the mother of all concerts...

This last weekend, the B-rad and i made our great excursion to the land of Cows. The reason was to spend some time with Roger Waters. If you don't know Roger Waters, you probably have heard some of his music.... here's a few gems.... "Money", "Shine on You Crazy Diamond"....or how about "Another Brick in the Wall" and if you haven't heard of Pink Floyd you must be living under a rock! The concert was, honestly, one of the best experiences of my life. i can hardly even put into words how amazing the show was, from the very beginning to the end. it was like, you never wanted the night to end, ever!

The stadium was packed, you didn't need to partake in any kind of wacky tabacky....there was enough in the air to incapacitate an average touring funk band.

The show was mind blowing from the very beginning. With the realistic, larger than life, we all thought it was real backdrop. There was no opening band, only Roger. Just Roger and his amazing band. The first half of the show was phenomenal - sort of a Pink Floyd's Greatest hits type of show. He opened the show with "In the Flesh Part II" and i seriously thought that B-rad's mind was going to EXPLODE... he was instantly on his feet screaming!! The screen was dark, and the spotlight was directly on Roger - What a fab way to start the show... "So ya...Thought ya...might like to.....Go to the Show!". I have goosbumps, just remembering it! There were lights and pyrotechnics...

Then they played "Mother" and there were amazing visuals, which you can somewhat see here in this pic.

More songs included were "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" which had 'amazing' visuals of the cosmos...it's not exactly the same without David Gilmour - who's guitar solos make me all giddy and warm and fuzzy inside...but it was still very awesome. Luckily the band's guitar player had the good mind to learn David Gilmour's solos to a FREAKIN' TEE!!



and also "Wish You Were Here" which was a very nice tribute to Syd Barrett - One of the founding members of Pink Floyd who essentially went mad and was committed into an asylum. This is also what the album "The Wall" was based on.


One of the highlights was one of Roger's new songs. He tells the story of when he was a teen travelling with some mates in Lebanon, and the car breaks down. He decides to Hitchhike back to London and is picked up by a man and taken in for the night. The song was accompanied by a comic following the lyrics of the song. He is very Anti-War, and Anti-Bush. as you can see by some of the lyrics here:

after an amazing first set which seemed to fly by, Roger informed the screaming crowds that they would be taking a fifteen minute break, then they'd be back to play "Dark Side of the Moon".

The concert, seriously, was so fucking wicked!! And the music was loud, but not so loud that we had to scream to talk to each other... Roger thought of everything....everything.....

Not only were the music and visuals and lights and explosions awesome, we got to have a 15 minute break to go pee, get more Stadium Beer, and discuss the past set and how fucking awesome it was and how we never want it to end, ever!! And also to smell some more of the skunk-like air...ahem. yes. smell.

Dark Side of the Moon, oh my Lord.... i mean, how cool is it that i was able to be present for a live performance of this entire ALBUM????!!?!?!?!?!?!?. Here's what wikipedia has to say about the Dark Side if you've never really had a chance to take a real good listen:

The Dark Side of the Moon deals conceptually with the pressures of modern life that can drive normal human beings to insanity: materialism, the increased pace of life and travel, the encroachment of old age and death, and the inhumanities of society and armed conflict. These themes are not just delivered by words but are suggested with the sounds of the album. For example, the sound of an airplane crash in the track "On the Run" can represent a fear of flight (Wright suggested this could bring fear of death for some). "Time" discusses how quickly life can and will slip by those who are unaware of it and uses actual alarm bells to wake the listener at the beginning of the track. "The Great Gig in the Sky," which had a working title of "The Mortality Sequence," comments on the nature of death as a sad state of being, evidenced by the sounds of the screaming woman throughout this generally instrumental track. The lyrics and sound effects of "Money" flippantly endorse greed for ironic effect, and states that it is "the root of all evil today." "Us and Them" deals with interpersonal conflict, the insanity of warfare and xenophobia. The meaning of "Any Colour You Like" is not as clear as the other songs, but it is thought to represent the fear of taking risks when making choices—the song title came from an answer frequently given by a studio technician to questions put to him: "You can have it any colour you like," which was a reference to Henry Ford's (apocryphal) description of the Model T: "You can have it any color you like, as long as it's black." "Brain Damage" reaches out to the outsiders ("lunatics") who may be the only people that recognise society's faults. It also is about their former member Syd Barrett, who was forced to leave the band due to mental illness. Finally, "Eclipse" describes the true essence of a person through the impact they have left on others.

Okay, so now to give you a quick blurby recap after reading all of that.... So, possibly one of the best parts of the Dark Side was the look on Roger's face as he played. He didn't stop smiling, not for one second!! And LORDY...the woman who belted out "The Great Gig in the Sky" made my head and heart simultaneously implode, i was bawling like a fucking baby. Earlier that day, i had made a comment to B-rad and our friends that i hoped that whoever learned the song does it justice, and how if i was ever to perform it, i would learn every last nuance of Clare Torry's original version.... and the woman who sang it at the concert!?!?!?!???? MUTHAFUCKINPERFECT IN EVERY WAYYYY!!!! soooo soooo soooo amazing. so amazing. and when the prism came down from the ceiling with the iconic light and rainbow....bathing us all in the rainbow... we knew it was coming to a close.... and it was exciting and sad at the same time. and when the show was over, i have to say that i have never...ever....experienced such amazing thundering applause and energy! I felt like it would never end... i thought that the experience of the TOOL concert was amazing, this was that to the Nth Power!!

When they finally came back in for the encore, they started out with "Vera" from the wall and led into "Bring the Boys Back Home" where they showed images of all the troops in Iraq/Afghanistan... with anti-war imagery. When you remember that Roger Water's father was killed in the Second World War. They closed out the concert with "Comfortably Numb", and again, i know i've said it a million times, but it was so sooo good. So good.

This was the best musical 3 hour Experience of my entire life, and i know that every single show i see now will pale in comparison to this show.

so awesome

all the photos in this post were, unfortunately, not taken by me. They were very thankfully Borrowed from various Flickr members. Just so's ya know. :D

i am still reliving this concert over and over in my mind. Luckily, for us, the entire tour is being recorded for a Dark Side of the Moon 2007 World Tour DVD....which we will purchase the moment it is released... i can already hardly wait.

and one of the best parts about this entire concert, was seeing how much my husband B-rad loved each and every moment. Roger Waters is his personal Lord and Saviour.... he was like a kid in some kind of a candy store.