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microvibe
just play your music and shut up!

Agreed. He clearly has nothing but venom for Jews

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potus43

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microvibe
just play your music and shut up!

Agreed. He clearly has nothing but venom for Jews

Or you just stay home...He is critical of polititians and goverments, not people.

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potus43

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microvibe
just play your music and shut up!

Agreed. He clearly has nothing but venom for Jews

Agreed. It doesn't bother me enough that I don't listen to his music. And there have been false idiotic stories like where he was singing about money and dropping jewish stars during The Wall tour. I'm sure that wasn't true and just something I have to laugh at. As a Jew, I honestly don't really care what he and any artist talks about. I'd be hard pressed to find a reason to leave a concert due to anything the artist was actually saying or showing. I may disagree, but I paid money to be at the show to see music I like, I'm not leaving.

Having said that, when there's as many people telling Roger to stop as there are, its probably better to listen and stop. I'll be honest, I don't even know what his position is, but he's clearly very outspoken on it and doesn't seem to have much support. And if it has nothing to do with the music he's presenting, or his own personal faith, I question why talk about it in the first place. Freedom of speech and all, and I'm not saying I'm offended, but it just seems its hurting him more than helping him.

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RollingFreak
dropping jewish stars during The Wall tour

There was an animated video where a bomber airplane was dropping crucifixes, Star of David symbols, and other symbols and logos( the Shell Oil logo, the Hammer and Sickle symbol, the McDonald's logo, the Crescent and Star symbol, the Mercedes logo, etc. ) instead of bombs- it was not direct attack on Jewish people, but a critique of all of the above. At the end of the concert, there was some confetti dropped at the end of the show that used all of the same symbols. And at one point during the show, the inflatable floating pig had all of those symbols spray painted all over it.

Here's a short recent interview where he touches on the subject (along with other things)
Pink Floyd's Roger Waters on veterans, touring and his new, solo album

NEW YORK — Roger Waters isn’t sure how much longer he will tour, or if his current one will be his last. But there’s one thing the former Pink Floyd co-founder is sure of — if you’re a veteran, there’s a place for you at his shows.Waters, whose father was killed in World War II, holds a special place in his heart for those who served. That’s why for every performance, he allocates a block of tickets for vets. “When I started touring with ‘The Wall,’ I just started inviting veterans in every town we go to, and I’ll do that on this tour, as well. We’ll reserve a certain number of places in the auditorium for veterans if they want to come,” Waters said. Veterans can grab a ticket to his shows through a variety of veteran’s groups, including the Wounded Warrior Project, VetTix and MusiCorps. Recently, the outspoken 73-year old rocker sat down with The Associated Press to talk about veterans, his latest solo album — titled “Is This the Life We Really Want?” — and his political leanings.

AP: Your support for veterans has been relentless. Why?

Waters: Maybe it has something to with my father. It has partly to do with Bob and Lee Woodruff. They have a foundation because he was a journalist who got half of his head blown off and survived. They have a thing called Stand Up for Heroes every year to raise money for veterans, and they asked if I would perform.

AP: But it didn’t stop there.

Waters: I had an idea, which was to put together a band of wounded men. So I went to Walter Reed (National Military Medical Center), and I met a guy there called Arthur Bloom, who ran a program, and we made a band. We performed for a couple of years doing that and these men became my brothers, and I’m close friends still with a lot to them. And so the connections that I made through playing music with them informed my desire to get to know more of them.

AP: The album seems inspired by the dire overtones of our current world. Is it about fear?

Waters: Yeah, it’s fear of the fact that everything is running away from us and nobody is the child who says, “But the emperor is not wearing any clothes.”

AP: Tell us about the tour?

Waters: The show is called “Us and Them,” which is the title of a song from “Dark Side of the Moon,” which is from 1973, or ’74, but it’s extremely appropriate and apposite today. That song means just as much today as it did in 1973. And these new songs off this album are essentially about our dilemma as human beings as to whether we can find ways to accommodate each other’s needs, and to discover our potential for empathy for others, including refugees.

AP: You have always been outspoken when it comes to politics, and have been attacked on your support of a boycott of Israel. Some have called you anti-Semitic because of it. Are you?

Waters: I’ve got nothing against Israel, and I’ve certainly not got anything against Jewish people or Judaism. But I am fundamentally opposed to people being subjugated and not having rights under the law. So I’ve finished my little speech, but people have suggested that I’m anti-Semitic, which I am clearly not... I will go to my grave defending the rights of ordinary people, under a law, under a common law.

