Roger Waters absolutely mesmerized a capacity crowd that had gathered underneath the stars in Clarkston, Michigan, on July 25th. When he first appeared on the Pine Knob Music Theatre's stage at 8:00 p.m. sharp, Waters had a smile on his face. He seemed to be pleasantly surprised by the enormous number of fans (probably around 12,000) who had turned out to see him. He shouldn't have been. The man is a supreme artist, and that night his genius shone brighter than the light of the nearly full moon.
Waters put on a show that above all highlighted his music. He dispensed with all of the razzle dazzle common to most rock concerts. Some Pink Floyd fans might be disappointed to learn that there are no laser light shows or gargantuan floating pigs here. Waters has said that he wanted to recapture the magic of Floyd's early days when the audiences were small and the connection with the audience was real. Helping set the proper tone, the small stage was decorated (if that is the right word) with a few couches and a table or two. Behind the performers was a smallish screen with projected images dancing across it. Waters quickly established a nice rapport with the audience. When a fan tossed on the stage a concert T-shirt the artist picked the shirt up and gleefully displayed it to the appreciative crowd.
Waters began in dramatic fashion, belting out In the Flesh while perched on a ledge above the stage. He snarled the line "There's one smoking a joint!" with particular emphasis, and the (shall we say) highly charged assemblage howled in response. He followed up In the Flesh with three more songs from The Wall: Thin Ice, Mother, and Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1, all inspired performances, and then dipped briefly into the Final Cut. Waters then hit the night's highest note with Pigs on the Wing and Dogs. (Interestingly, he and his cohorts began playing cards during a synthesizer-heavy portion of Dogs—as if to indicate a boredom with electronically enhanced music.) He concluded the night's first set with rousing renditions of Welcome to the Machine, Wish You Were Here, and Shine on You Crazy Diamond.
After a twenty-minute intermission, Waters returned--only to relinquish center stage to one of his associates, the red hot guitarist Doyle Bramhall II. Bramhall whipped up the already enthusiastic crowd with selections from Dark Side of the Moon, including (of course) Money and Time. Waters then assumed center stage again and performed some works from his solo albums, Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, Radio KAOS, and, most especially, Amused to Death. Truth be told, some of the air went out of the mostly young (under twenty) audience during this part of the show, but the knowledgeable Waters fans were happy to hear these songs. Perfect Sense and Amused to Death particularly delighted this reviewer. During the playing of the latter work Waters's shadow was projected onto the screen—perhaps an admission of his own place in the entertainment culture that is "amusing us all to death." He closed the show and pumped up the deflated crowd with an high-energy encore of four songs—Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2, Brain Damage, Eclipse, and Comfortably Numb.
"I had fun," Waters told the audience at the end of the night. And so had the crowd. The spirit of the Sixties was reawakened on this one night. Two women even bared their breasts in a scene reminiscent of Woodstock. Ironically, as Waters was working his magic near Detroit, a festival calling itself Woodstock was drawing to a violent close.
Charles Franch
WOW! That's all I can say.
I went to
the Roger Waters concert last night , July 25, at Pine Knob Music
Center in Clarkston, MI and could not beleive myself.
I have
been a fan of Roger and Pink Floyd for as long as my 18 year
old mind can remember, and I finally got a chance to see one
of the members live.
I got my tickets, lawn seating, 10 minutes
after they went on sale, thank god because it sold out. Me and
6 of my friends arrived at the concert venue at 6:00, a good
2 hours early. When they opened the gates at 7:00 we dashed in
a bought a t-shirt right away, I got the black one with the cities
on the back.After a quick rest stop at the bathroom, we went
and got our spots on the lawn a little to the left -center but
perfect seats, no obstuctions.
All of the sudden a friend who
was in the parking lot runs in and shows us the ticket he bought,
it was a 4th row pavilion seat right in front. They had put some
great seats on sale last moment because the concert was sold
out. So of course we are all jealous and want to sit there. He
went down and got to know the ushers, and to make a long story
short, got to take one person at a time down there. My friend
goes down there and all I heard is the music to In The Flesh?
My heart is racing, it's amazing, Roger walks out, puts on his
bass and starts going. 1st set is great, Mother is excellent,
the speaker system is amazing, as is the screen behind him. The
set progresses and I hear Pigs on the Wing pt 1, and I know that
he's gonna play another song from animals, and it turns out to
be DOGS, absolutely amazing, I couldn't beleive it, it was almost
orgasmic.
He then played welcome to the machine , another favorite,
then Wish You Where Here, during this song is when all the posers
stand up and cheer cuase they actually know this song, sadly
enough, this kinda ruined the song for me, but it was still good.
Now is intermission. He starts with breathe which gets my heart
pumping again, then in to time, excellent, unbeleivable.
Then
the final poser song comes on, MONEY, where everyone starts cheering
again, again I get mad, but it was still good, then finally,
he starts plaing some of his solo stuff, once he starts I notice
the crowd kinda sit down cause most of them don't know any of
the songs , but I do and I love them. Just as he starts playing
Perfect sense, it's my turn to go to 4th row, I get down there
and it is amazing, i can almost touch him. i couldn't beleive
it, surreal, both perfect senses were awesome, and amused to
death was great, I love that song, during amused to death Roger
grasped hands with a lady in the front row, amazing.
Then he
breaks into Another Brick in the Wall pt 2 and I am right in
front of him singing the words, the crown was really into it,
it was so exciting, everyone was singing. They say good bye and
walk off for about 2 seconds before the crowd is too loud and
they come back out and play brain damage and eclipse, or as the
morons were calling darkside of the moon then comfortably numb
(p.s. hard to tell the difference between David Gilmour and the
lead guitarist in the band, well done) and that was it.
The best
concert of my entire life.The parking lot was just as crazy,
people every where were shooting off huge fireworks, amazing.
I loved my first experience with the Floyd Live and hopefully
won't be the last, I am leaving tomorrow to go the the cleveland
show, can't wait. WOW
