2006 North America
Tour Reviews

The concert was so great and amazing that I was oblivious to the rain. Rain? what rain? I was mesmerized by the band.

My son and I had such a great time. I will definitely see him when he comes back to NY

I paid too much money to leave...but I wanted to. Luckily my hubby calmed me down and reminded me that I never liked Roger Waters, I like Pink Floyd and sadly, this is closest we'll get to the band.

If I had it to do over again, I would not have gone...plain and simple. Don't take my money and then politicize the show...play what we came to hear!

It looked grim at first. On a Vespa motorscooter, in the middle of a torrential rain fall, I had to pick up ticketsin mid town Manhattan at 6pm for a show that started at 8pm at Jones Beach Long Island. I then had to drive the scooter to Astoria, Queens to meet up with my wife who had the car at her place of business. Packing a sushi dinner from Saigon Grill, I scored the tickets and made the run to meet my wife. I started driving and praying for it to stop raining and took back roads to get out to the county line. Friday night rush hour traffic on the L.I.E. (Long Island Expressway) is something to be avoided at all costs.

Rain stopped and started as we drove andate. Good Karma prevailed and we made it to the parking lot before the show began. My wife was sure I was nuts and that there would be no show or nobody there but when she saw the second parking lot filled with cars, she justed laughed. The rain drew back and we joined the throng of poncho clad people going through the gates just as the opening cords of "In the Flesh" pounded out.

OMG that screen.I am a lucky owner of a HD plasma screen and this was a full stage, backdrop screen that hadexactly that kind of HDclarity and color. The sound was very crisp and clear with Roger's vocals sounding very strong indeed. When Roger actuallysounds better than Jon Carin on his vocals, you know things are going to be good. He thanked everyone for coming out in this kind of weatherbut pointed out that it was kind of neat and atmospheric. And right he was! A lot of smoke/fog effect is generated during the show, with an indoor show it probably just sits there for the lights to shine through but here the wind would grab the smoke and swirl it in all sorts of interesting ways across the stage and through the lights. In the later half of the show, it started lightning in the distance, lighting up the whole sky behind the stage. Light rain occasionally, but for 70% of the time it was hoods down and joints lit.

Although I love Dark Side of the Moon, (I was at the real premier when it wasstill being called "Eclipse"at Carnegie Hall), it was the first half of the show that I found more interesting."In The Flesh" got everybody going and "Mother" was nicely done. In my opinion, even though he wrote it, he shouldn't do "Set the Controls" without Gilmour, as the guitar work he contibutes just totally makes that into a rocket ride intospace. To do that song as just another kind of song really diminshes it. My suggestion, Rog, is if you are going to do it without Dave, produce a full on synthezier rave up that sort of re-creates the rocket igniton lift off rush of the original. Still very trippy visuals on the screen and a full horizon, burning edge of the sun, complete with solar flares and eruptions slowly descending down.

Then the opening strains of "Shine on" and everybody was going nuts again. This was used as a tribute to Syd Barrett, who was it's inspiration,with many early photos of him and the band. Then things got more serious and interesting as we ventured into material from "Final Cut" and "Amused to Death"Neither one of these works ever got toured so it was good tosample them done live.Starting withDark Side of the Moon and into his solo albums, Roger's work has been torn between personal psychological explorations and politicalallegory. To those surprised by social commentery in the music,what do you think "Us and Them" was about?

Early Floyd was really all about the sound, there were just a few songs with words. It was really a fusion of Rock (power),Classical (structure) and Avant Garde Jazz(experimentation),what you heard was entirely created by their basic instruments andsome mood lighting.

DSotM embraced words in the form of a concept album and ushered in what I call the "Drive In Movie" Floyd. To say that thealbum hit a chord withEVERYONE is an understatement. The massive popularity meant massive halls and stadiums, they couldn't just pull it off with the music and attiude anymore, so the backing screen was utilized and Roger hired animators and film makers to make graphics that aided and complemented the music's meaning.

"Southampton Dock" and "The Fletcher Memorial Home" start the political section, dealing with personal loss, the waste of war, the betrayal of the people that fight the wars that really benefit someone else, and leaders who start these wars for their own gain.This built to a cresendo with the twopieces from"Amused to Death", the third true masterpiece from his catalogue, which sorrowfully was not popularly imbraced. It was basically a State of the Unionexamination of the whole global, socio-politcal quagmire of the human race.

One of it's more "fun" parts was Rogerdescribing modern warfare as a spectator sport, with Marv Albert reciting commentary at an imagined water filled arena as a nuclear submarine takes out an oil rig for a cheering audience. Live,the screen starts from a satellite view of the earth and does a rapid drop to earth and zeros in on a CG stadium filled with water, as the music ominously builds, the announcer is excitedly describing the action as we see the grey submarine manauver intoposition and let loose two torpedos.Building to a frenzy of excitment, the torpedoes track to the rig and blow it up on the screen to a thunderous explosive sound, as a real world gas powered explosion goes off in front of the screen. And then they were into a powerful version of "It All Makes Perfect Sense" (In pounds, shillings and pence). Oh yeah.

Giving everyone a few seconds to come down from that, he prefaced his playing of the new song "Leaving Bierut" by explaining the background storyabout being taken in and fed by a poor family in Lebanon when his car broke down and he had no money.Even being the fan that I am, having been reading the negative comments, I was kind of dreading this song,figuring it was going to be some didactic rant. Which it absolutely was NOT.It was a very pleasant tune, with an almost do wop kind of sensibility that told the story of these poor people's compassion and sharing, of what they had very little of, with him and asks thequestion,are these the people that we want to be killing and maiming with ourbombs. How could anybody be hating on that song.It was also the best marriage of images and music, using an ever changing comic book format to show the story with the lyrics being displayed on screen.