AP: How much longer can you do tour?

Waters: Probably, not much longer. This might well be the last one. If it goes on for a couple of years I may well be done. We’ll see. You never say never. I try and stay fit. I am fit, otherwise I couldn’t do it. So we’ll see.

AP: Is it possible that any time before you call it quits, you and former Floyd guitarist David Gilmour will do a set of shows?

Waters: I think it’s very unlikely.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2017-06-12 01:37 by Hairball.

Thanks for posting. I hadn't read that interview yet. As for the unending controversy over Israel; it's clear his objection is political, not racial or philosophical. Roger is an atheist. He has utilized religious symbols of different creeds in his show over the years because he objects to religion being used as a political weapon. While I may personally side more with Dylan's "Neighborhood Bully" on INFIDELS, I understand Roger's point of view. It's probably worth remembering the Stones toyed with an album/tour concept called BLASPHEMY in the 1990s that would have seen them pushing some of the same buttons.

Likewise while I understand, Jews or (in recent years) Christians being fed up with others' use of free speech to express criticism or mockery of all but one particular faith; they would do well to see Jimmy Carr explain why that is and still manage to elicit laughter in doing so. Life's not fair, but at the end of the day everyone has a forum somewhere to express their opinions in the Western world whether it's a place of worship, a soapbox on the street corner, or a messageboard. If it's a concert stage or a work of art and you object to it, don't subject yourself to it by spending your money. Freedom and capitalism should solve the problem of not appreciating others' right of expression.

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RollingFreak

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potus43

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microvibe
just play your music and shut up!

Agreed. He clearly has nothing but venom for Jews

Agreed. It doesn't bother me enough that I don't listen to his music. And there have been false idiotic stories like where he was singing about money and dropping jewish stars during The Wall tour. I'm sure that wasn't true and just something I have to laugh at. As a Jew, I honestly don't really care what he and any artist talks about. I'd be hard pressed to find a reason to leave a concert due to anything the artist was actually saying or showing. I may disagree, but I paid money to be at the show to see music I like, I'm not leaving.

Having said that, when there's as many people telling Roger to stop as there are, its probably better to listen and stop. I'll be honest, I don't even know what his position is, but he's clearly very outspoken on it and doesn't seem to have much support. And if it has nothing to do with the music he's presenting, or his own personal faith, I question why talk about it in the first place. Freedom of speech and all, and I'm not saying I'm offended, but it just seems its hurting him more than helping him.

He has SO LITTLE support that his tours are among the top-grossing of every year he decides to tour. In this hyper-sensitive day and age, if people were certain Roger was an anti-Semite, he would have been run out of America on a rail.

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microvibe
just play your music and shut up!

Says you as you get gussied up in your best Confederate Flag t-shirt and mosey on off to see Ted Nugent at the local casino.

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keefriff99

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RollingFreak

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potus43

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microvibe
just play your music and shut up!

Agreed. He clearly has nothing but venom for Jews

Agreed. It doesn't bother me enough that I don't listen to his music. And there have been false idiotic stories like where he was singing about money and dropping jewish stars during The Wall tour. I'm sure that wasn't true and just something I have to laugh at. As a Jew, I honestly don't really care what he and any artist talks about. I'd be hard pressed to find a reason to leave a concert due to anything the artist was actually saying or showing. I may disagree, but I paid money to be at the show to see music I like, I'm not leaving.

Having said that, when there's as many people telling Roger to stop as there are, its probably better to listen and stop. I'll be honest, I don't even know what his position is, but he's clearly very outspoken on it and doesn't seem to have much support. And if it has nothing to do with the music he's presenting, or his own personal faith, I question why talk about it in the first place. Freedom of speech and all, and I'm not saying I'm offended, but it just seems its hurting him more than helping him.

He has SO LITTLE support that his tours are among the top-grossing of every year he decides to tour. In this hyper-sensitive day and age, if people were certain Roger was an anti-Semite, he would have been run out of America on a rail.

From the Anti Defamation League, 2013.

“While we wish that Mr. Waters would have avoided using the Star of David, we believe there is no anti-Semitic intent here.”

