Oh, Oh Oh, Roger, Roger! ...sometimes your own shadow reaches your imperfection...two concerts that could have been epic within a let's say a little questionable framework of their new interpretation of The Dark Side Of The Moon of which each listener can have their own opinion on the As a result, it seemed a bit rarefied for me, in a way that was too exaggerated by part of the audience.
We attended the second concert he offered at the beautiful The London Palladium theater in London and in this performance hardly a sign of disapproval was heard, but the day before, based on comments and some written notes that we have read, there were quite a few when people The audience yelled at him and recriminated him and Waters still encouraged them to leave the venue if they didn't like it, so it seems that some even did, but as we mentioned, this is only from what they heard, since on the second day they did not We noticed none of it, perhaps because the audience was already more prepared for what they were going to witness.
The security measures were extreme, since both mobile phones and smart watches had to be placed in a closed security bag that were opened at the end of the show and we did not receive the ticket until 24 hours before the event through a code that had to be scanned at the time. to get to the theater, it is sad that a ticket at prices that are too expensive, it is not that you can no longer have it as a souvenir, but that you cannot even print it and it is a miserable code.
Already inside there was a small merchandising stand with a t-shirt, sweatshirt, some special printed sheets, the colored vinyl, CD and unfortunately the Cassette version that when I went to buy it, the person in front took the last one.
The stage was made up of a table with bottles and glasses with a chair to sit on with a protruding platform in the shape of a triangle and behind all the instruments of the musicians who accompanied it.
Waters appears on stage dressed as he usually is in black pants and a T-shirt, but with a pink jacket that looked more like he was attending a comedian's performance than a music concert.
He is up almost all night walking around the stage, except for a few moments when he is seated, he moves slowly shuffling his feet but with great dynamism, although he clearly has a cold,
The show was advertised in two parts, one as Roger Waters with a break and the other as The Dark Side Of The Moon.
And our suspicions before attending were that the first part would be his usual speeches and the second would be the new album.
So we were not wrong and that was the case, but many of the public were expecting to hear a music concert that is really what you attend and were not prepared for what was going to happen.
And like a master of ceremonies, standing with his pink jacket he began to talk, talk and talk, fortunately he did not comment almost anything about politics, perhaps because of the more than recent problem that is now affecting Israel and Palestine and is a very delicate issue. to make any comment, he only cited about freedom of expression and helping Julian Assange.
Then he sat in the chair and at the table began to quote some notes about his memoirs that he wants to publish soon with the title I'll See You On The Dark Side Of The Moon, Memoirs Of A Lanky Prick.
This is when it was much more limited than on the first night, because although we have already mentioned that we did not attend, this part was much longer citing passages from life with Syd, from Cambridge, creating songs, etc., but on this second day and probably due to the criticism of the previous day, it was shorter, only reading fragments of a pet of his named Donald of which he had published some photos a few days before.
Now the fourteen musicians who accompany him with musical and string instruments, also a Theremin, make an appearance, among them known as Jon Carin, Robert Walter, Jonathan Wilson, Gus Seyffert, and Joey Waronker who have accompanied him on his last tours and new ones like Johnny Shepherd on keyboards and vocals and Azniv Korkejian on vocals.
He does an excellent performance of about fifteen minutes of the song The Bar, which he performed on his last tour and seems to be the main song of his new album, sung by Roger and at some moments by Johnny Shepherd and Azniv, the anecdote occurring in which in a moment when he was at one end of the stage and had to go in to sing, he had left the microphone on the table, so he had to half run to pick it up while he was singing without barely hearing it, so at no time did he use it at all. the night the playback, singing live.
Then he did a more acoustic version of Mother, for me the best of the whole night with a good performance by him on voice and the part sung by Gilmour, although he had female backup singers, was sung by Johnny Shepherd.
At this moment they leave, lowering transparent black screens from the stage and projecting images of them explaining song by song from The Dark Side Of The Moon, something that is already available on social networks.
After this screening there is a break to perform The Dark Side Of The Moon Redux in its entirety.
At no time during the night does he play an instrument, only his voice and one by one he performs each song on the album.
The album went on sale on October 6, the same day we moved to London, so we have only been able to listen to it twice since our return, but live it seemed much superior to the album version and that It has barely been published, especially in songs like The Great Gig In The Sky, where female voices are barely heard on the recording, quite the opposite of live, and in Money, which sounded much more dynamic and entertaining than the album version, it seemed even a different version.
After the complete performance he says goodbye to the audience, without any encore, presenting the musicians with a paper in his hand saying their names because it seems that some of them did not even know their names, even asking some of them who they were and Who were others?
And my personal opinion is that it's been almost 48 hours since the concert and I still don't have a rating, I can't say if I liked it or didn't like it, my feeling when leaving the theater was cold, although as time passed it was quite positive.
First of all, I completely understand all the dissatisfied spectators and there were quite a few of them, it may even have been very even, since paying, at least in my situation, more than 200 euros for a ticket to listen to someone sitting at a small table talking about stories of ducks and then offer only a couple of songs and the album, it is almost a joke, since almost everyone attending expects to hear a music concert, which is what you are attending, since Waters is a musician, not a showman and for this reason they have every right to make any complaint or claim.
So for me, Waters' mistake is that when the tickets went on sale, he should have specified what the show consisted of, a first part of talk and another of music, and that way if you had been interested you would have attended and not feel fooled like many of the attendees.
I also do not understand comments that with my bad English I heard derogatory about his release The Dark Side Of The Moon, both on the street or in pubs adjacent to the theater, and within the venue itself, so if you disagree with that publication, why do you attend?
If you come with that predisposition, it is impossible to please him and it is normal that you criticize him later.
Then on the other hand, respecting of course the thoughts of each of those who were there, in my situation I liked the first part more than the second.
Perhaps because I was impressed to hear an 80-year-old man, as Waters calls himself, with impressive verbiage, with an ease of speech, expression, and communication, that I would love to have when I reached his age.
Listening to Waters telling passages of his life in an intimate way, ignoring the political part, is not something I think I can attend again and I think that Waters acted in good faith to present a part of his memoirs for the first time, something that many Of those present did not understand, because if he had not been involved in so many political issues, perhaps everything would have been different, but when he began to make his speeches, many understood that everything was going to end in other directions and on this occasion, it was not that way. shape.
And because I also liked the versions of The Bar and Mother in the first part more than the entire album in the second part, as they say, there is nothing written about tastes.
Anyway, it is said that next year he may offer some new concerts in this format, but we must remember his age and that in a few days he will begin his South American This Is Not A Drill Tour and all this is noticeable at these ages.
More informacion of album in The Dark Side Of The Moon Redux
News Ruta Floyd