behaviour of both
of them.
It was a clear night in Buenos Aires, but, strangely, a cloud appeared just over the stadium, and seemed to be part of the show, especially during "Welcome to the Machine". The Argentinian fans are the best in the world in treating the stars.
I must say that I'm from Uruguay, I had to make a trip just to see Waters, this may seem trivial to the Europeans or North American fans, but it cost me US $110 (including the ticket for the concert) and I don't make US $200 a month working 20 hours a week. I think it was worth it. 100% sure of that.
The band? I think the band is great, but Andy the guitar man (whom I had seen last year during the Clapton tour) is very very good. He has the difficult task of "replacing" David in the Floyd songs, and he does it good.
The three girls have excellent voices. The rest of the band is great, as I already said.
He played the same songs he did in South Africa, except for the last one, which was "Each small candle" showing the lyrics in the picture behind the stage so that everyone could sing it.
Unforgettable! Gracias, Roger!
This review contains my emotions about THE SHOW that I have been waiting for since I was sixteen years old (now 38), when I first heard the Dark side of the moon. As you can guess the previous week of the show, I felt so nervous (like as if I was a part of the band and would play with them), maybe the bad situation in my country made me think that the show will be postponed but fortunately nothing happened.
It's very hard to explain the feelings inside when you know nearly everything of an artist (music, previous shows, thoughts, etc.)... when you "breath" this superb music and the only thing you need is to see Roger "In the Flesh" knowing that would complete the circle. Now I can say it's been fulfilled !!! The show was perfect.
It began with the typical English punctuality at 20:30 hs. And it was nearly three hours of pure music, one song after another without a truce, with only an intermission in the middle of the show. Roger and the band used the highest level of sound equipment because for a large open air stadium, he attained extremely good sound quality (I only heard one distortion which would normally be the rule instead of the exception in a show such as this.) My seats were great, I saw every gesture of each of the musicians due to the fact that I was in row 13 from the front of the stage (aprox. 10 meters). In Velez stadium there were about 35.000 fans according to the later news, and looking around me the averaged age was 40 years old.
I thought Roger was in great shape, his performance was robust, and he seemed to try not to be the star of the show and let the band as a whole shine (talk about the respect for his fellow musicians.)
The first part was a revised version of old Floyd standards like "The wall", "Animals", and then when he played "Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert" from "The Final Cut," and it had a special meaning for us and was appreciated audience. (Breshnev took Afganistan and Begin took Beirut, Galtieri took the Union Jack, and Maggie went to lunch one day and took a cruiser with all hands, in effort to make him give it back...) You remember the tragic and useless Faulklands war between the our two nations created by the culpability of both our insane governments.
Then they played the excellent music of "Wish you were here" (which was played in the memory of Syd Barrett whose face was projected on the screen). The effect this had was that it increased the temperature of excitement of the night.
After a short intermission that helped us to retreat back down to the earth, the party continued with the same force and impulse as before only to arrive at its highest point of the night..."The Dark Side of the Moon"... (was it real or a dream? my God, I don't believe even at this time I'm writing the letter). And at that precise moment a lightning bolt iluminated the sky and it began to rain (only for a few minutes). All the people looked at each other thinking that the weather was wanting to become a part of the show, and like us, wanted to be present to witness this unforgettable night.
The second part of the show also contained all of Roger's more recent material of his solo career (except that Radio KAOS that was not represented). In fact the show seemed to be a trip through Roger Waters and Pink Floyd history, almost a chronology of their music. It was an excellent repertoire and the best show ever. And I saw it with the best company, my wife Fabiana (who is pregnant with our second baby..... I paid two tickets but Roger was heard by three!). So I'll leave you with this little joke. Good luck to all of you, and I wish I could again be in the shoes of those of you who are will shortly be seeing Roger Waters "In the Flesh"...
Carlos Blanco
Argentina
carlos.blanco@peri.com.ar
EL SHOW FUE ESPECTACULAR, ME HIZO VIBNRAR, SOÑAR, VOLAR, VIAJAR, RELAJARME, FUE GRANDIOSO, EL SONIDO, LA ILUMINACION LOS EFECTOS, EL CARISMA DE WATERS ES INCREIBLE, POCO DESCRIPTIBLE EN PALABRAS, SON EMOCIONES Y SENTIMIENTOS QUE CADA TEMA ME MOVILIZAN...