***The Anti Defamation League is an an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States, which defends Jewish people and Judaism from attack. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency," the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects civil rights for all". - ADL

_________________________________________________________________________

An interesting lengthy 2015 interview with by Gideon Levy for Haaretz - an Israeli newspaper:

Roger Waters Sets the Record Straight

"Believe whatever you like, but Waters does not hate Israel. He’s deeply outraged at the injustices it perpetrates. When he talks about Israel, it’s with pain, criticism and anger, but not hatred.
And anti-Semitism is not part of the picture here, despite the show in which he placed a pig on a Star of David, along with other religious symbols, during his 2013 European tour, which raised that suspicion.
Waters has Jewish grandchildren from his Jewish daughter-in-law".

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2017-06-12 04:17 by Hairball.

The ADL is a very vigilant and important organization in America and they do NOT play around, so if they give Waters a pass, that's good enough for me.

Indeed - and see my edit in previous post. A 2015 Roger Waters interview with Gideon Levy for Haaretz - an Israeli newspaper, where the record is set straight.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

So then its all just misinterpreted? And again, in no way do I know (cause I don't care) most of what he's said on the matter but I just know its pissed off a lot of people. Granted, I feel most of America is pretty stupid, but what confuses me is why are people like Howard Stern and others telling him to "shut the @#$%& up"? Doesn't sound like its JUST cause they want to hear the music. Its not like Howard isn't an advocate for certain things. This seems to be something that gets a lot of people up in arms with him. So I'm just curious is the people its upsetting just misinformed or is there actually something wrong with what he's saying. I agree, from all of that, I don't see the problem but as I keep saying I've been on the sidelines the whole time as its not what I care about Roger Waters for.

Having said that and shifting gears, I've really come to appreciate a new side of Pink Floyd recently. Since the Early Years box set was released separately, I was finally able to buy the disc with The Man And The Journey, their stage show from 1969. Famous thing I'd always read about but never bothered to find the bootleg of even though it was readily available. It did throw me, as I'm not a fan of the whole Ummagumma noise period, but I kept listening and it gradually grew on me. I was describing it as "Ummagumma if they tried to make sense of it and make it into a real piece with a message." And well done to them, I think they did a good job. Its mostly noise and jamming, but some great gems I'd never heard before like Biding My Time, Green Is The Colour, Cymballine. It really gave me an appreciation of that whole period, which I usually skipped over, going right from Barrett to Atom Heart Mother. Made me seek out and listen to More which was also not bad. A bit disjointed, but I appreciate the experimentation. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit in that department, but I always wrote off that part of their career and its really cool to dig into it now and explore it. Not many bands you can really find untapped wells of but Floyd had a ton of different eras. Maybe I'll come to appreciate the Watersless era next (LOL doubt it)!

Here's another entertaining (and funny) review - a blend of satire and sincerity - he seems to really enjoy the new album!!!

Every review you’ve read of the new Roger Waters album is wrong (except for this one)

"I don’t mean to imply that Waters is some kind of philosopher who comes down off the mountain with holy tablets once every 24 years—
OKAY I DO, I ABSOLUTELY MEAN TO DO JUST THAT—but Is This the Life We Really Want? is absolutely, hands-down the best album of 2017 so far. 10/10. A masterpiece".



Also - there's a bonus review of the concert he attended following the album review, so fair warning and spoiler alert.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

I got the new album over the weekend and played it quite a bit and I do like it a lot .Pure vintage Roger aka Pinkie himself minus David Gilmour's glorious guitar solos .This is quite the recipe all the tricks and gadgets that you associate with Roger and Pink Floyd until I was jarred out of my delightful glee by Crusty the clown himself talking about how he won and won and won .How clever of Mr. Waters to insert that post election 2016 .Over all a very good effort from Roger Waters as this is his first studio release (not counting the opera or whatever it was ) .I like the title track the best and I think from that point on the material is it's best .

I saw the show in Vegas the other night and will also be at the L.A. Staples show tonight and tomorrow tonight. I have a review brewing in my head, and will post soon.

Briefly: Similar to fantastic Desert Trip shows, but not quite as majestic and great as it was under the desert skies. The gigantic screen at Desert Trip is missed. Instead one large screen behind band (like a movie theater screen), and then some hanging screens that come down for three songs after intermission which go from stage to back of arena down the center - awkward for those who may be under it or near it on either side. Should be in a stadium with the single massive Desert Trip screen instead. New band is better, four new tunes live are great. Mind boggling state of the art visuals and sound throughout. More later...

