Roger Waters World Tour 2008
Tour Reviews

The songs were incredible. I really liked his new song "Leaving Beiruit".

Of course since this is Texas and it's Bush's home, there were rednecks there that complained about the politics. So what. It's not like he made speeches or forced his ideas on these toothless, Confederate flag waving Bush lackeys. If they ever really listened to his music anyway they would have known his views before they came to the concert. Morons.

Anyway, great show. Roger is one of the only people I would pay to go see. Great job Roger.

Oh, Obama already had my vote, but appreciate the support for him. Bush and Friends (rednecks and other ignoramai) ----Burn in hell for what you did to our world and country........

Dustin

I had read that this will be his last tour in the US, but, hopefully he will change his mind, and if he does, I will be the first in line for tickets.

My daughter who is a Freshman in college (19 yrs old), was the one that wanted to go, and I am so glad that she went, because Pink Floyd was my era, and thank goodness she inherited my genes for great music.

Roger Waters Dark Side of the Moon Tour

The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
The Woodlands, Texas

Sunday May 4th, 2008

The Show

When I walked in there was house music playing and an image of a radio on the screen on a desk or table, with a drink and a hand that would periodically come on and change the station to a new song. This occurred for awhile, until the house lights went out and the moment we had all anticipated was upon us.

As Roger took the stage the crowd thunderously roared their appreciation of a true rock genius and legend. The night started with an abrupt bang in the form of In the Flesh (without the "?", despite a few incorrect postings I've seen online). A spotlight was scanning the crowd as Roger pointed out all the riff-raff that was let into the room. It was a fantastic way to start the show and it was a huge crowd pleaser.

The next song of the night was Mother, starting off with Roger strumming an acoustic and singing. One of the backup singers (sorry, I cant recall which!) took what was originally Gilmours lead vocal part, which works well since its actually supposed to be Pink's Mothers' lines. This is also the first time you get to a classic Gilmour solo, and Dave Kilminster does a fairly nice Gilmour "knock off," but its not quite the same.

Next up was a very sleek version of Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, complete with a brief jam in the middle, a saxophone solo and some fantastic psychedelic imagery on the massive and stunningly clear LED screen, spanning the entire back of the stage.

Following this was an abbreviated version of Shine on You Crazy Diamond. Sonically this song was truly stunning and powerful. You could really just feel the depths of sadness that Waters was evoking in his vocals. It really was the first emotional moment of the evening, especially with images of a young and seemingly invincible Syd Barrett appearing on the screen onstage in a stirring video tribute.

Have a Cigar brought up the tempo of the show just a bit. I was concerned when I first saw Roger step up to the mic to sing the lead vocals on this one, but he sings this song surprisingly well. He hit every note with power and conviction.

The band delivered a very solid rendition of Wish You Were Here, but I think this was the first song that I really felt like the performance of David Gilmour was sorely lacking. This is not really a song that I thought suited Rogers voice particularly well, but it was still very enjoyable overall.

Next followed two songs from The Final Cut: Southampton Dock and The Fletcher Memorial Home. Not surprisingly, this was the first part of the set where I noticed people starting to head for beer runs or restroom breaks, but those folks missed out on some fantastic musical moments. The Fletcher Memorial Home had a particularly powerful, dark video in an asylum-meets-retirement-home setting which was commenting on the incurable tyrants of the world, including images of Osama Bin Laden, Ronald Reagan, Saddam Hussein and others panning across the screen. This video also lead to what was probably the most humorous idiot-in-the-crowd moment of the night for me: The girl two rows in front of me flipped off the images of all of the leaders as they appeared on the screen, with the obvious exception of Ronald Reagan.

Next came the first Roger Waters solo tune of the night: Perfect Sense, Parts I and II. This song was spectacular both sonically and visually and was one of the highlights of the first set for me. During Perfect Sense Part II, there was a humorous video of the "game" between the nuclear submarine and the floating oilrig inside a massive stadium, of course, with play-by-play from Marv Albert. It went almost exactly as I'd always pictured it in my head. The humor of the video aside, it was a truly moving moment in the show, of course backed by the glorious "Global Anthem:"

Cant you see
It all makes perfect sense
Expressed in dollars and cents,
Pounds, Shillings and Pence.
Cant you see
It all makes perfect sense

Leaving Beirut was the only other Roger Waters solo song of the night. He briefly addressed the crowd for the first time to give the back story behind the song (if you dont know this one, briefly, he was traveling in Lebanon in the early 60s, I believe he said 1961, with a friend when their car broke down. They were taken in by an Arab family as guests for the night and treated with great respect, and it changed his life and was a kindness he has never forgotten). Roger also used the video to great effect during this song, using a dark, almost comic book or graphic novel series of images (complete with speech bubbles containing the lyrics being sung) were displayed to help visualize the story.

