Koeinenkin Hall
From: Yoshiko Ogiso
Osaka Monday Night:
The sound was not that great although they had rehearsal up until just
when the show started. Roger was good, moving motionlessly on stage. But
Snowy did not play very well, Chester missed his starting note at Shine On, and Harry did not seem
very good in performance either... The
position of the keyboards were in different positions from the stage setup in the other shows.
Harry was now to the left
from audience and Andy was on the right. I don't know if it's because of the different
position that Harry did not play well, he seemed just like a mucisian from an
amateur school band. Yet Roger was perfect all the time.
Also, the audience was much too quiet, and it was said that tickets were left
unsold and the sponsoring radio station gave them away to anyone who wanted them. In
fact, there were many invited people in the audience.
The encore was "The Flickering Flame".
I couldn't miss any show given by Roger in my country, So I will see all
the 5 of the shows given here in
Japan. It cost a lot, but compared to going to Europe to see him play, I can
afford it.
The show itself was good. As for the music side though, I have only a short opinion.
The first night was rather poor, with minor problems with the amps, and with some of
the band members performances.
Yoshiko
The shows were very very exciting for me, and as perfect the "In the Flesh" album. I strongly felt Roger's honesty from his vocals and performance. And the songs (and those films) from his solo career were even more impressive for me, especially during these sad times with the violence and killing in Palestine and Afganistan.
But regretably, I felt that the crowd's response to his solo tunes was much less than when he played the more familiar Floyd songs. In fact, I heard some of the people sitting in neighboring seats tell each other that they "don't know his solo albums"! I strongly hope that everyone that came Roger's concerts should go out and buy his solo albums, if they don't already own them, especially "Amused to Death".
In my opinion, the second half of show would have been even better if the entire "Amused to Death"
album had been played.
TAKABAYASHI, Toshiyuki
As I live in Tokyo, I took a rapid train to Osaka and arrived at 4pm. After resting I went to the venue. I felt a tension, because Roger has been my hero, and I will be seeing all 5 shows during this Japanese tour. And this was the 1st night!
On 8:05pm the show started. I was in the 7th row and could see all the expressions on his face. Roger showed his smile quite often. When I saw his shadow just at the beginning of the show, tears fell from my eyes.
Roger looked great for his age at 58. He performed from his heart. He used slides (same as the 1999/2000 tour) and video projections on the screen. For example, marching hammers for In The Flesh, and the original clip for Welcome To The Machine. The new video footage gave us a different feeling from the previous tours.
The highlight of the 1st set was the Wish You Were Here sequence. We were treated to the complete Shine On parts 1-9 with Welcome to the Machine, and Wish You Were Here in between. And highlight of the 2nd set was, of course, the Amused To Death sequence. Fantastic! The encore was The Flickering Flame. Before this tour began, I listened to a rehearsal version via an MP3 download, so I was already familiar with this song, and fond of it.
All in all, the 1st night of the Japan tour was great! The Osaka audience was very quiet.
Probably Roger felt this but he still performed everything great. After the show me and
my friends talked about the show and all of us felt the show was really great. And I went
to my hotel and went to sleep at 3am. I was very happy as I was to see the show again the very
next day.