QUIERO BAJAR DE ESTE SUEÑO, AUN HOY TENGO LAS IMAGENES, LAS PANTALLAS, LOS DIBUJOS, TODA ESA VIBRACION DE FLOYD....
...sorry but I dont write well in English, I can't explain how I feel about the show in english... It was THE BEST SHOW OF THE WORLD ... It made me feel that I'm flaying, the efects, the sound... All the people said that when to see ROGER WATERS is to see PINK FLOYD too, for me I see ROGER WATERS... He is the only real style. I hope that you can understand something that I translate for the other fans.
SALUDOS Y GRACIAS FOR ALL.
CECILIA DE ARGENTINA
Roger is God!!! Nothing more, nothing less.
The set list was:
In The Flesh
The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2
Mother
Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert
Southampton Dock
Pigs On The Wing, Part 1
Dogs
Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts 1-5
Welcome To The Machine
Wish You Were Here
Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts 6-9
INTERVAL
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Breathe (In The Air)
Time
Money
The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking, Part 11
(5:06 AM - Every Stranger's Eyes)
Perfect Sense (Parts I and II)
The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range
It's A Miracle
Amused To Death
Brain Damage
Eclipse
Comfortably Numb
ENCORE
Each Small Candle
Total running time: 3 hours (including an interval of 20 min.)
For me, it all starts on Wednesday the 6th of March, when Roger arrives at the airport. He signs my two Lp's and I took some pictures with Him. Yesterday, Friday the 7th of March, he went to Rio de Janeiro in a Varig flight, and I work in Varig !!! You Know what I mean.... I took pics with almost all the musicians and of course ROGER himself... it was amazing...
Later, I will send you some pics (only a few because an idiot security guy took my cam out.. What a fucking stupid people!!), my ticket scan, an after show pass, and other stuff...
About the merchandise, they sold black/white T-shirts (USD 17.50), female t-shirts (USD 17.50), programs of the show (USD 15.00) (it was the same as that of 2000 tour but updated with the new musicians), pins (USD 5.00), key rings (USD 5.00) and baseball hats (USD 10.00).
Thats all for now.
Cheers,
Ezequiel
The first emotional shock I had was on the song "Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert", when Roger sang about Galtieri, and every person in the audiencie booed when they hear that nasty name, as many death crosses appeared on the screen. That song is about Argentina and Malvinas (Falklands), and was very touching to hear it here...
The next remarkable thing, was the weather. A huge cloud, kept moving towards the audience from behind the stage. During "Welcome To the Machine", strange lightnings, very large and powerful, kept shining and in two or three ocasions they appeared in complete sync with the music, in the breaks of the songs. Amazing. People did not believe their eyes, and just screamed when it happened. The musicians probably could not understand what was happening as the storm was in their back, and they could not seen the cloud. Finally the cloud passed over our heads and by the song "Eclipse," the stars were shining again.
People shouted and screamed all over the show, and sang every
tune. By the end of the show, after comfortably numb, the ovation was so long
that the musicians stood still for more than 5 minutes, as the people screamed
Roger's name. He had a huge smile in his face...
It turned out to be an excellent decision as the show was exceptional. Much of what I would like to say has been said repeatedly above, so I will try to be reasonably concise. The essentials were perfect. The setlist was excellently judged, encompassing the Pink Floyd classics everyone wanted to hear as well as a fair amount of his solo work. The band were all perfection personified. They played so well, it was like studio standard, their synchronisation and accuracy were beyond reproach.
Roger Waters himself was excellent, but did not hog the limelight, quite the opposite, he gave the lead to other band members and slipped into the background so that the rest of the band could receive the focus and adulation they so richly deserved. The quadrophonic sound was absolutely crystal clear, particularly considering the venue, Velez stadium is far from being a sound engineer's dream location.