The lyrics to this song are obviously political in nature, commenting on George W. Bush and his Texas education, religions, etc., so this was the first time of the night where some of the Conservative concert-goers started booing. Despite what Ive seen online, there were people who started booing and even leaving the show at this point. It was generally well received by the majority, but not totally. This is Texas, after all.

Finally, to close out the opening set was the classic from the 1977 Floyd album, Sheep. The band was great on this song and Roger really dug down deep to belt out the vocals on this one.

This is also the song where some stagehands bring out the famed Pig for the night. It was walked through an alley way, into one of the plazas of the venue, into the seating area and finally up onto the hill. The graffiti on the pig had a large political cartoon caricature of W Bush, with a speech bubble next to it saying "Im with Stupid," captions reading "Dont be led to the slaughter," "All Religions Divide," "Impeach Bush Now," (strategically placed under the pigs tail, right on the butt) and the Support Obama message on the underbelly.

During this time confetti was also being dropped from the ceiling which also had a Support Obama message on it. Both of the Support Obama messages were a checkmark in a box next to the word "Obama." This whole series of messages received an even stronger negative response than Leaving Beirut from certain people. Most people were clapping and supportive, but there was a noticeable chorus of Boos and stream of people leaving the venue at this point. I would also like to point out that several people filled out complaint letters that ranged from calling Roger a "terrorist supporter" to a "Communist" and that they wanted refunds because they came to see Dark Side of the Moon, not to hear a "Roger Waters Political Rally." Im guessing that the girl who flipped off Saddam and Osama was unhappy. Again, the majority of the crowd was impartial or supportive, but one would be understating the truth to say that a noticeable, yet small, negative reaction didn't occur. After Sheep was done Roger received another ovation with a smattering of boos, and announced that they would take a brief intermission and come back to perform Dark Side of the Moon.

When the house lights came on, an image of the moon appeared on the screen. It was very distant at this point. Throughout the intermission it grew closer and closer, until the band finally came back onstage, to deafening applause to perform Pink Floyds 1973 masterpiece. Some of the more powerful parts of Dark Side of the Moon were:

• Carol Kenyons amazing rendition of Great Gig in the Sky with video of a thunderstorm passing overhead, where every bolt of lightning was a startlingly realistic punctuation

• Ian Ritchies saxophone solo on Us and Them

• A churning, frantic version of On the Run, which was one of the few songs that deviated from the original, though only slightly. There were a few new sound effects added in that are not part of the original, which all synced up with video clips (one example I remember was the sound and video of a train barreling by).

• The Quadraphonic surround sound effects were spectacular, particularly when you get to places in the album with lots of incidental sound clips and voice-overs occur (i.e. On the Run or Brain Damage). You could really feel the depth of sound that was added as a result of the extra speakers placed around the venue.

• The fantastic 3-D Dark Side of the Moon logo. It is the pyramid from the cover artwork with lasers that shot out across the crowd, including the very cool effect of having a single laser shooting in from the left side of the pyramid while the full spectrum of colors shot out the right side. They also enhanced this effect by pumping large volumes of smoke into the crowd, which made the lasers really show up crisply.

After Dark Side of the Moon, the band briefly left the stage, the original screen image of the radio had reappeared and then the band came back for an encore comprised completely of songs from The Wall. It started off with The Happiest Days of Our Lives with the sound of helicopter blades and a spotlight scanning into the crowd, finally settling on one fan and Roger pointed at him and yelled "You! Yes You! Stand Still Laddie!"

Next up was, obviously, Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2. This was followed by a bit of a shocker for me, in Vera. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Vera, and thought it sounded fantastic.

Bring the Boys Back Home followed, and also sounded great. The video screen flashed images of war (in general and the war in Iraq) and there were concussion and pyro blasts on stage as well.

Finally, the show came to a close with Comfortably Numb, which was great, but I sure wish Gilmour was playing those solos. During the song you could see the fellow that was attached to the hand tuning the radio. He appeared to be in various stages of coherence, or comfortably numb, if you will. It was similar to many of the scenes of Pink sitting in his hotel room from the movie.

