In The Flesh
Tour Reviews

Whew, that being said, I was blown away by the show. I've been listening to Pink Floyd since I was 9 or 10 back in 1969/1970. The sound was so clear, so crisp and clean, I couldn't sit still. I've been to many concerts at Jones Beach, and in all those years, I've never heard a concert SO clear! Rogers' bass could have been louder. It's NEVER loud enough for me! The sound effects were so clear, and loud, they rumbled the whole stadium.

The crowd blew me away. I had a 17 year old girl to my left and a, what seemed to be, early 60's couple to my right. Everyone was into it! The entire first set was Pink Floyd stuff. After a 20 minute intermission, he came back on and included about 6 solo songs. Four of which were Amused to Death Material. His encore was Comfortably Numb.

Roger looked REAL good! He seems to have mellowed a bit but in a classy way. The gray hair fits him well. I'm not a guy who is comfortable judging if another guy is handsome or not, but, he did get better looking with age! He played for almost 3 hours. He really worked his ass off! It was very humid and this concert was on the beach. He smiled a LOT. He kept wording "thank you" throughout the show. It was a real pleasure watching him play. I was hoping he would talk more but, the few things he said were basically "welcome" "thank you" and, IF I heard him correctly, when he came out for the encore he thanked us and said something to the effect that "sometimes he misses the old days with the band and the memories he had", and that the cheers we gave him reminded him of that and that is why he came out after the house lights were on for the encore.

The screen was mostly out of view for me but they seemed to be mostly Wall material. The lighting was straight forward as was the smoke. Being outside I think that really limits what they can do. They did have this really cool star. While Shine On You Crazy Diamond was finishing, a spot light hits this thing and it was like a Million stars hit the seats! You could see EVERY beam of white light as it shone out into the crowd with Roger standing in below it center stage. That was the highlight of the effects for me.

The Floyd songs were great. He pulled them off wonderfully with the band he had. Among some of the songs were... Welcome to the Machine, Money, Shine On, Brick in the Wall, Radio KAOS, Amused to Death, What God Wants, Mother (when he was singing the line) " Mother should I trust the Government" he made the funniest couple of faces like, trust these assholes? Not me! It was really funny! He pulled it off so well. I wish I had a video of the show. I'm sure I missed a lot with my seats.

I guess I covered most of the major details. I hope it was of some use. If there is anything else that I might have missed or if you have a question, please don't hesitate to ask. I wish I could see him again. It was worth the wait. GO SEE HIM! DON'T MISS IT FOR ANYTHING!

by Ted V Stamford, Ct
I attended the concert at Jones Beach with my wife and a buddy, and it was the first visit to Jones Beach for me. I have to say, it is a neat place, and the wind off the water felt great, but I thought it was a terrible place for music. The sound quality was hindered by the tremendous breeze blowing right to left across the stage. As a result it was like listening to music with a huge fan blowing. The wind made no noise, but the sound from the stage had to fight it's way to our hears.

As for the show, the place was packed, and people seemed very into the show. I thought Roger looked and sounded great. He kept the set list the same, so there were no surprises—like Clare Torrey in NYC in 1987. The highlights for me were Dogs and the Amused to Death songs and Every Strangers Eyes. I was suspicious, however, that he used a voice track for part of that song (the "from where I stand . . . I recognize myself" part) because it sounded so good. I, like others, wish he played all of Amused to Death and more non-hits. I would have liked to have heard Fletcher Memorial Home and The Final Cut, for example, but it is hard to complain about the "hits" because they are such great songs.

I liked the TV screens used to show close ups of Roger and the band performing. It was great to see Roger smiling and enjoying himself so much. I also liked the close ups of the guitarists hands as they played. It looked to me like Doyle Bramhall is left handed but plays his guitar upside down, strung like a right handed guitar. I don't play, so I could be wrong, but it appeared to me that he pulls the strings down rather than up when bending notes. I just thought that was an interesting style.

The show was great and it was fun to hear all of those great songs, but it lacked the theatrics of his previous shows, so that was a little disappointing. Having said that, this show proves that Roger is Pink. I saw the Fake Floyd and their show was terrible and a complete rip off. These are Roger's songs and they are much better when performed by him. Seeing Dave bumble through Roger's songs would be like going to a Who concert without Pete Thownsend being there. No one would pay to see that, so why do people pay to see Dave? Pay to see Roger, the real deal, is what I recommend.

by Mike F.-NY
I saw the Jones Beach show on August 7th and can't stop talking about it!

Although I knew most of the songs that were going to be played by checking on the web, I was still thrilled to hear "Mother" ,Welcome to the Machine" and an awesome "Amused to Death"

Roger sounded great and was very interactive with the audience. The entire crowd loved him and it was obvious that he was having a great time. I hope this will encourage him to come back soon.

There wasn't the usual multi-million dollar special effects but it was unnecessary ;his extraordinary raw energy will grip you and give you chills when he nails the emotion of the songs with a strained scream.

This is a must see concert. Pink Floyd fans please stay home!

by Andy Acunzo
Last night I finally saw Roger Waters in concert. I'm 26 and I've never had the chance to see him live before, although I saw Floyd twice in '94.

