After a little uneasiness and the sting of a £200 ticket price, I saw Roger Waters live today and it was genuinely utterly absolutely incredible.
It hit all the notes that I expected from a Pink Floyd-adjacent show. In place of huge lighting rigs, it was eight vast LED screens arranged in a cross above a stage in the centre of the arena showing: the names of people unlawfully killed (Anne Frank, Breona Taylor, Geroge Floyd), images from the history of Pink Floyd (though all carefully chosen or cropped to avoid ever showing David Gilmour), videos made for the song (Comfortably Numb and Two Suns in the Sunset), or just effects to add to the ambiance. The attention to detail for the production is incredible.
It wasn't perfect. On the heels of his latest controversy (accusations of anti-semitism because of a segment of the show that portrays a dictator which is easy to find offensive when you remove the context of the storyline of The Wall, and a totally fabricated claim that an inflatable pig had a Star or David on it), Roger aired his frustration and anger with a 10 minute rant. He also chose to close the show with a new, slow song which a lot of people took as a cue to leave early and beat the traffic. None of this detracted from the rest of the show though; a mixture of sure-to-please Pink Floyd songs and some of his better solo work.
I have mixed feelings about Roger Waters. He's very good at putting his foot in it when being interviewed, but so much of the imagery of the show frames him as a humanist who wants to stand up for the disaffected. While he can claim the bulk of the responsibility for some of my absolute favourite music and a flawless 4 album run (Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall), his ego refuses to allow him to accept that he couldn't have done it alone. He was never a skilled musician in the way that Gilmour and Wright were, but he is untouchable when it comes to concept. Those albums needed both to be what they are.
During 'In The Flesh' there is the lyric: 'And they sent us along as a surrogate band, We're gonna find out where you fans really stand'. For Roger to be the only member of Pink Floyd on the stage and to be playing bass or guitar and singing for the bulk of the show but always having someone double his playing, it turned out the fans couldn't care less. I'm certain that more large acts use backing as an aid to performance than any would like to admit, but if it makes a show that's one of many on a huge budget tour better, I'm ok with it.
I really probably shouldn't go to another show on this tour. I had floor seats which meant looking up to the stage and screen and having an inflatable sheep a couple of feet above my head so I am curious to see the same show from a relatively cheap seat, to be able to see the entire production from above and take it in as a single entity.