okpfloyd

Roger Waters - May 2nd at the SuperPages.com Center. Dallas, Tx

More than less attending this show realized the political and religious sting Roger Waters was about to lay on them. Most were probably there for The Dark Side of the Moon but ended up being subjected with the dark side of the today’s realities. Including the W “Mission Accomplished” picture (which received a loud boo) to the huge floating pink pig inscribed with messages like “impeach Bush now”, the humorous tactical location of Cheney’s name on the pigs nuggets, and an “All religions divide” message on the pigs side. It floated around then was released and floated away…just as probably planned. One positive message was the Obama inscription on the pig’s belly.

While I relate well to Mr. Water’s messages and angst against the current leadership, I was there for the music…I got that and more, anytime a song had a pointed message there were always pictorial stabs...Roger seemed pissed off... ...many fans just sat there in semi-shock at the attacks…which are well deserved. Even tho~ so many of the songs’ messages were 30 years old they still translated to the present day very well. Perfect!

The show began with In the Flesh (The Wall), rousing the audience to their feet to do the sign. He then sang Mother from the same album. The sound was perfect and it was to be a great night. Roger was backed by an 8 piece band with three soulful blues singers. The venue was set up using the full quad effect that came across incredibly well.

Roger then visited an oldie off of Saucer Full of Secrets with Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun. I had a few people ask me if this was new….the attendees were at all ages with many born after Dark Side was made (a statement in itself about the importance and longevity of this piece)

Then there came hit after hit starting with Shine On You Crazy Diamond (while showing pics of the band’s founder Syd Barrett on the screen). From the same album, Wish You Were, here he played Have a Cigar, and then the title song, Tho~ they had to endure several moments of feedback during Wish You Were Here, they still finished it beautifully.

Roger then re-visited the last Pink Floyd album (they made together): From the Final Cut:The Fletcher Memorial Home and South Hampton Dock, both anti-war songs with yet more stabs at the dippic.

From his solo album Amused to Death he played Perfect Sense and then a newer song from a more recent recording called Leaving Beruit…he told a great story of his hitch-hiking out of Beruit and being treated very well by the people. Perfect Sense had a killer video…a sub sinking a gulf platform in a stadium (world stage)…uh, to keep oil production low and prices high maybe? That was a song he wrote after the first Gulf War…and here again, repeating history so Roger again, points that out.

Then came a cut off of Animals, Sheep…again, how fitting. This was when they released the pig. The thing came right at our section and all screamed in horror…just for fun.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That was all part one of the show. After a short break came the Dark Side set played in it’s entirety.

Tho~ David Gilmore’s sappy voice and bluesy guitar were absent the band did a great job re-producing this work of art. The quad sound and the laser light show (A large pyramid thing that looked like the Dark Side album object) was hypnotic….the 3 color laser light panned wide and floating among the smoke and gave me (and I hope other masters of the obvious one’s) the sensation of floating in the clouds…like I wasn’t already there? Great video for On the Run…and fitted the story everyone always suspected…incredible vocals for Great Gig in the Sky, I never thought I’d hear more soul and energy in that song as it’s done on the album…but that was achieved by this beautiful woman. Need to find out who she is.

That was my second time hearing Dark Side in Dallas….the “other” Floyd did that while Learning to Fly in ’89 at Reunion Arena…I loved both equally. There are no "sides" with me on this. The Floyd, while being loathingly splinterned, have still all been some of the best musicians of our times. Great recordings bot both "sides"

Encore! Another Brick in the Wall, Then yet another few pointy tunes from The Wall, still so relevant 27 years later…Vera which led into Bring The Boys Back Home…"don’t leave the children on their on….bring the boys back home".

What a trip, OKC to Dallas….right through Taintland (cause taint nuthin’ there)…dinner, a monster concert (of an artist I’ve wanted to see since 1975)….then after the show it took about 45 minutes to find our car…then congested midnight traffic in Dallas…..copped a cup of coffee and a banana moon pie, bolted and arrived home at 3:30…

Still sated and comfortably numb,

ô¿ô

__________________
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act”.

George Orwell

guest1234567

This sounds like the same show he did at the Hollywood Bowl last year. Did he do that Beirut song?