I was really impressed. Roger seemed to be having a great time up there. He was very into it, even screaming out some of his intense lines on "Amused to Death" and "Every Stranger's Eyes" for example until the veins were popping out of his neck. I was very impressed with the band as well. Seeing "Dogs" live was unbelievable. On "Shine On" I did miss the atmosphere that Dave, Rick, and Nick bring, although it was great to see Roger sing it.

I purposefully avoided reading any reviews prior to attending this show, so when they opened with the first few songs from THE WALL, I thought we were in for a big surprise and they were going to do the whole thing! I'm glad they didn't though, because that would have left little room for anything else. We still got all of side one though.

The sound quality was phenomenal, although we were sitting too far back to really appreciate the quad effects. I noticed in the tourbook that Clair Bros. Audio are doing the sound, and they're supposed to be some of the best in the business.

I thought the crowd was very into the show as well, and was impressed with how well people responded to even the more obscure stuff, like his solo material and "Southampton Dock." I've been to a bunch of Springsteen shows this summer, and when he plays quiter or more obscure songs, people just run out to the beer lines and bathrooms. I think the fact that Jones Beach doesn't sell beer makes for a much more enjoyable experience (I guess all the pot being smoked tends to mellow out the crowd, too). :)

All in all I came away very impressed. I didn't expect such well-rehearsed music and such a production for a month-long tour, and I didn't know if Roger still had it in him to perform after all these years. He does. I just wish he'd play the gong again. :)

by OnelbOver@aol.com
I'm still recovering from the August 7th, performance at Jones Beach, New York. I had never seen Roger live and was foaming at the mouth since the date was released.

I scheduled to have the night off months in advance and got three friends and myself seats,18th row dead center. For getting the great seats they rented a limo for the night and picked up the tab. I spent the day relaxing and gearing up for the gig. I was picked up at 6:00 pm by my friends and we headed to the venue. We were only 15 min from the theater, why so early you say? I was not leaving anything to chance, after reading all of the great info provided by the RW sites, I was not going to be late. Got to the venue at around 6:20 and parked. We has the tunes paying and the cups full.

At 8:00 pm we entered the venue, there was a calm to everyone but a force was present a quiet charge of electricity. We were able to have a few last cocktails in a VIP tent at the venue and at 8:25 we sat. The place was full at this time, everybody new to get there on time.

The lights dimmed at exactly 8:30pm and the band walked out quietly. Roger entered on the upper portion of the stage were there was a lone mic on a stand. After waiting for so many years to see him, I had a smile ear to ear. A very simple set up with no elaborate lighting rigs, It was nice not to see a lot of production. Very classy stage set up clean with a few lamps and some guitar tuning equipment for Roger center stage at the back. He turned to tune a few times during the set while the stage was dark.

Same set list was performed as the prior venues no new tricks, oh well. The sound was immaculate and crisp and he sang like a champ. I had some friends who were working the show, later they told be the mirror ball used during "Shine" did not function properly. No faults to the show, however I would have liked to hear more solo material.

During the second set I spent some time with my eyes closed absorbing each note falling into each song. I would recommend anyone to try it during ATD. A lot of powerful energy during "Perfect Sense", especially when he and the entire audience sang." It all makes perfect sense expressed in dollars and cents, pounds shillings and pence. Best part of the show for me . I wanted more, more , more. I am planning to fly out the West coast when those dates are released se ya there.

by Ron Hill
So I wrote a slam of 8/6/99 show. I goofed on Rog and the venue. Tonight's show at Jones Beach was entirely a different animal....

First off it was a lovely night at the beach, not hot and a cool breeze. I went to the show with major Waters fan Alex A, and his two co workers "Sep" and Jim. Sep was a Floyd fan, but not very familiar with the history of the group, and made us listen to The Dividend Bell on the ride there. Alex (who has like hundreds of bootleg Floyd, Waters and Barrett tapes) had never heard this record before, so we were snickering to ourselves about what a third rate, new age remake of Gilmours About Face it was. It really is an awful record folks. We got to the parking lot early and proceeded to drink alot of beer and smoke some smoke, which was something I couldn't do the night before. We were feeling pretty goofy at show time.

The seats were great, dead center first tier. Jones Beach has giant TV screens on both side of the stage and through out the show the camera work was great. Rog seemed more relaxed than he was in NJ and wasn't making nearly as many crowd attention gestures. His voice was a little creakier than the NJ show, but sounded better than the previous night. While it was the same set as the NJ show, the show ran a little shorter by my count. His main guitar guy Doyle plays his guitar left handed and upside down, with the fat strings on the bottom. He's a real bad ass blues player that's for sure.

The sound in general felt fuller and centered, and the quad effects were nice but not in circular like the Jersey show. The speaker set up was front left and right, with speaker towers on the left and right sides of the floor speakers. The sound was much clearer in general I thought.

The fans for this show were a far better crowd than the NJ show, and the annoying sing alongs thankfully didn't happen tonight. Rog, in a unscripted moment near the end thanked the crowd, and he seemed all choked up saying the show tonight had been exceptional for him. He didn't say anything like that in NJ. The Jersey crowd was stinky and overzealous and it I think it affected the performance. The NY crowd was alot cooler and seemed more there to listen to music than to scream like an idiot. Im glad that I saw this show tonight, cause it 100% made up for my night in PNC stink center. He should still ditch some of the hits though........