After the song was over, Roger received a massive standing ovation and he addressed the crowd and appeared truly and genuinely to be touched by the response he was receiving. A part of me believes that he was so touched to receive that response in a place like Texas, especially considering the message he delivered throughout the night. It must seem like a large moral victory to come into W. Bushs home state and get that response and validation.

The Band

The band that backs Roger is quite tight, and full of fantastic musicians. There are the "old faithfuls:" Jon Carin, Snowy White and Graham Broad, who have been with Roger for years. Dave Kilminster does a very serviceable David-Gilmour-lead-guitar impression. I will say, no one pulls off David quite right, but Kilminster was very good. Ian Ritchie on Saxophone, Chester Kamen on Guitar, Sylvia Mason-James, P. P. Arnold and Carol Kenyon on backing vocals and Harry Waters, Rogers son, on keyboards, round out the band.

Annoyed Ramblings (i.e. Side Note)

Also, just a side note: This whole Coachella "incident" is getting silly on the internet and news, etc. Roger has the crew blow up a new pig every show and then they have someone come in and paint it with the "political graffiti." I keep seeing all these postings on websites, blogs, etc. insinuating that the pig accidentally flew away. Thats not true! They have loads of blow up pigs, which they freshly paint and purposely release to fly away during the show. They then go retrieve them once they are located. It appears as though maybe Coachella is trying to make this into an "incident" when, in fact, it is not. You will notice that Roger Waters is not the one offering a reward for the return of the pig, but Coachella is offering the reward. Also note the contact info for reporting the lost pig: lostpig@coachella.com. As a final note: The pigs they are bringing out every night are not "the" pigs, but they are replicas. I have several friends who work in management positions at the venue, and they again confirmed to me based on a few conversations with Roger Waters tour management, that Roger releases the pig ON PURPOSE, every night, and doesnt even care if he gets the pig back. He has tons and tons of them. Its amazing the poor reporting and false information thats been attached to this

Thanks for the worst night ever! DD

I was madly making my way though the crowd to get closer to the stage, as close as I could anyways (lawn seats). I couldn't believe it we found the most perfect spot! Right next to the sidewalk (as close to the stage as you can get on lawn), just a little left of center stage (which was great cause there was some kind of beam there.... Any who) it was PERFECT! We set up our blanket and lit an insect... that's when I really got to drink in the moment.

I could see Roger Waters there playing for me. Roger waters... I grew up listening to him. If I was stranded on a desert island and could have only one band to listen to... Pink Floyd hands down. I've heard some of their songs literally 1000's of times and I have yet to ever tire of them (like "Fearless." oh that song is so beautiful).

The whole trip to get to the show I kept talking to my friend, saying "I hope he plays this" or "do you think he will play that?" "Well all I know is I'll die a happy woman if he plays Fearless and Eclipse" and apparently he did.

The last I remember was a really big scary pig coming out right on top of me. (Where we were sitting was right where that big scary pig first came out)... let's just say I had a true Pink Floyd experience. I've felt nothing like it ever before. I literally died on that lawn. The little bit of the show I remember I will forever be grateful for.

I remember Wish You Were Here... that's when everything hit me... it was unbelievably amazing! That's when the moment really hit me... I've heard soooooooooooo many of my friends play that song and people do covers of it, but here he was, the real deal, Roger ÊWaters... playing for me. Then I heard a song of his (I believe it was the very next song) that I never heard before... it was so beautiful... I was in shear awe... it sounded like some hidden track of an old Pink Floyd song I never heard before...to get to hear what sounded like NEW Pink Floyd!!... first time right there being sung by him!!!... it was a spiritual experience for me.

Obviously my take on the show isn't a very good one... it still makes me want to cry that I missed the show... I talked to my brother about all that had happened and he was telling me something about how the Taoist (and many others) believe that one must experience what I did to be fully awake. Well, many wonderful things defiantly have come from that particular experience... but I still want to cry that I missed the show. So again my take on the show is obviously not the best...

I fantasized so many times about finding his pig... me and several different people talked about what we would do with it if we found it... Me? I would have took pictures of me with it and some how got word to Roger Waters that I had his pig, I wouldn't want his money I would just want to get to party with him for two nights and for him to sign everything I own, and would love to get some keepsake from him (even if it was something random & stupid like his TV guide - do people still use those?... yes I love him that much). Part of me still feels cheated that I missed his show. Can anyone at least tell me if there will be a DVD of it? I would really love to get to see more than just the little 10 second clips on people's cell phones via youtube. And to whoever is still reading this... thanks for listening to me bitch.