Still Angry After All These Years - Roger Waters Takes
North Harbour
North Harbour Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand Jan 29th, 2007
From Aural Innovations #36 (May 2007)
Where to start with Roger Waters’ Auckland concert? I guess I would have
to begin at least one and a half hours prior to the start of the show, since
that is about the time I got there. Already the place was starting to fill up,
and demand for t-shirts was just amazing; I had to wait in the crowd (it could
hardly qualify as a queue!) for about 45 minutes before picking up my “underwater
prism” design and it was hard to choose as all the other designs were
so good. At least I had almost an hour of waiting to make my decision.
Getting seated in the platinum section, I was dead centre and a few rows back,
enabling me to capture all the onstage action. On the screen backdrop was an
extreme close-up of a 1940’s wireless, glass of liquor, and WWII-era model
plane with cigarette smoke wafting upwards. As the sun set behind the stage,
the PA played a selection of Neil Young tracks mixed with a lengthy slice of
early Dylan. All good stuff I thought until suddenly the opening bars of Abba’s
“Dancing Queen” blared out to a response of groans and laughter
from the audience. Suddenly a huge close-up hand appeared on the screen and
changed the station on the wireless to another channel with more appropriate
music, and I realised that this whole sequence was a carefully planned scene-setter
for the entire show. What other artist would think to gradually draw the audience
in for more than an hour before taking the stage?! Over the next few minutes
the giant hand reappeared, lazily pouring a drink and relighting a cigarette
while Vera Lynn-style music played over the PA and the sense of anticipation
in the audience reached breaking point. Then, in a pyrotechnic shower of sparks
that would have done his old band proud, Roger and his backing group took the
stage and launched into his ultimate set-opener “In The Flesh!”
to a roar of appreciation from the sold-out stadium. Recreating the demented
screams of the original album version, Waters prowled around the stage with
an air of menace that would put to shame rockers less than half his age, while
remorseless hammers marched across the screen. By the end of that first number,
the crowd was on their feet, roaring approval in scenes reminiscent of “The
Wall” itself!
After that devastating opener, Roger and his band, all of whom seemed well chosen
for both their amazing technical ability and understated appearance (yes, even
Dave Kilminster) as appropriate for this elder statesman of rock, brought things
down to earth with a beautiful rendition of “Mother”, alternating
verse/chorus vocals with his trio of female backing vocalists Katie Kissoon,
PP Arnold and the stunning Carol Kenyon. Roger had a glint in his eye as he
wryly shook his head for the line “Mother, should I trust the president?”.
Then it was time for the spacerock masterwork “Set The Controls For The
Heart Of The Sun”, still devastating after all these years. As the screen
showed close-up solar shots and liquid lights from the early days of the underground
it became clear that there was some kind of malfunction with Snowy White’s
guitar, and Dave Kilminster had to step in with a belated solo to cover for
his silent co-guitarist. Roger momentarily stopped the show as sound technicians
worked to rectify the problem, and then started again at opening bars of the
freakout spacerock section, where the ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist and long-time
Pink Floyd sideman delivered a devastating assault on his Les Paul, before a
return to the quiet fadeout. Roger laughingly apologised for the break and then
added, “It was worth waiting for though, wasn’t it?”. No arguments
from this section!
A cheer went up from the crowd as we were spellbound by the opening notes of
“Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, and as Roger sang the lines of aching
loss for his departed friend, the screen showed pictures of Syd taken from his
halcyon days with the Floyd. A rain of bubbles descended on the crowd as if
to symbolise Barrett’s beauty and fragility; a moment like this could
have been appallingly cheesy in other hands, but was deeply moving on this evening.
Silent promotional clips from ‘60’s gems “Arnold Layne”
and “The Scarecrow” flashed by onscreen, along with a heart-rending
shot of Syd slowly walking away into the trees.
Next up was the balls-to-the-wall rocker “Have A Cigar”, Roger using
the funky rhythm to show that his bass chops are still in fine form. Various
fansites have debated that he may have been lip-synching to this and one or
two other tracks on this tour, since his 60 year old vocal chords can’t
reach the high notes any more; however, I was pretty close and I couldn’t
see any evidence of it from where I was sitting. As he snarled the immortal
line, “Oh by the way, which one’s Pink?”, I had to fight off
an urge to shout back, “You are!!!!!”, before Kilminster ripped
out another stinging guitar solo. The “Wish You Were Here” suite
closed with the title track from that album as Roger and the band again brought
us gently down to earth for a short acoustic based section. The gentleness of
the music belied the fury behind anti-war gems “Southampton Dock”
and “The Fletcher Memorial Home”, the screen backdrops showing images
highlighting how the names may have changed in the 25 years since “The
Final Cut” was released, but the politics and fighting remain the same.
