Live Review: Roger Waters, Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON, July 14, 2007

Much more a David Gilmour than a Roger Waters fan as far as individual members of Pink Floyd go, I wasn't interested in checking out Waters' lastest tour in the least until a block of $40 tickets were released for last night's show at what used to be called the Skydome. Things came together quite nicely so a buddy and I decided to head down to Toronto yesterday to check it out, and to say it was a pleasant surprise would be a massive understatement.

We settled into our upper deck seats and found that we had a perfect view of the stage. I had never sat up there before for a rock show, so I was happy to find out that things were looking good. However, I was wondering how the sound was going to be since the upside-down toilet bowl that is the Rogers Centre is notoriously poor for acoustics, but as the 30,000 other attendees and I found out, it was absolutely impeccable. Fans of Floyd know that they are the original headphone band, and it was recreated in full last night. From the opening notes of "In the Flesh?" through "Mother", it was clear that Waters had spared no expense sonically. Also, for a guy who has created most of his public persona as a musician on an intense dislike of the whole rock star experience, particularly in a live stadium setting, there were flashpots, pyro, dry ice, bubbles, floating astronauts and pigs, and lasers in addition to two large screens on either side of the stage and a massive one in behind the band which displayed tons of graphics and movies to go with each song.

Musically, this was truly a mind-blowing performance. The first half was comprised of mostly Floyd tunes stretching back to "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", the third track after which I knew that my money was going to be well spent on this evening. The highlights of the first half were "Have A Cigar" and "Sheep". The second half was made up of the entire "Dark Side of the Moon" album, and "Any Colour You Like" was tops here. You can find an entire set list here, and the footage I've linked to above is taken from the level where we were sitting, so it will give you a good idea of how I experienced it (although we were sitting a few sections over to the left, and not as high up, so the lighting truss didn't obstruct our view at all). Waters and various band members sang the Gilmour parts, depending on which song it was, and I have to say that to this Gilmour fan, they were done justice, especially considering Waters himself is in his early 60s - and I saw no evidence of vocal enhancements despite rumours to the contrary (see Wikipedia article above).

Quibbles? A couple. The keyboards during "Time" were way too low in the mix. Second, while I knew that Rog would have a bit to say about the state of the world today, there was absolutely no subtlety to his Chomskyist brand of secular cultural relativism. From the "Impeach Bush Now" written on the floating pig's ass to lyrics blaming the "Christian right" for the lack of peace in the Middle East to American and Israeli flags projected behind the band during "Bring the Boys Back Home", it was both a little over the top and frankly a tad clichéd by now. But that's the guy, right? I'm just glad I didn't buy $150 or even the $70 tickets to be told what to think by some hardcore socialist rock star who pisses all over the very society that has enabled him to have a platform from which to spout his beliefs in addition to making tons of money, even if his opinions do seem to be a little more well-considered than most that come out of the entertainment industry. No doubt dissenters in, say, Iran, Syria or the Palestinian territories are puzzled by such things that go on with regularity here in the West, where speaking ill of one's government is often glorified rather than punishable by death.

But I digress.

All told, it was an incredible, incredible performance, and while not quite on par with Gilmour, Wright and Mason's 1994 outing, it was still a hell of an evening from a true professional, even if he does have the audacity to refer to himself as "The Creative Genius of Pink Floyd". Fans of the band who are hoping for them to get back together shouldn't hold their breath, as it's clear that Waters needs to be in charge of whatever he does. Moreover, last night may very well be the final time that he ever plays some of those songs, as it was the last date of the entire tour (which began in June 2006).

Amazing.

Overall rating: 9.5/10

(PS: We headed over to the Horseshoe Tavern afterwards and caught the one and only White Cowbell Oklahoma. Chainsaws, megaphones and beer-soaked strippers on top of Big and Rich-esque antics multiplied by AC/DC riffage - everything I've come to expect from these guys, with a rollicking cover of Deep Purple's "Space Truckin'" to close the affair. Great stuff, and what a way to end the night.)

Book Review: "Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd" by Nick Mason (2005)

I flipped through this rock autobiography after seeing last Saturday's amazing Roger Waters show in Toronto, and I'd place it somewhere between a couple of other books by drummers which I've read over the last year - not quite as entertaining as this, nor nearly as insufferable as this.

The first half of "Inside Out" is dominated by stories of the band's formation in England in the mid-1960s, which is a little dry but is made up for from the period of about 1970 onward, whereby founding member and clinically insane original guitarist Syd Barrett was sidelined in favour of the elegant David Gilmour. The Dark Side/Wish You Were Here years are covered in detail, as is the infamous Olympic Stadium show in 1977 on the "Animals" tour, which led to the birth of The Wall, Floyd's magnum opus. Mason comes across like detached observer here, more interested in racing cars than the trappings of fame. As for keyboardist Rick Wright decides to pretty much float along, content to let the others do the work, and Waters (as is well-documented) takes over the Floyd apparatus as Gilmour focused on his solo work. Of course, the whole Wall phenomenon, along with accompanying mini-tour and film, was the breaking point for the original lineup with the dismal epilogue "The Final Cut" putting the nail in the band's coffin, revealing Waters' complete arrogance in promoting himself as "The Creative Genius of Pink Floyd" on his latest tour as he really held the pen only on these latter two projects.

Throughout the 80s, the reunion of Mason and Gilmour as Floyd along with the accompanying "Momentary Lapse of Reason" album and tour is chronicled, situated as it was amongst a myriad of lawsuits from Waters and feeble attempts by Gilmour to co-write with the likes of Carole Pope, among others. Wright is once again brought back into the fold for the "Delicate Sound of Thunder" tour, which opened in Ottawa in 1987, with Waters' comments in the press underlining the observation that most musicians are twenty degrees to the left when it involves other people's money and twenty degrees to the right when it involves their own. The part of the book I found most fascinating was the lead-up to the massive 1994 "Division Bell" album, an album which easily places within Floyd's top five albums, and on same days, I'd even say top three.

Things conclude with the Live 8 performance of 2005, footage of which I haven't seen, but all said, this is a decent look at the history of one of rock's superstar outfits from one who had the perfect vantage point. However, it's not written for a general audience, and I'd suggest listening to a few albums before picking this one up as serious fans will enjoy it much more than casual ones.

Overall rating: 8/10