The Wall

    Heather and I attended Roger Waters the Wall concert last night in Buffalo. I have seen hundreds of concerts, ranging from Aretha Franklin to Cannibal Corpse, and this was without a doubt the best concert I have ever seen. The show was a triumph of sound, lighting and effects on a level I did not think could exist in an arena environment. It was also an experience, just to be in the presence again of Waters, who I had the pleasure of seeing in 2007, on his Dark Side of the Moon tour.
    The Wall is an album that I used to listen to as a teenager, but really never fully understood its meaning until just recently. I only listened to the "hits" and rarely paid attention to the story driven songs in between. Back in late 2009 it was announced that Roger Waters would be touring the Wall once again, to celebrate its 30 year anniversary. When the album was released in 1979 the subsequent tour only played in 4 cities throughout the world and was a financial disaster for the band. It was a huge undertaking, and I don't believe the technology was there to properly show Rogers vision. This new tour would travel the world in every major city, and was proposed to be an amazing visual and auditory experience. I was excited to see the show, but forgot about it, until I read a news release online in April, announcing ticket sales. I signed up on Rogers site to be put into a "lottery" to be one of the first to get tickets in Buffalo. A week later I received an email from his web administrators, saying I was selected and I could order my tickets. I was thrilled, and ordered the top tier tickets, though I realized I was in the second round of pre-sale tickets. Our seats were good, but not spectacular, section 106, row 20, but I was just happy to go. 

     I decided I wanted Heather to go to the show with me, even though she was not a huge Pink Floyd fan, at that point. My stipulation was that she had to watch "The Wall" film with me and do her own research into its meaning. She actually taught me some information that I had never known. The Wall is a metaphor for complete isolation. Its inception resulted from an unruly fan back in 1977, on Pink Floyd's In The Flesh tour. This "fan" baited Rogers until there was a confrontation between them. He developed the idea of having a wall between the band and the audience, and went quite deep into the human psyche in the album and movie.
     We arrived at HSBC arena at 7:15 or so, having driven through busy Columbus Weekend traffic, and the usual Buffalo chaos. We hit the will call booth, grabbed the tickets and eventually found our seats. Now we could relax and take in what we were about to see. During the time before the show started, there was a man dressed as a bum that had a shopping cart, with a sign that said, "Will Work For Food" on one side, and "Need Money for Booze and Hookers" on the other. He took pictures with people and greeted them. Around 8pm the PA was playing various movie and tv audio clips. The cool thing was, there were speakers spread throughout the entire arena in a surround sound configuration. So each clip was playing on different sets of speakers. An ingenious way to make sure the whole system was functioning no doubt. Around 8:15 the lights went down and the arena was filled with low hums and build up music. The bum, now under a spotlight, walked up to the stage and pulled out a dummy from his cart and threw it on the stage, a representation of Pink from the movie. The crowd went crazy, and when he disappeared, the band came on stage, and launched into the start of the album, with In The Flesh?.

     The sound was beyond clear. The mix was the best I had ever heard. Every instrument had its place and was audible. I brought ear-plugs as I normally do, but didn't need them at all. We saw Metallica in the same venue earlier in the year, and the sound was a big muddy and distorted mess. I was nervous it would be the same for this concert, and my fears were abated during the first few notes. At the end of the first song, there was a dazzling display of pyrotechnics all over the stage on a level I had never seen before. Constant sparks and it ended with an actual plane flying from the rear of the arena down to the stage, and an explosion. Absolutely mind-blowing.
     The Wall is split into two albums, and the band did two sets with an intermission in-between. During the first set the wall was slowly built while the band was performing. Stage crew were continually placing pieces of the wall while songs were playing. The show was masterful at drawing attention away from certain technical aspects such as this. The Wall itself was used as an impressive backdrop for some absolutely amazing video pieces and imagery. As it was filled in, it became even more impressive. It was to the point where the last song of the first set, Goodbye Cruel World, Roger was singing only through one small piece that was left to

be built. There was a light behind him, and as soon as he said "Goodbye" the remaining piece was filled in,

the wall lit up with "INTERMISSION" and the band took a 20 minute break. During the intermission, photo's and stories were displayed on the wall of local soldiers killed in action, submitted by fans prior to the show. Reading these stories made the intermission go by quickly, and before we knew it the house lights went down again, and the band launched into Hey You.

      The second set started with the band completely behind the wall. But soon Roger came out to the front and in certain songs, like Comfortably Numb, the guitar and other vocalists were playing from the top of the wall. Later in the show the band actually had a small setup in front of The Wall. This was unexpected and very cool for us to see the band in action. The conclusion was obviously very moving, with the Trial ending in the destruction of the wall. When the wall came down, there was just an amazing sense of seeing something that is just so special its hard to describe. We are trying to think of ways to see the show again, it was just that amazing.