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Nice to hear Hairball - and look forward to hearing your thoughts. Louisville show knocked me out. But, I didn't go to Desert Trip, (still kicking myself for not going) so I can't compare.
For anyone thinking of going, seats on the side (or even the balcony) may be your best bet. The floor might miss some of the Act 2 visuals he mentions. And if the stage is at 12:00, don't do directly across at 6:00, for the same reason. Nice Loge in 3-5:00 or 7-9:00 are ideal, IMHO.

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DEmerson
Nice to hear Hairball - and look forward to hearing your thoughts. Louisville show knocked me out. But, I didn't go to Desert Trip, (still kicking myself for not going) so I can't compare.
For anyone thinking of going, seats on the side (or even the balcony) may be your best bet. The floor might miss some of the Act 2 visuals he mentions. And if the stage is at 12:00, don't do directly across at 6:00, for the same reason. Nice Loge in 3-5:00 or 7-9:00 are ideal, IMHO.

That's exactly what I was trying to say!

Seats on the side loge are the best, or if floor is a must try to get as far left or right as possible and at least 15 even 20 rows back for full impact of everything (quad sound, visuals, etc.) Do not pick dead center anywhere. When buying tix, I was looking directly in front of the soundboard on the center floor as that was optimum for The Wall shows. Thankfully I decided to pick floor far right about 20 rows back for Vegas, and for these next two shows lower loge 13 rows up and about one third to half way back from stage (or near center court).

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-06-21 00:40 by Hairball.

I'm here tonight at Staples. I was up in the front of the pit at Desert Trip but this time I picked a seat above the arena floor and further back so I can really take in the spectacle.

Looks to be mostly a redux of his Desert Trip shows. (which was expected) I think he dropped Astronomy Domine in favor of the new material.

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jazzbass
Looks to be mostly a redux of his Desert Trip shows. (which was expected) I think he dropped Astronomy Domine in favor of the new material.

He also dropped Fearless, Run Like Hell, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, and Mother. He added four new tunes, and off the top of my head a couple of other classics(Another Brick in the Wall pt. 3 immediately follows pt 2 for example)...maybe a couple more changes. New band is better than Desert Trip band which had GE Smith and the unnecessary Gilmour sound-alike on vocals. Severeal new and different visuals for new tunes played. Just got back from the L.A. show and my head is spinning from the stunning sensory overload. Will write more tomorrow - including the good, the bad, and the ugly.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

With regard to Pink Floyd, I am what you would call a casual fan. Always enjoyed their music on the radio--it got played a lot--but never went to a concert or bought many of their albums. My first Pink Floyd concert experience was Desert Trip, weekend 2. After 3 days in the pit, I was exhausted and my feet were in pure agony--as happens when we get old. So after The Who, I simply could not stand any longer. I moved to the far left of the pit where there was a grassy area and I sat down, leaning against the back wall. Wasn't the best view for the visuals, but it was a joy to no longer be standing. Roger's concert was all war horses, perfect for me, a casual fan. I didn't know that his concerts are so precise in sounding like the records. Sitting there in the warm night air, hearing all those fantastic PF songs over the absolute best sound system I have ever heard, it was magical. I loved his concert. So when tickets went on sale for LA, I decided I had to see it again. I went to the Tuesday night show, June 20. I too had decided to sit higher up and further back for the visuals. The temporary screens above the floor seats that split the floor seat area down the middle were wonderful for everyone sitting further back as I was. The new material sounded good. I had only heard If I was a God once before (on Colbert). I thoroughly enjoyed the concert and appreciated all the creativity that went into it. The sound was a little distorted, but that was due to the acustics of the venue. I sat next to two brothers, aged 25 and 28. They were among the youngest people there. I asked how they discovered PF. The older brother went to one of Roger's concerts a while back when a friend's father took them both with him. We was instantly hooked and introduced PF to his younger brother. It was very cool to see them so into the music. I drove 3 hours in heat and rush hour traffic to get to the Staples Center. It was worth the effort.

Good stuff JadedFaded!