Continuing the political theme, we were next treated to “Perfect Sense
(parts one and two)”, one of only two tracks presented from Waters’
underrated solo career. As the descending keyboard riff played, the inflatable
astronaut (absent from the Christchurch concert due to strong winds) drifted
high above the stage and a sample of Hal’s disconnection scene from “2001”
played over the PA. Carol Kenyon took lead vocals for most of part one, before
Roger, having put down his bass, passionately exhorted the crowd to sing along,
miming the “sports stadium submarine missile launch” scene while
appropriate graphics screened behind him. This was followed by a short statement
of intent from Waters as an introduction to his autobiographical “Leaving
Beirut”. As Roger sang about the effects of the fighting on that war-torn
city’s civilian population, bleak comic strip graphics were shown on the
screen of his teenage experiences hitchhiking through the middle-east in the
early 1960’s. It was a deeply moving moment, even for the majority of
the crowd who had never heard the internet-only release of this song.
The political section and the whole of the first half was closed with an ear-battering
rendition of the “Animals” classic “Sheep”. At this
point, the inflatable pig hovered above the crowd, painted with familiar and
new slogans, including Tinorangitiratunga (a slogan from the Maori Sovereignty
movement). While it may be somewhat naive of Waters to place comment on New
Zealands’ political and race issues after arriving in the country just
days ago, I was amazed that he would have even taken the effort to make himself
aware that such issues existed. As Roger spat out the final verse, the pig was
released into the North Shore sky, and dive-bombing dual guitar riffs roared
across the stadium. After it was over, the band left the stage, promising to
return in ten minutes for “Dark Side Of The Moon”.As the second
set began, the heartbeat of “Speak To Me” accelerated into frantic
high-pitched screaming as an on-screen satellite rushed towards the crowd and
the band broke into “Breathe”. David Gilmour being disinclined to
join his former bandmate on tour, many of the “Dark Side” vocal
duties were handled by keyboard player Jon Carin (a man who has played on both
sides of Pink Floyd’s wall) and the female vocal trio. The proto-techno
“On The Run” was up next, Graham Broad playing live cymbals as the
images and explosive samples rushed by, accompanied by an electronic riff that
made all previous version look and sound tame.
Broad again showcased his percussion skills for the rototom introduction of
“Time”, which was accompanied by the classic onscreen visuals from
the 1970’s during the vocal sections. Roger himself took harmony vocals
for the bridge sections, while the guitar solo was a brilliant note-for-note
reconstruction of the original stellar passage. Then the reprised “Breathe”
coda led to a moment of hushed reverent silence as Roger’s son Harry Waters
picked out the haunting piano introduction to “The Great Gig In The Sky”.
Until now, I have never heard a version of this heartstopping piece of music
that could stand against the original studio version, but Carol Kenyon’s
alternately orgasmic shrieking and terrifying whimpers were a truly uplifting
experience, streets ahead of the lame version on the “Pulse” DVD.
It was truly a religious experience and hard to blink back the tears.
Dave Kilminster took lead vocals for the stage favourite “Money”
followed by a Carin/Waters duet for “Us And Them” which was accompanied
by pyrotechnics and more vintage screen footage from the seventies. Ian Ritchie’s
saxophone solo was another faithful recreation of the original, and the final
verse was followed by an ultra-funky take on “Any Colour You Like”,
Waters holding down the bottom end with powerful bass playing. As the show neared
its climax, “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse” were sung by
Roger with heartfelt emotion, images of current political figures flashing onscreen
to accompany the lines “all you hate” and “all you destroy”.
The crowd responded to the final moments with a lengthy standing ovation that
lasted until the band returned to the stage for a “Wall”-themed
encore. The furious assault of “The Happiest Days Of Our Lives”
segued into “Another Brick In The Wall (part two)”, which had the
entire stadium chanting along before Snowy White and Ian Kilminster traded guitar
solos in an extended outro. The medley of “Vera” and “Bring
The Boys Back Home” was both majestic and uplifting, and served as a prologue
to the grand finale that is “Comfortably Numb”. As the final twin
guitar attack rang out across stadium, the screen shot pulled to show the room
and man from the opening frames of the performance slowly spiralling away into
space, in a brilliantly conceived finale to the concert.
The evening was definitely a triumph for Roger Waters and his band, and made
me realise why he has left the sequence of song unchanged from last year. This
was no mere concert, more like a theatrical production with every note and aspect
of the multi-sensory production planned down to the last detail. It is always
tempting to say that the most recent concert I have attended is the “best
one”. However, if I never saw live show after this I would die a happy
man.