There were afew boo's but more people appreciated it than were booing it, for sure. Yes, he showed G.W.'s face and was placing a lot of the blame on his doorstep. And I don't know what fuckin country you're living in, but this man has stolen the Presidency, caused an attack on our shores, allowed the attacker to escape, lied to everyone in this country so he could start a war, with someone we had already defeated,so we could get our hands on their oil and totally sullied the reputation of America in the eyes of the rest of the world, not to mention, thousands and thousands of casualties. I think he had it comin'.

And to the people who boo'd, Roger gave them "Sheep". A kind of dire warning to not just meekly follow leadersor else you will end up being led to slaughter. That's why they brought out the pig at this point and walked him through the crowd with Kafka Rules spray painted oneside, and a reminder to vote on the other. Then into the swirling atmosphere of moisture and fog they let the pig go to drift up and away into the sky above the audience.

Intermission.

The heartbeats, a full on beautiful image of a full moon on the backdrop, for the first time becoming aware of surround sound effects and we're off to the "Dark Side of the Moon". As I said before, this waskind of anticlimatic to me.The parts that he re-worked like "On the Run" and "Any Color You Chose" were outstanding. As the syntheziers were bubbling along on "Run", with great new visuals behind. It was really sounding good and then he introduced startling new sounds into the mix, such as having a train roar past right in front of your face at 80 miles an hour from left to right, or a jet going from right to left that led to another one of those gas powered explosions behind the band.

But the rest of this set wasjust a recreation of the album, and for some odd reason the talentedMr. Carin just didn't sound so good and Roger actually deferred most of the vocals in this section to others. And for a good portion of it, they used the original 1975 visuals, which to say the least were kind of dated by this point. Re-usable shows, indeed. It was still goodbut not as interesting as the first half.

The 30 minute plus encore was right back to full throttle though. Avery lively spirited version of "Another Brick" with a group of kids out there to lend support during the "We don't need no education"chorus.They were sporting tee shirts that read, "Fear Builds Walls". They weren't really singing the chorus totally by themselves but the effect was still fun and exciting with everyone in the place singing along too.

Next came a plantive "Vera Lynne" and then a bombastic "Bring the Boys Back Home" withbattlefield images, and the helmets of the fallen on their rifles stuck in the earth where they were buried, while a whole sequence of the gas explosions were going off in time to the musicin front of the screen. Pretty powerful. Then came anelegant and strong version of "Comfortably Numb" to end it off. A truely memorable night

On another note, why was all the negative politics aimed at the U.S. and GW Bush? Why wasn't T.Blair or England mentioned? Are they so innocent?

From a long time Pink Floyd fan.
Please respond,
Mitch Bernstein
mberns9294@aol.com

Thank you!

For everyone upset about the pig or the Leaving Beirut song, get over it. Anyone who is familiar with Floyd or Roger on his own should know what to expect. His views may not be the views of some of those in attendance, but since this is America, he does have the right to express them.

I loved DSOTM and from where I was sitting in the orchestra, the sound effects were great! I liked that he brought the kids out for Another Brick in the Wall 2, what an opportunity for them. I don't think they even realized the musical genius they were on stage with! I saw Roger in 2000 at Madison Square Garden and he still has it... no complaints here.

Traversing pond-like puddles and horizontal rain the multitude of fans were treated to this meteorological unicorn upon entering the Jones Beach parking lot. This was the first of many things this evening to leave me in a state of awe.

What impressed me was that no one was complaining about the weather or even thinking about leaving. When the lightning crashed folks just turned their car CD players louder and opened another beer. At around 8:30 when the rain had slowed and late arriving fans got settled Roger took the stage to perform a stellar first half of some truly incredible music aided by his famous circle screen of marvelous images.

Opening with The Wall's, "In The Flesh" Roger greeted and outed his audience to their enthusiastic delight. "Mother" was next and the comforting sing-song chorus seemed to blanket everyone protecting them from the threatening elements. Roger's heartfelt tribute to Syd Barrett came in the form of, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Wish You Were Here". This was extremely moving and played in front of a montage of clips warmly remembering our recently departed genius.

The Final Cut was represented with the beautiful, "Southampton Dock" and "The Fletcher Memorial Home" and these songs along with, "Perfect Sense parts 1 and 2 helped to ease into the tricky "political" part of the show. "Leaving Beirut" a new song, was assisted on screen with a comic book recreation of a personal event that inspired Roger and it's lyrics which were visible from the upper seats made the audience think as well about our government's policies abroad. "Sheep" closed the first half but not before it saw Roger taking one last shot at our faltering leadership. An inflatable pig was brought out and let into the air with all sorts of Democratic slogans and warnings spray painted on it, complete with an "Impeach Bush" tattoo on the animal's backside.

After a fifteen minute intermission Roger came back on and gave us, "The Dark Side of the Moon" in its entirety. Do I have to say anymore? Those lucky enough to be there felt the blessing.

The evenings encore was a spectacular 1,2,3,4 punch of, "The Happiest Days of Our Lives", "Another Brick In The Wall (Pt 2)", "Vera", "Bring the Boys Back Home" and "Comfortably Numb". After nearly three hours of unforgettable sights and sounds the show was over and it was, "time to goooooo" but while sitting in the parking lot waiting for traffic to thin, everybody got a chance to reflect back on what a truly rare evening this was. From the rainbow to the lightning to the pig flying high, we all received the message clear... from the stage and from above.

PS - It is an honor to be included on this legendary website.