In The Flesh 2002
Tour Reviews

The concert started promptly at 08:02 pm and ended at 11:00 pm (intermission 09:21 pm - 09:43 pm), with 156 min. pure Waters!

At 08:00 pm a great deal of seats were still empty. People rushed into the hall and looked for their sets as late as Dogs was already being played. Although I had my seating in the 9th row just in front of the stage, this was VERY disturbing, and made me upset. But during the intermission, one guy told me, that outside the hall hundreds of fans waited desperately before the security checkpoint in the new entry of the Festhalle to get in. But obviously, the security couldn't solve their problems in time, so a lot of fans came in very late. So why didn't they start the show just a few minutes later?

The Frankfurt show doesn't give any new aspects to the whole concert experience of the In The Flesh Tour. The overall sound seemed to be not as good as in Cologne, but got better as the show went on.

On the huge screen behind the stage a lot of backdrop films (including the original Gerald Scarfe film from 1975 for Welcome To The Machine) and interesting pictures were shown, that fit perfectly with the music. Having seen several shows, it's more than obvious, that even small gestures of Roger and the band are trained and used in every show. This makes it all very predictable and there's only little room for improvisations. But we have to consider, that the time schedule of the whole show and most of all the backdrop films give a fixed time frame. On the other hand, Waters misses the chance of giving every evening a special personal note!

Roger had a clear voice and seemed to be really relaxed. He obviously enjoyed the whole performance. At the end of the second set and after the encore, he signed several items for the fans, who rushed to the stage after Eclipse.

During Comfortably Numb the whole house was on their feet and sang along with the band. A very powerful rendition, although during their 'guitar battle' above the stage, Chester Kamen and Snowy White couldn't match the intensity of Gilmour's playing.

Interesting for the audience were of course the footage of the old promo video from the 60's including a young Waters and Barrett (pre-Gilmour era though!). Syd himself was the center of the whole Shine On You Crazy Diamond suite, when the band played all nine parts, although divided into 2 halves as heard on the Wish You Were Here album. During part nine of the song a huge mirror ball rose behind the stage and thousands of small reflections of the white lights were shot throughout the hall.

Chester Kamen on guitar did a wonderful job, although the sound wasn't quite as good on the first couple of songs, but getting better throughout the concert.

Snowy White was inconspicuous and seemed not so much interested in the whole show. Graham Broad was played well, and received a special applause for his drum intro for Time.

Andy Fairweather-Low ('the one and only' as Roger introduced him to the audience) stayed for most of time in the background, but did a short killer solo for Money. He's a perfect guitar and bass player, who's the important or main man behind Roger and maybe the center of the band.

Roger's son Harry Waters (not so good during the intro of Shine On You Crazy Diamond) and Andy Wallace did an unspectacular job on the keyboards. Nobert Stachel did a few solos throughout the show on various saxophones and his flute.

The 3 backup singers Katie Kissoon, P.P. Arnold and Carol Kenyan were not only a highlight in their physical appearances, but also musically. The global anthem in Perfect Sense part 2 was dominated by P.P. Arnold and her sheer and incredible voice.

Apart from Perfect Sense part 2, the other highlights (for me) were: Pigs On The Wing, Dogs, Welcome To The Machine and of course the solo stuff from Roger.

The low point was, once again, the sometimes irritating set list. I didn't like, that Brain Damage followed a few seconds after the melancholic end of Amused To Death with the moving words of Alf Razzell, and the memorial of Bill Hubbard. This just didn't fit with the funny 'the lunatic is on the grass' of Brain Damage.

Although I hoped to hear at least one time Each Small Candle as the encore, Waters performed The Flickering Flame in all 3 shows. In Frankfurt he seemed unsure of which song to play, but finally chose Flickering Flame. In my eyes, Flickering Flame is musically much better than Each Small Candle, but both songs are not good choices for closing songs of the show.

All in all, I saw a perfect show with a wonderful band and Waters in maybe the best form of his life. I just hope that he will tour again one day (maybe with his new album next year?), and that he'll have the courage to play more songs from his solo career. He could just leave off some 'old' classics that he's played for years and add more new stuff that he never or has seldom performed for an audience.

So this tour is a MUST for every Floyd or Waters fan, and you'll get to hear and see a show, that will live in your memory for ever ...

It can only be described as being one of the high points of my life. It just brought to life the whole experience of listening to his music. The only thing that disappointed me was the fact that there were so many others there that seemed to be enjoying it as much as me. It may sound corny but I do feel as though I am his number one fan and that I am the only one that could possibly feel the way I do about Roger's work.
Rob...