Amazing concert. The concert started right on time at 8:30pm and lasted till 11:30pm, 3 hours which included a 20 minute intermission. Roger had a 9 piece band including himself. The band was in great harmony throughout the show. I would say that the arena was sold out as there was no empty seats left and you could hardly find a spot to sit in the general admission area, where I was sitting.
The sound was great, not too loud not too low, just perfect. The special effects were not as spectacular as the previous Radio KAOS show, but again when you got Roger on mic who needs special effects.
Roger did a solid performance on vocals and acoustic/ base guitars and felt his lyrics with the kind of emotion that you hear on his albums. Doyle, who played lead guitar for most tunes also did some vocals, doing a great job. Jon Carin did some backing vocals as well in addition to playing keyboards. In case some people may not know, Jon also played keyboards on both Momentary Lapse and Division Bell albums and tours for Pink Floyd (post Roger).
For me, the highlight of the night was when they played the two tunes from Animals, Pigs On The Wing 1 and Dogs. Roger was great on acoustic guitar and vocals and Doyle did a great job on vocals and solos as well, just amazing.
Greetings,
How wonderful and exciting it was to finally see the man, to be able to stand and applaud him. Well, the band was just fantastic, that is really what I think!
I won't try to give a review of the whole show -- I wouldn't know where to begin. But as I sit here at work (i work in a music library) and listen to Amused to Death, I am vividly reminded of Perfect Sense pts. 1 & 2. It was one of those moments when the band and the audience were bang on. When she took over her part, the back up singer, PP Arnold, brought the place to it's feet with her fiercely controlled delivery of "And the Germans killed the Jews and the Jews killed the Arabs . . .", it was just so perfect and cut right to the bone. I cannot put it into words but my eyes water with the memory of how excited everyone from audience to band members to Waters were. Cool, very cool.
Of course each song has its own special moment (Dogs!!) and this is just a tidbit. So to all you who are awaiting your night in the flesh, you are in for one hell of a night.
Unfortunately, my advanced state of euphoria impeded any taking down of a setlist -- but it runs pretty much the same as previous shows.
Enjoy,
Tickets came on sale on May 7th and I wasn't in the country at this time. I was in France for study. I asked to my father to buy my ticket and he got me a great place on the floor. I was in the 12th row at the right of the stage, just in front of the chorists. I have no friend who likes Pink Floyd or Roger Waters, then I went to the show alone. I took my car from home to the nearest subway station of Montreal in City of St. Laurent and did the rest of my path by subway to the downtown.
I arrived in the downtown around 3PM and did a tour in every record stores on St. Catherine Street like HMV Megastore, Music World, Sam The Recordman and Archambault. Around 5PM I tryed to meet some IRC friends on #PinkFloyd&Co. who also went to the show. Unfortunately, I didn't see them.
Later, I took my dinner in a nice cafe. At 6:30PM I started my run to the Molson Centre and stopped a few moments in park called the Canada Place in the middle of the downtown. At 7:10PM I was in the Molson Centre reaching my seat. Outside the venue some radio stations trucks were there to draw 1st row tickets and some other prizes. We could heard Waters solo stuff with speakers outside. There was just few people already inside at this moment. I wait 'til 7:45PM and then meet someone who was suppose to be at the first meeting place. He had organized a little get together after the show in the pub of Molson Centre.
The stage was looking sober, a little intimate space with some sofa and living room lamps. Behind the stage there was a rectangular screen with a pink pig. "In The Flesh" was written on the back of the pig.
At 8:10PM the show began on In The Flesh. Roger appeared at the top of the stage just behind his band and when the lights spotted him he crossed his arms in the air just like Pink in The Wall. He played an extended version of In The Flesh and all the six first tracks of The Wall. Roger changed his bass guitar for an acoustic guitar to play "Mother". Then he played "Pig On The Wing Part I" and "Dogs" and many songs from "Wish You Were Here". "Shine On You Crazy" ended with a big mirror diamond in the middle of the stage with all lights concentrated on it. That was the end of the first part.