Just got back home from Staples Center - another stunning show and new things discovered as there's SO much to take in visually and musically. Took my niece tonight who just graduated from Sonoma State University as a graduation gift, and while she's not really familiar with Pink Floyd, she's no doubt a fan now. When I saw her start to take photos, and then multiple photos throughout the entire show, I knew she was really into it. I also took her to a Stones show in 2013 for her high school graduation (the sacred Mick Taylor tour), and while she loved the show, she still likes the Beatles better!

I've taken quite a few photos myself these last few shows, and it will take awhile to filter through them all.
In the meantime, here's a few photos from the Vegas show from right side floor 20 rows back:















Will post more thoughts from these last two L.A. shows later, and the pics should be really good from the lower loge perspective - dead center and eye level with the hanging screens.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-06-22 10:56 by Hairball.

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RollingFreak
So then its all just misinterpreted? And again, in no way do I know (cause I don't care) most of what he's said on the matter but I just know its pissed off a lot of people. Granted, I feel most of America is pretty stupid, but what confuses me is why are people like Howard Stern and others telling him to "shut the @#$%& up"? Doesn't sound like its JUST cause they want to hear the music. Its not like Howard isn't an advocate for certain things. This seems to be something that gets a lot of people up in arms with him. So I'm just curious is the people its upsetting just misinformed or is there actually something wrong with what he's saying. I agree, from all of that, I don't see the problem but as I keep saying I've been on the sidelines the whole time as its not what I care about Roger Waters for.

Having said that and shifting gears, I've really come to appreciate a new side of Pink Floyd recently. Since the Early Years box set was released separately, I was finally able to buy the disc with The Man And The Journey, their stage show from 1969. Famous thing I'd always read about but never bothered to find the bootleg of even though it was readily available. It did throw me, as I'm not a fan of the whole Ummagumma noise period, but I kept listening and it gradually grew on me. I was describing it as "Ummagumma if they tried to make sense of it and make it into a real piece with a message." And well done to them, I think they did a good job. Its mostly noise and jamming, but some great gems I'd never heard before like Biding My Time, Green Is The Colour, Cymballine. It really gave me an appreciation of that whole period, which I usually skipped over, going right from Barrett to Atom Heart Mother. Made me seek out and listen to More which was also not bad. A bit disjointed, but I appreciate the experimentation. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit in that department, but I always wrote off that part of their career and its really cool to dig into it now and explore it. Not many bands you can really find untapped wells of but Floyd had a ton of different eras. Maybe I'll come to appreciate the Watersless era next (LOL doubt it)!

On purpose, it seems.

For me it's unfathomable that people can't see the difference between a people and its religion AND protesting against the politics excecuted by that nation's government.

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Hairball
Good stuff JadedFaded!

Just got back home from Staples Center - another stunning show and new things discovered as there's SO much to take in visually and musically. Took my niece tonight who just graduated from Sonoma State University as a graduation gift, and while she's not really familiar with Pink Floyd, she's no doubt a fan now. When I saw her start to take photos, and then multiple photos throughout the entire show, I knew she was really into it. I also took her to a Stones show in 2013 for her high school graduation (the sacred Mick Taylor tour), and while she loved the show, she still likes the Beatles better!

I've taken quite a few photos myself these last few shows, and it will take awhile to filter through them all.
In the meantime, here's a few photos from the Vegas show from right side floor 20 rows back:















Will post more thoughts from these last two L.A. shows later, and the pics should be really good from the lower loge perspective - dead center and eye level with the hanging screens.

Awesome pics, Hairball! I'm getting excited for Saturday. Just downloaded first LA show. Will be listening at work.

how upset would people be if that obama on that pig?just asking

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keefriff99

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microvibe
just play your music and shut up!

Says you as you get gussied up in your best Confederate Flag t-shirt and mosey on off to see Ted Nugent at the local casino.

Even Ted Nugent says it's gone too far and he's backing off:

[time.com]

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microvibe
how upset would people be if that obama on that pig?just asking

Well he'd only upset slightly more people but they sure would be a LOT more vocal about it! He'd probably be labeled a racist.

I have two excellent seats for his August show near Detroit that I want to SELL. Ticketmaster isn't allowing the resale option which usually means the show is doing subpar business. No one else wants to sit through a lip synched political harangue either, apparently.

