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At age 68, Roger Waters - of the now defunct progressive psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd - proved to be energized and in top form for his multi-media extravaganza presentation of his personal masterpiece, The Wall in Raleigh at PNC Arena July 9th. In 1994, Pink Floyd performed in Raleigh to a packed Carter- Finley Stadium. David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright went on performing to sold out arenas and stadiums around the world for several years after Waters departed to make The Wall the focal point of his career.
Backed by a team of top flight musicians, every track from
the original 1977 concept album was performed flawlessly in sync with the
visually striking animation and theatrics that comprise the experience of the
film and the album. Waters transcended time and space as a tortured child who
suffers the loss of his father, takes abuse from his teacher and smothering by
his overprotective mother.
A metaphorical wall is built brick by brick in his mind -and
on the stage -separating the audience from the band and isolating the artist
from reality. By the time the wall is completely constructed, both figuratively
and physically, Waters has transformed into the adult rock star demigod “Pink”,
donning a Gestapo style uniform, shouting racial epithets and blasting a
machine gun at the audience. Theatrically stunning and musically phenomenal,
The Wall came to life before the eyes of the audience with memorable animation
and sound bites from the famous 1982 live action/animated musical film written
by Waters and starring Bob Geldof.
Everyone in attendance knew this was a once in lifetime
event since the chances of a performance of this magnitude coming back around
were slim. Waters toured The Wall during his years after leaving Pink Floyd to
smaller audiences with a meager budget on a much smaller scale. For the last
three years, he and his crew of hundreds have toured the world mounting the
seemingly impossible feat of building and performing a production that is
visually, musically and theatrically stunning each time, tearing it down and
doing it all over again night after night.
Waters’ personal political agenda was by no means kept
secret. Ironically, his anti-capitalist message was projected brightly to an
audience of die- hard fans who paid upwards of $150.00 for tickets. But for the
true believers in the audience, every element of both the album and the film
were reproduced in perfect order, including new twists on the changing world
climate. Images of dead soldiers from past violent conflicts were spattered
everywhere, along with politically provocative symbols such as the dollar sign,
the hammer and sickle and headshots of Chairmen Mao, George W. Bush and other
“tyrants”. Waters’ political leanings only reached the point of annoyance with
the song “Mother” which he dedicated to a victim of senseless violence
somewhere in South America.
In accordance with the film, Waters translated the innocence
of childhood and the experimentation of adolescence and undertakes a close
probe into the crossed over adult mind of the suffering rock star tuned cultist
leader.
The climactic moment, when each attendee regressed and
connected on a child- like-level, occurred during “Comfortably Numb”, an
obvious favorite and defining anthem of Pink Floyd. “Another Brick in the Wall
Part 2” also brought out the child in everyone as a group of local children
appeared on stage and chorused “we don’t need no education”, danced and pointed
at the unforgettable sadistic schoolmaster re-created in larger than life
puppet form.
Pink is pilloried for his crimes during “The Trial”, a frightening
animated song in which our hero is exposed for all of his sins and labeled
insane or “over the rainbow”. The monstrous judge’s order to tear “down the
wall” echoed through PNC Arena as the complete structure on stage came
crumbling to the ground, shooting smoke and pyrotechnics in all
directions.
Like past productions of The Wall, enormous white bricks
were stacked slowly by the crew until the band was essentially hidden from
view, unless on stage for chosen tracks, atop the mighty structure or through
one of the empty spaces. Animation from the film, made famous by the creative
mind of Gerald Scarfe, including marching hammers, carnivorous, vaginal flowers
and teethed airplanes, were splashed on the white bricks, along with an updated
swath of symbols and war photographs dating back to World War I. An enormous
pig was flown around the arena providing all in attendance a glimpse of Pink
Floyd as they once were 20 years ago.
Though Waters’ political agenda was made clear as expected,
the fans appreciated The Wall for whatever deep meaning it instilled in them
when they first gave the album a spin or viewed the film.
— Dan
Reeves
