Roger Waters World Tour 2007
Northern Hemisphere
Tour Reviews

Koeln Arena

From: Hans-Juergen Mueller
I arrived to Cologne in the afternoon, checked into my hotel and took a walk along the Rhine River. It was a warm and sunny day and I came by the Hyatt Hotel near the Dome, where I noticed about 10 fans waiting for Waters and the band. They pointed to Dave Kilminster on the promenade and said that they had already gotten a few autographs from some of the members of the band. Some had waited for more than 5 hours. Roger had been spotted once when he came back from his tennis match.

After a good meal, I went to the Koeln Arena (just 5 minutes to go before the show). A lot of people were waiting in front of some of the small entrances. And after going through the door you could see and smell the dry ice all around. The hall itself was really foggy with it. To my surprise, the PA system played Syd Barrett songs before the show - a nice gesture! On the left and the right of the stage, there were 2 large screens, and behind the stage, a huge rectangular one. Projected onto it was an old radio, a bottle of whiskey, a glass, a full ash-tray, and postcards on the wall behind. After some time, old Rock'n'Roll numbers were played mixed with older ones like "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn (who will be part of the encore later on).

All of a sudden, the picture changed quite imperceptibly: the smoke of a cigarette rose in front of the picture! The picture had turned into a film and if you like, this could be said to be the beginning of the show. Now and then, you could see a hand taking the bottle, filling the glass, turning the dials on the radio, and finally with the cigarette.

In the end, the (almost sold out) show started with a delay of 20 minutes, which is not typical for a Waters' show. The setlist itself is well known, and identical to the other shows, even to the show last year in Berlin. It's strange to see the same show almost a year later, and to pay more than 50% more than last time! The same show? Well, I thought so, as the setlist was identical! But it turned out, that I was totally wrong. These were 2 totally different shows!

There are several reasons: First of all, "my friend" Dave Kilminster! We'll never be close friends in our lifetimes, as I criticized him in my review last year very clearly. Just a remark about that: My criticism last year unearthed some supposed Waters' Fans, who condemned my "lese-majesty" totally and called me names in a very evil way. Well, besides my amusement about this childish behavior, I'm astonished to learn, that fans of Roger Waters don't know the words tolerance and the right of a free speech. This is very sad, but won't change one word in my review of last year's show! This year in Cologne, Dave Kilminster was a little better integrated into the whole band, and showed less of his exhaltating egotistical behavior. So this could be interpreted as a small praise from me. But he can do better...

Another reason for the difference was of course the setting. Last year most of the shows were open air, in an amphitheaters, this year most are in indoor venues such as the Koeln Arena. I'm no big outdoor fan, and prefer indoor shows where it's easy to get all things perfect. In Berlin you couldn't see the back projections and the lighting in the first half because it was still broad daylight. There are no problems like this in an indoor hall!

And in the end, the show itself was different! Mainly in part 1, there was a lot of new videos. Some were really moving! And the sound was quite loud (in some parts too loud), but very good! The projection screens on the sides confused me at the beginning. I was in row 11 near the 3 ladies, and had a really good view of the whole stage, so these screens distracted me (in opposition to the folks at the back of the hall). So I just concentrated on the stage.

Waters (again) communicated a lot with the audience and walked to the edges of the stage to get his special applause there. The whole band played the complete set with great routine, but with a lot of power, that blew the audience away. And Waters obviously had a good time...

All in all, it was a remarkable change, and an enhancement to the Berlin show. I was surprised to see, how the show developed over this last year, and all the additional elements added.

There were some interesting details: During the intermission (this was really just 15 minutes, and a lot of fans didn't make it back to their seats in time for the second part) you could hear the legendary, old Pink Floyd concert intro with the birds and the noises of Mother Nature. The huge astronaut and the pig were in action and flew through the hall. At the end of the Dark Side set, there was a laser pyramid over our heads. And there were some explosions on the stage with such a heat, that I could feel it even in row 11. And during "Sheep" for 10 minutes we had a thunder-shower made out of millions of small green confetti that showered down from the roof of the hall and looked like all of us had become green Shreks.

Musically, the highlights were; "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" with pictures of Syd Barrett (it would be interesting to know, how many in the audience recognized or knew who it was), the moving "Southampton Dock" and "The Fletcher Memorial Home," and of course both parts of "Perfect Sense," where the audience went crazy. The Dark Side set was less surprising, but very good. It's a shame, that "Comfortably Numb" wasn't once again convincing. Normally you can't beat this song as a closer for a show.

After some 140 minutes (if you add the radio intro, it's 150 minutes) the final fireworks closed the show, Waters signed 1 (!) autograph and the band left the stage. They left an extremely happy audience, that left the hall on their way home. I finished this remarkable night with a few beers...

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