Nice review of the first L.A. show from Variety Magazine:

Roger Waters’ Latest Pink Floyd Experience Dings Trump, Hails Motherhood and Resistance
Chris Willman
June 21, 2017

"Floydian extravaganza that rock fans with an inclination for the theatrical will always consider the greatest show on earth"

Roger Waters - L.A. Staples Center

As it turns out, when your 1970s canon consisted mostly of songs about materialism, societal polarization, disillusionment, and the dread of an encroaching right wing, it’s not so difficult to retrofit that material for the late 2010s. That’s the contemporizing task Roger Waters has set for himself with his “Us + Them” tour — which is not to say that any musical adjustments have been made to the Pink Floyd selections making up more than four-fifths of the set, because every David Gilmour lick is still being exactly replicated, but that in its visual preoccupations, the show is very ripped-from-the-headlines.

How political does it get? Let’s just say that, if you’re a Donald Trump supporter, you may want to extend your bathroom break at intermission by an extra 20 minutes or so. Oh, let’s be safe and say a half-hour… plenty of time to get that third beer, spend some extra time perusing the pyramid shirts at the merch stand, and make certain to miss the parts of the visual spectacle where the president’s intellect, compassion, and manhood all come up for lengthy derision. But you can’t come back in too late not to get showered with “RESIST!” confetti at the end of the show.

Tuesday night, in the first of three shows at Staples Center, Waters brought Los Angeles his first tour since 2002 that, instead of being themed around a full run-through of “The Wall” or “The Dark Side of the Moon,” focuses on the entirety of his catalog. Well, “entirety” may be a misnomer; the show doesn’t include a note of music that Waters released between 1979 and 2017. (Sorry, “Radio KAOS” fans.) The key “Dark Side” and “Wall” moments are still present and accounted for as cathartic moments and climaxes, but the heart of this tour is found in a sequence of songs from Waters’ new “Is This the Life We Really Want?” in the first half, and a healthy amount of the usually underrepresented “Animals” to kick off the second half — both segments making it clear that this is the summer of Waters’ discontent.


“Picture That,” the most obviously political of the songs from the new album, skated by in the first hour without a lot of pointed visual references to the current American climate, although a certain former beauty pageant impresario did appear briefly on screen when Waters sang, “Follow Miss Universe catching some rays/Wish You Were Here in Guantanamo Bay.” There was no accompanying visual when he later added the already semi-famous line, “Picture a leader with no f—ing brains.” But any conservative Waters fans who might’ve hoped that was it when it came to Trump could hardly have been prepared (unless they were at his one-off Desert Trip festival gig last fall) for the multi-media roast that followed in “Dogs” and “Pigs (Three Different Ones),” vintage 1977 tracks now devoted to the idea that the president is a malevolent farm animal beyond his or Orwell’s wildest imaginings.

Waters rarely encourages the guitarists who stepped in for Gilmour (the two are musically estranged) to solo extemporaneously, but he makes an exception for a jam at the end of “Pigs” — all the better to allow the song to go on long enough to incorporate not only a montage of images portraying Trump as a toddler chasing a kitty or being lovingly held in the arms of Putin, but a couple of closing minutes of verbatim Trump quotes flashed across eight screens running through the center of the arena as well as those on stage. (He’s updated the montage recently enough to add last month’s “Why was there the Civil War?” blurb.) Naturally, the floating pig, which once got Waters in hot water for including an Israeli star of David among its nationalist emblems, is now entirely Trump-themed, with an image of the president spouting the words “I won!” It’s hard to imagine any other rocker of Waters’ magnitude laying it on this thick… and getting away with it, because what Floyd fan of any political stripe is going to walk out on the pig?

The commentary in the remainder of the show is subtler. Before Waters and band take the stage, entering attendees see a 20-minute widescreen high-definition video of a woman with her back to the camera, staring out from the desert into the sea. Later, in the show’s most touching video, she returns and turns out to be a mother mourning the loss of her young daughter in the new album’s “The Last Refugee.” Knowing Waters’ controversial sympathies for Palestinians, this could well be the closest thing to an overt nod to that in the show, though it’s hardly explicit. Waters is determined to give the show a happy ending, even if the inevitable closer, “Comfortably Numb,” is not a happy tune, and so first he gives us a visualized pair of giant hands that were seen disintegrating during “Wish You Were Here” reconstituting and clasping… and then the mother and daughter reunite on that beach, together in spirit, if not life. Given that Rog gives good rant, it may be surprising that anger doesn’t finally end up being the dominant emotion of the show.

