Roger Waters - The Wall

I have been a Pink Floyd fan ever since high school and I started to listen to Roger Waters' solo stuff with his album Radio KAOS. I wish that Pink Floyd didn't have their rift because I think they are one of the few bands where the whole is greater than the sum of their parts. I enjoy Roger Waters' solo music and I enjoy it when he does Pink Floyd stuff. Well I must since this is the fifth time I've seen him in concert.

A few months ago, I heard that he was going to tour with the Wall which I thought was cool. Then I found out that he was going to actually build the wall like he did when the album first came out which I thought was even cooler. The only way it would have been cooler is if I found out that David Gilmour and Nick Mason would be touring with him (that didn't come to fruition but two out of three ain't bad).

Anyways, I apologize for the general crapiness of these pictures as they were taken with my camera phone. I wish I realized that I probably could have taken my proper camera in but I guess I'm glad I didn't because I would have spent more time behind the viewfinder and less time watching the show.

The Wall was originally released in 1979 as a double album. It mainly deals with alienation and the loss of Roger Waters' dad. It is probably the quintessential Pink Floyd album although it's not my favorite Pink Floyd album (that would probably be Meddle). It also deals with the walls that we put up between ourselves and others. At some point Roger came up with the idea to build a wall between the musicians and the audience. Because of this, the concert was only done in Los Angeles, New York and London. It was later done in 1990 in Berlin after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It was probably this album that started the wheels in motion for the breakup of Pink Floyd.

This is the opening song, "In the Flesh?". As you can see the Wall is forming on both sides of the stage. Roger is dressed up like a fascist dictator.

At the end of "In the Flesh?", a Stuka crashes into the wall. It looked pretty cool in person and unfortunately, this picture doesn't do it any justice.

This was during "Another Brick in the Wall Part I". The pictures are of people that have been killed either in combat or as the result of terrorism.

This is "Another Brick in the Wall Part II". There was a group of kids singing the chorus.

This is during "Goodbye Blue Sky". It was kind of cool as the bombers filled the screen.

This was during "Goodbye Cruel World" as the last brick is added to the Wall. The next song would be played entirely behind the wall with only a little crack allowing some of the light behind to come through.

This was during the Intermission, the pictures are of people killed in combat or terrorism.

This was during "Vera Lynn" and "Bring the Boys Back Home". The next song would be "Comfortably Numb", unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of it. It had Roger Waters alone in front of the Wall and his guitarist playing a solo on top of the Wall. This would be reminiscent of David Gilmour doing it in the original tour (the guitarist was good but not as good as David Gilmour).

This was during "In the Flesh!". Again Roger donned the dictator outfit.

This was during "Waiting for the Worms". Roger was still in the dictator outfit.

And near the end of the show, the wall collapsed. Unfortunately this picture doesn't do it much justice. I couldn't get a shot of the wall in pieces as my battery was in the process of dying,.

All in all, it was a very cool show and I'm glad I went. I seriously hope that this isn't Roger's last tour but I have a feeling it may be.