Non-musical higlight of the concert for me:
I was double-fisting beers on the way back to my seat and I asked some guy for a hit of some weed because I couldn't smoke with my kids sitting next to me (btw, they're all college age but I'm still not smoking around them). The guy looks at my grey hair and yells, "Hey I'm smoking with Phil Donahue!"

(and another btw, my hair isn't that grey.)

BleedingPinky

You can always dye your hair. L´oreal shampoo smells really good.

guest1234567

Heh, too much work for me. Grey's OK.

CosmicRocker

dark side is as ageless as the moon itself

__________________

"Hey now Baby, get into my big black car.
I wanna just show you, what my politics are"

"I'm a political man and I practice what I preach
So don't deny me baby, not while you're in my reach."

Politician - Cream

Chungar

Nice review of Dallas - I caught the Denver show prior - Saw him in Tampa last year and it was so good I had to go back.
Excellent Show.

okpfloyd

Thanks, Yup, it was a bigger than life event. Roger is in great shape and I hope he tours again more in the US....kinda rare for him. Good to see there are many who will go the distance to experience the mind blowing show he performs....(a lot of out-of-town plates in the parking lot at the Dallas show), the people beside us drove from Tulsa to see it...

He's playing in Houston tonight...then he's off to europe..Glad I finally got to see the man...worth the trek for sure.

__________________
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act”.

George Orwell

slowhand

Sounds like you had a great time Floyd..Sounds like a great show..Ive never seen Pink Floyd, and I really wish that I had

Waters has written some masterpiece anti war songs..Fletcher Memorial is my favorite..They are ageless, just change the names, and it all applies to today

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Bush and Cheney
Mr Sharon and friend Mr Blair and paisley
Mr Putin and party
The ghost of Oliver North
The memories of Reagan


What have we done?..Tony, what have we done?..What have we done to England?

W.M.DEEEZ

Waters is damaged goods...as such, he is one of my favorite cynics. I think of him in the same vane as Pete Townshend...another nut/genius.

I've seen Waters, as well as Gilmour's Floyd...

Funny, Waters brings 3 guitarists on the road, but they can't make the sound we're looking for. As with most of the bands we've been going to see for decades, when they can't coexist anymore, we suffer.

We go to the shows, partly out of tradition, partly to try to grasp a piece of our memories that we aren't quite ready to let go of.


We always leave with the feeling that the show was great, but...

In Waters we find biting lyrics, that are delivered from the heart. He never mails it in, and we can...quite frankly...feel his angst.

I saw them (the real Floyd) twice in 77, (July 1 & 4) and he (Waters) was disgusted with the NYC union lighting crew. They wouldn't allow the band's boys to do the show, and he wasn't about to let us leave without knowing that it was made a mess by these union idiots.


That's why we love Waters... everything is an issue.


Great review Floyd...glad you had a good time. I saw him outdoors about 5 years ago, and it poured. They went offstage mid song, when the rain started coming down sideways. After about 1 1/2 hour wait, they came back out, and picked up from the note they left off at. Again...I loved the show, but yearned for that sound that was missing.

Can't they all get along?

__________________
Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got til it's gone

okpfloyd

Thanks, oh, and since I was still so burnt I forgot to add that the final song was Comfortable Numb...how fitting..drats I never got the chance to see the the Floyd intact...tho~ I feel like I've had the experiences I desired...fucking A...to be alive and to hear the masters still doing their thing is way past good enough for me, even in parts.

Tho~ Dave's missing guitar licks was obvious they did very well...Roger being the perfectionist he is you know your getting it played as close as possible to the original experience...or maybe he's saying, "I'll have it played the goddamned thing the way I want"...that's more likely...lol

Especially exciting was seeing the guy who's brilliant mind created this mind-fuck-in-your-face assault on the sheeps "realities"...which is pretty true to the day's fucked up situation...there were so many shocked people there...fuck 'em...lol...the thing they hate most is that:

"It all makes perfect sense"

__________________
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act”.

George Orwell