In addition to this the crowd also deserve a mention, they were in good spirits throughout, even when it began to rain. The band seemed to really appreciate the feedback they were getting from the audience, although at times they seemed slightly confused at the cheers. This was because their was a lightning storm going on behind the stage that seemed to be in perfect time to the music.
At one point when Roger Waters sang the line "Welcome to the Machine" from the song of the same name, as he finished the line he spread his arms and at exactly the same time there was a beautiful fork of lightning behind the stage. The timing was so well synchronised it looked like it was created for the show.
When he sang the lines "Brezhnev took Afghanistan, Begin took Beirut, - Galtieri took the Union Jack, and Maggie over lunch one day ..." from "Get your filthy hands off my desert" at the mention of Galtieri there was a resounding applause from the audience, probably more than the dictator ever achieved in office.
There was no slack point in the show, the whole thing flowed well, with a well placed intermission. All the music was performed, judged and timed to perfection and the whole audience seemed to be leaving the concert with a sense of complete satisfaction. I would highly recommend any fan of Pink Floyd to see the concert and I am considering going and seeing him again when he plays Wembley in June.
Take care and keep up the good work.
Raphael
It was so great, the band was very good, and the show ran for about 3 and a
half hours. But, I repeat: Roger is nothing without Pink Floyd and Pink Floyd is nothing without
Roger Waters. I had a lot of fun at the show and i liked it, but it is not the same, is not the
same at all.
thanks
juan scaiola
I'm 39 years old, Falklands War Veteran, Biologist and I've been listening to Roger's Music since I was 14. When I returned from the war, late in 1982, The Final Cut was like a redemption to me, Roger told me that English people hated the war as I did, and my personal partner's memorial is Roger's song "Southampton dock".
So, my dear friends all around the world, the principal sensation that night was a deeply felt emotion. My alien partner from so many nights in my life was there, in front of me, playing our favourite songs. 50,000 voices singing "Wish You were Here" with tears on their faces, people with their sons, trying to explain that this is the man who changed their mind in the early eighties.
The concert structure was very similar to the record "In The Flesh", with an incredible sound (Except for U2, no other band used a surround sound system in Argentina). The band was amazing with a powerful guitar trio (The Andy F. L. performance was perfect. It was a great moment, I saw him with the Eric Clapton Tour and was perfect too), a clock in the drums, a marvellous vocal performance from Roger, and the rest of the band playing their best. I insist, It was incredible for all the people in Argentina.
I was told the band usually reads the reviews from this site. So, I want to
say THANK YOU, for coming to the South of the world, for the Magic that night,
and especially to Roger, for all your music that I've been heard since I was a
young boy, and for the ideas and empathy I think you have. It's the only way
to save the world.
I'm fan of RW/PF since 1977 when I was 12 (yes, I am 36 now) when, in those years, a famous Argentina tennis player called Vilas said during an interview that he used to listen something that I heard as "Pete Floy". For your information, in those years we had a military goverment, and they decided what we should listen to and what we should see on TV, ect, so in the media was stuff from Bee Gees and Carpenters and similar kinds of music like that. So when I asked for an LP of "Pete Floy" I got Animals and it exploded my brain.
The last show in Argentina was my 3rd ITF concert to attend. I was at Jones Beach '99 and at the Madison SG 2000, and believe me, for a man who lives here, it is too much. And I have to say that I'm nearly 100% sure that was the best show of the three .( maybe because it was the first time I was so close to the stage- Roger was max 5 meters from me).
The sound amazing-even better than in the Madison SG which I considered perfect-and everything else was great. A special point was the weather- the thundering, and lighting and bolts seemed to be part of the show! It was GREAT and INCREDIBLE!
Other mentions would be for the job Chester Kamen did: absolutely fantastic! Making a cruel comparison and pointing out that I'm not a musician and know nothing about guitar technic, I have to say that Chester seemed to enjoy his role even more than Doyle (which I consider GREAT too), but it's a simple opinion.
