So tonight I went to see Roger Waters The Wall tour. It was completely remarkable and probably something I will remember forever. Also me and the guy I went with were the youngest people in the audience, which was sad. I made some observations on this whole thing and I am going to share them all with you. Prepare for an essay.
I am glad to note that Roger Waters still has the voice of a god, and I think that he gave his all tonight at Bercy. He definitely retains a passion for music and his vocals still can blow your head off. When he was singing there were very few moments were I was not waving my hands about in the air in his praise. He also remains a solid bass player and he ran around the stage and made lots of eye contact. I had a feeling that he wanted to counteract the relatively sterile setlist and the fence keeping us away from him with a fiery passion. I say the setlist was sterile because while The Wall is a classic album performing it night after night must get a little dull. Overall the vocals and bass of Waters were incredible and incendiary. Roger certainly proved to me that he is still a golden god. At one point he sang However this god is a jerk. He never introduced any of his band members save for the guy who did the Gilmore vocals, and he got barely more than having his name yelled out by Waters.
The rest of the band (none of whom were introduced) was very good, the solos were spot on and in general the songs were perfectly done. The Gilmore vocals were excellent and I really enjoyed them. The guy who sang for Gilmore really captured his flair. The solos were also mindblowing, the Comfortably Numb solo blew my head so far into space I will be lucky for it to fall back to earth in the next three months. The drums were also good however the stage set and the wall typically hid the drummer, this was a tad disappointing but it did not bother me too much. Still I feel that the rest of the band could have had a more prominent spot. I understand that this is Waters solo tour but still, the other band members were practically completely hidden by the stage set.
Ahh the stage set, this was one of my favorite parts of the evening. It was incredible, the building up of the wall which was done in the first half of the show was really well done. The wall was built up at key moments during songs and it added a great feel to the show. The inflatable dolls also made the show awesome because they brought some of the things projected onto the screens and onto the wall become more realistic. The projections were excellent they told a story about the injustice in the world and they preached and anti-governmental message. All in all the stage set was pretty amazing.
Truly there are some memories from this concert that I will never lose. When Roger sang out “Mama should I trust the government?” thousands of people screamed “NO, NEVER”. I will also never forget how he brought out his fake machine gun when he was acting as the evil dictator version of Pink. When he was shooting at people I yelled really loudly and he shot directly at me. In addition his arms crossed pose that he made to emulate the marching hammers is a pose I will never forget. What I really want to say is that Roger despite his obnoxious side did indeed create a wonderful evening for me that I will never forget, and while he may have lost some humility he still puts on a great show. Some of his fans however, are really annoying.
Me and my friend Michael were trying to get closer to Roger Waters. We were sneaking through people to try to get closer to the center stage. Then people started to complain. One man said, “If everyone tried to get close like you guys then it would be insane”. But my question is, isn't that the point? Isn't the entire point of Rock and Roll to be insane, to vent off anger and aggression and hate? If I can not be insane at a rock concert and try to get closer to one of my god's where can I be insane? Aren't I allowed to enjoy a concert as I want too? And Anyway, you guys all have a right to come and try and steal my space at the head of the pit, in fact I invite you to come challenge me. This is not CLASSICAL MUSIC! THIS IS ROCK AND ROLL! BEING AT A ROCK CONCERT IS AN INVITATION FOR INSANTIY AND YOU NEED TO BE ALLOWED TO ROCK! I don't want to ruin anyone's fun but really, if somebody wants to get closer to a rock star then let them! LET EVERYONE ROCK IN THE WAY THAT SEEMS FIT TO THEM!
All in all this was a great show with some slightly frustrating points, still I would strongly recommend going as my fan problems were probably just because the people were French.
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