Twenty minutes later, Roger and his musicians came back on stage to play some "Dark Side Of The Moon" stuff. It began with a shorted version "Speak To Me" and then "Breathe". After that "Time" came and also the first part of "The Great Gig In The Sky". We got "Money" after that and Roger started to play his solo stuff with "Every Strangers Eyes". "The Powers That Be" was the song taken from "Radio KAOS" then many songs from "Amused To Death" were played the best one was "Perfect Sense Part I" with P.P. Arnold on vocals. The second part ended on a great version of "Brain Damage/Eclispe". We wait around 5 mins. for the come back of the encore. The crowd was screaming so loud, that was a great standing ovation, some people were standing on their seat.
Mr. Waters and his band seemed to be in a great shape. Waters looked better than on his promotional pictures. There is no doubt that every musicians were really good but I like the Pink Floyd stuff but without Gilmour and Mason it did not sound the same. Gilmour's guitar seems to add the magic touch of the Pink Floyd sound. Roger's solo stuff however, was just incredible. I feel that Waters likes to play songs from "Amused to Death", why didn't he do a tour for this album? "Comfortably Numb" has been played as the encore and it was really really great. The end guitar solo was played alternately by Snowy White and Doyle Bramhall and finally both together. The crowd sang the song with Waters and was screaming very loud, I never seen a noisy crowd like that in my life! Waters spoke a bit in French at the beginning of the show to salute the crowd and explain the show a bit.
The song "The Powers That Be" sounded much different than on the album version, personnally, I prefer the original one. My favorite song from the show is "Perfect Sense Part I" because of the P.P. Arnold vocals at the end of the song, she did a great performance and the crowd had applause a lot. The worst song of the show is probably "Wish You Were Here", magic wasn't there and I prefer when David Gilmour sings this one.
*** DOMINIC "VERZON" VILLENEUVE ***
http://verzon.cjb.net
Quite simply the best show I've ever seen. Seeing Waters reminded me why I liked Pink Floyd in the first place: not only is the music tremendous, but also the lyrics on war, politics, rock and roll and life in general. The Floyd, with Waters, brought out emotions that AMLOR and DB cannot surpass (not that they're not great albums, just not at the level of the 70's Floyd). And seeing Pink...um, Roger Waters...on Saturday night at the opening of In The Flesh with his arms crossed in the air confirmed that Pink Floyd was the best Rock n' Roll band ever.
From the previous concerts' set lists, Waters had been beginning with side A of The Wall without HDOUL and ABITW II but in Montreal, he played the complete album side. Tremendous! We were on the floor seats (row P) so the view was incredible. And the sound as well was quite remarkable. I heard GYFHOMD quite well and when the band got into Dogs, I (along with the 5,000 other people) were screaming our heads off! I would have thought that Waters would have been annoyed at the loud screaming but he seemed very happy.
During Dogs when they were playing cards on the couches, Waters sat back and raised his hands in the air as a salute and the whole crowd screamed and yelled back. As well, the quad sound was remarkable because when the dogs were barking during the sound, they really seemed to be behind us and I saw everyone look back, as if expecting dogs to actually be there!
Perfect Sense and the Global National Anthem were just amazingly done and with the whole crowd into it, it was fabulous. I loved the solo material and during The Powers That Be, I thought it was like a recreation of the CD, only better. I was wondering if one of the vocalists was not the same as on Radio KAOS? And then Waters introduced the band, spoke French (quite well too!) and went into Brain Damage. I didn't recognize the song at first as it had quite a Pop-ish start, almost country-ish...very well done.
The one encore (after ten minutes of screaming!) was Comfortably Numb and it was just enjoyable to see that Waters was having a lot of fun.
All in all, Waters' bass playing was great, the visuals were quite stunning (SOYCD with Syd up on the wall and then the water bubbles and the blood... didn't quite understand the symbolism but it was suberb nonetheless), and the sound was loud and proud.
I'll go see Pink Floyd again if and when they play in Montreal but this show surpassed the '94 Floyd show. There was no television on the stage (as there were for the other shows). I was wondering how much the t-shirts cost in the States as I bought a T for $38 Canadian (approx. $25 US) and a coffee mug for $15 Cad ($10 US). I wanted to get the autographed lythograph at $100 but...
If I could thank Roger Waters personnally, I would just like to say that he provided a wonderful evening and that whenever I listen to Dogs, Welcome to the Machine and Amused to Death from now on, I will remember this concert. Waters might have spit on the fan back in '77 but he rocked in '99!
by M Larocque