In fact, all the band seemed to enjoy the show. For example, after the encore, Chester came back to stage JUMPING and SHOUTING whith the crowd, he was really really happy. Another Thing... after Comf.numb, when Roger was giving thanks, the 40.000 people begun to sing OLE; OLE OLE...ROGER, ROGER, so loud that the rest of the band begun to sing it and wave their hands and aplause.INCREDIBLE! This lasted for about 3 or 4 minutes during which Roger could not say a word and stayed there giving thanks with his head and touching his heart many times.
Well, be asured that Roger and his band brought happiness for all the people
there, specially in these terrible days here in Argentina.
Santiago de Chile
The venue was full of anxious people. The show began sharply at 9:00 PM. As it
wasn't my first time watching Roger and his great band, I wasn't very surprised
about the lights and songs setlist. But I certenly was delighted by the amazing
Shine On You Crazy Diamond full version! It was great, never played live since
1977 I guess...
My opinion is that all members of the bandare great musicians, but Chester Kamen hasn't had much time to get along with Pink Floyd and Roger's music. He is a great guitar player but sometimes he misses some chords. Am I being a little bit overdemanding? I also was surprised about Harry Waters' apperience... I thought he'd be a tall, thin guy with Rogers' face and look. I was right in every aspect, but I didn't imagine that he would have a huge Rastafari look in his long blond hair!!! He is an excelent keyboard player, and I hope he received some of his father's talent.
Buenos Aires
Organization was kind of messy. It was 8:15 PM and we still couldn't enter to the
stadium, and there was a 300 mts. line ahead. But we asked a policeman if we
could skip it and we passed with no problems. Viva Argentina!
People inside Velez Sarsfield Stadium was very excited. The show started about
8:45 PM and was similar to Santiago, same songs. All band members were great.
People got mad when Andy played his guitar solo in "Money", when Chester did his
in "Dogs", when Graham played excellent drums -but maybe a little out of
tempo-in "Time", and singer solos of all 3 girls that are beatuiful and
fantastic. Norbert is great too; he not only plays saxo, but also an electronic
flute or something like that, in the last part of "Shine.." It's a pitty that
saxo microphone failed in one or two songs.
During one of Amused to death's songs (I'm not sure wich one) people right in front of Roger were crying out loud "Roger, Roger, Great Roger. We love you" (either in English and in Spanish), and stuff like that, and that started to piss him off more and more, because he couldn't concentrate in music. And then, he silently moved his index finger to his mouth, as a shh sign, and EVERYONE got quiet... It's impressive the power of this man. "And no one spoked and no one smiled". In some way I think that this is what he meant when he wrote about THE WALL, don't you?
"Comfortably numb" was "the cherry on top of the cake". Great guitar solos. A classic in Argentina: all the fans singing the footballesque song "oleeee, ole, ole, oleeee, Rogeeer, Rogeeer". Before "Each small candle" shouts were so noisy that he almost couldn't continue with the show! That is the difference between Chile and Argentina. People is more enthusiastic, especially in Buenos Aires.
Finally, I want to say that ANYONE that likes good music, not only Pink Floyd
songs, MUST attend to this fantastic show, that will be in the near future a
classic in rock history. Don't miss it!!!
Thank you, Roger.
I grew up with his music, at the begining with Pink Floyd, when all the music changed and our minds changed too. I've cried during the show and after the show, and it was incredible for me to know that in fact I was not dreaming, Roger was there, in front of me, playing his music! It was like a dream become reality.
I want to say thanks Roger, for visiting us with your music. You know the horrible moment we are living in Argentina, and your show was like fresh air for my soul... and at the same time, suddenly I ralized that all the dreams I had when I knew your music growing up, aprox in the 1975, living under a military goverment, when I was 17 years old, all these dreams I was saying, I don't know what happened with them!!! I wanted the democracy, I still want it, but not this.
To watch one of your shows was like to watch a film of my own life created "at the moment" with your music. I remembered when my friends and I got together in the only friend's house that had the album Dark Side of the Moon, because the disk was imported and very very expensive for us. And we listened the album for hours and hours, in complete silence. And we saved money to buy your new albums, with new jobs! It's nice. Ok, just want to give you a huge thanks and thanks and thanks. Graciela
