The Wall, dec 18th 2010

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   OK, it took me quiet a long time to make my review, but when I was writing it right after the show something happened when I was just about to finish it and lost it all, and since it was somewhat long (sorry to bore you with it), I took my time to write it again (this time in Word, so I wouldn't loose it again).

I must say it was really an impressive show, and even my wife, who doesn't like prog so much, and is not particularly a fan of Pink Floyd (though it's one of the prog bands she accepts best) was mindblown with the show (she talks about it more enthusiastically than myself).

Now, to begin with, this is as much a show as it is a concert, and for most of the show it is rather difficult to see the musicians (or even completely impossible) because of the very nature of the show.  So, if the most important part of the concert for someone is to see the band play, this may not be the best concert to attend.  The band was really good, and the guitar players delivered Gilmour's parts in a very enjoyable way.  Waters was singing rather good, I really expected him to be singing worse (but how much of that may have been lip-sinc I don't really know, there's been speculation about it being used in this shows); as a matter of fact, Waters did most of the main vocals throughout the show, both his original ones and Gilmour's ones (except for "Comfortably Numb" and "In the Flesh" as far as I remember).  The backing singers and the one who did Gilmour's parts rather disappointed me in some parts, but in others they did a good job (I would rather Roger would have chosen 2 male choir singers and 2 female ones instead of the 4 male, so that he could have used the females to sing the mother's and wife's parts on the songs "Mother" and "The Trial").

WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD

The show began in an explosive manner (literally) with "In the Flesh?" (of course), with lots of fire coming from the floor (as if the stage was being bombarded and attacked by machine guns from battle jets).  The sound effects of the plane and the shooting in quadraphonic is impressive.  And then the song ends with a plane coming from behind the audience and crashing behind the stage.  For “The Thin Ice”, on the central circle screen were being shown images with short bios of victims from war (afterwards each projection was placed on a brick from what is originally built of the wall at the beginning of the show), beginning with his own father.

By the time of "The happiest days of our Lives" the inflatable "Teacher" comes to stage (being just about as tall as the wall itself), stealing some of the attention from the band on that song and on Another Brick part 2; the guitar solos on this last song were pretty cool too.  Then, Waters addressed the audience telling us he would next play “Mother”, using some footage of him singing that song on the Earl's court original concert by Pink Floyd.  The song was played in a very soft way, and the projections were black and white and grainy.  During this song the puppet of The Mother appeared just looking to the audience from behind the wall.

“Goodbye Blue Sky” featured projections of bombers throwing all kind of religious and corporative symbols.  “Empty Spaces/What Shall” we do now was played in a very similar way from the Berlin show, with the strong guitars being played at the beginning instead of the bass guitar.  “Young Lust” was perhaps the best version I have heard yet of this song, played in a very powerful way, and including the keyboard solo at the end, but accompanied by some really cool guitars, making a very good effect.

“One of my turns” was played just very similar to the original, as well as “Don’t Leave me now”… however for this song the Puppet of The Wife makes it’s appearance.  Then “Another Brick in the Wall 3”, once again played very well; “The Last Few Bricks” segment was played in a rather similar way to the original Pink Floyd wall shows, but with the powerful guitars at the end (just as with the Berlin show)… and then “Good Bye Blue Sky”, and the last brick completes The Wall.

During the intermission, more bios from war victims are shown and added to the bricks of the wall.

The beginning of the second half was a bit frustrating because, of course, the wall is already completely built, and the band is hid from view for “Hey You”, which I would have loved to have been able to see the band play… but of course I already knew that this would happen in the show.  For “Is there anybody out there” a few bricks were removed so that one could see the guitar player (but unfortunately, the angle from where I was wouldn’t let me see much of him anyway).  And for “Nobody Home”, several bricks are removed in order to reveal the representation of a hotel room in which Roger is sitting in a couch and singing (just as is shown on the Berlin show).

“Comfortably Numb” was superbly played too.  First, Roger got in front of the wall to sing his parts (I was a bit disappointed that he didn’t put on the Doctor costume), then the other singer appeared on top of the wall to sing Gilmour’s parts (though I’m afraid to say, his voice couldn’t really compete with Gilmour’s).  Then Dave Kilminster also appeared on top of the wall to play his guitars.  On the second guitar solo is where Kilminster really showed off… it was awesome.  And as a matter of fact, he played it in a rather similar way to what Gilmour did on “Delicate sound of Thunder” and “Pulse” (which is just the way I like that song).

“The Show Must Go On”, was sung mainly by the backing vocalists, and I’m afraid I was somewhat disappointed with the way they pulled this off… they just don’t sound quiet right.  Then, “In the Flesh” was once again quiet cool and powerful (and here Waters did put on a black leather coat and sunglasses to take the dictator look) , and here the backing vocalists did sound pretty well, and the whole band came out to the front of the wall to play in full view once again…  though lots of the attention on this song and the next was stolen by the inflatable pig flying all over the audience (this time it was a black pig full of graffiti).  Run Like Hell was a very cool version too, with some somewhat psychedelic additions; one of the best versions since the original versions, and with Waters and the other singer shifting turns on leads, just as in the original.  Waiting for the Worms was really strong too, with the whole crowd chanting the “Hammer, hammer” at the end of it to great effect.  From the beginning of this song, the crowd began lighting and unlighting their lighteners at the rhythm of the song (and as a matter of fact, at the end of the show Waters himself commented on how he enjoyed this, and how he had enjoyed this same thing done several years before on another one of his tours on Mexico, and how he had never witnessed that been done on another country… though I think I myself believe I have seen this done on some other DVDs… perhaps it was the matching of the lightning and unlightning at the rhythm of the music…).

Now, for the end of the show, he performed The Trial, singing it all by himself (all the orchestrations obviously recorded), and with scenes from this part of the movie projected on The Wall (while the rest of the band gets out of the stage)…  I guess it would have been cool if they had used all the puppets once again in this song, but well… too bad.  Then the Wall comes down and the final song, “Outside the Wall” is played, again by the whole band, many of them with somewhat different instruments, and then Waters gives his farewell speech, and the band leaves the stage playing.

I just read on a Pink Floyd site, that the next night (Sunday 19th), the band decided to play an extra song.  There’s been on Youtube, for some time now, a modified version of Another Brick in the Wall part 2, done by someone from a Spanish speaking country (I believe Mexico itself…), in which they play the song with the lyrics of our equivalent to the “Happy Birthday” song (I dare say that the lyrics are a little bit more inspired than it’s English counterpart).  However, the thing is, Roger decided to play (and sing) that version of his song on stage… he said he hoped it was someone’s birthday on that very day.  So, it would seem, Roger has got some sense of humor himself.