It is, most definitely, a “show,” in the truest, most traditional senses of the term. Waters is the most unlikely possible cross between Noam Chomsky and P.T. Barnum, a guy who’s unlikely to spend a tenth as much time in conversation talking about his desire to dazzle as about the state of the world, but desire to dazzle he unceasingly does. Perhaps needless to say, Staples Center has never sounded more aurally dimensional. (Amusingly, radio commercials baited the boomer audience by promising “quad” sound, though you can be sure the number of surround speakers was a lot more than four.) He hasn’t gone heavy on the props this time — the only two this round being the pig and a slightly less menacing floating silver orb— but he’s ratcheted up the screen action. The first half sticks with the Cinemascope action behind the band, saving the multiple screens that divide the length of the arena for a post-intermission surprise. It’s a nice touch when those individual screens start expanding and contracting late in the show, a clever enough effect that the eventual reveal of a laser pyramid seems old-hat by comparison, albeit a crowd-pleaser.


Interestingly, Waters barely has any vocal presence in the first part of the show. The opening “Breathe” is sung by the highly respected L.A. musician Jonathan Wilson, who covers all of the lead vocal parts Gilmour originally did on record and splits the guitar solo recreations with David Kilminster. “One of These Days” is, of course, an instrumental, notwithstanding a one-line threat to not be careful with that axe. And “The Great Gig in the Sky” is a great gig for the female singing duo Lucius, who take the wordless female vocal Clare Torry did so spine-chillingly on record and remake it into a stunning duet. There’s some method to this initial taking a back seat, on Waters’ part, maybe: When, after “Welcome to the Machine,” he steps up with three straight songs from the new album, he’s ensuring that you haven’t yet felt overfamiliar with his voice as he digs into these wordier 2017 tone poems.

No matter how big a Floyd fan you are, you’ve probably never become completely accustomed to the idea that roughly half the lead vocals will be sung by a ringer at either a Waters show or a Gilmour show, post-split. But Waters has never seemed as fully engaged during the portions of the set where he’s not singing as he did Tuesday at Staples. Almost every time Wilson was taking a vocal, Waters was off to a far side of the stage, locking eyes with some segment of the crowd he noticed being passionate, mouthing the words and even acting out some of the lyrics. In the many moments where he was center stage, he was even more passionate, putting the lie to the idea that Pink Floyd is “spacy” material (although, okay, it sometimes is). Maybe it’s that he’s finally given himself some culturally charged new material to sing after 25 years away from the studio, or maybe he’s just that alarmed by the year 2017 or energized by the so-called resistance that, suddenly, at 72, he’s at his most exuberant.

No one will mistake his historically gruff voice for a thing of abject loveliness at this stage, but it still has power as well as conviction. And for the loveliness, there is Lucius, aka Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, the MVPs of this tour. Besides their soulful double-teaming on “Great Gig in the Sky,” the women also get the spotlight in the concert’s penultimate moment, “Bring the Boys Back Home,” a shrill bit of business when Waters howled it on “The Wall” but a couple of minutes of sheer antiwar beauty here. Hearing such young performers sing a song that harked back to World War II when Waters wrote it 38 years ago underscored the intergenerational aspect that was happening in the audience, too: Some teenagers were demonstrably even more thrilled to be there than dear old dad, getting their shot at experiencing the Floydian extravaganza that rock fans with an inclination for the theatrical will always consider the greatest show on earth.

Waters returns to L.A. for a third show June 21 before traveling through North America for the next five months, wrapping up Oct. 29 in Vancouver, BC.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Bravo Roger

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rbk
I have two excellent seats for his August show near Detroit that I want to SELL. Ticketmaster isn't allowing the resale option which usually means the show is doing subpar business.

What it usually means is that the resale option isn't available at the artist's request to help avoid having scalpers purchasing mass quantities and reselling them on Ticketmaster within a minute of them purchasing tix. David Gilmour did the same at most, if not all, of his concerts last year, as have many other artists. For one of the L.A. Gilmour shows, I had a spare and attempted to resell it on Ticketmaster at face value. Everything was listed and there were plenty of other resell options, until it all suddenly disappeared from the site within a daay or two. I called Ticketmaster and they said the option was taken down "at the artists request". Not having the resale option doesn't solve all of the scalper crap, but it does put a damper on their strategy. When all was said and done, I was able to sell ticket anyways. Good luck selling your tickets - you should have no problem as the show is good one!

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......