The pre-show music is very enjoyable, and consists of some Bob Dylan followed by a few tracks from Levon Helm's "Dirt Farmer" album. Then there is an amusing audio pastiche of Monty Python ("Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", the French taunting scene from Holy Grail), Family Guy, Goodfellas, and Spartacus.
Then it becomes quiet and the lights dim. Roger Waters takes to the stage and starts the show with a bang, literally. Each power chord of "In The Flesh?" is punctuated by fireworks sparking onstage, culminating with an airplane soaring on a wire over the crowd and crashing into the upper corner of the Wall, knocking off several bricks, bursting into orange flames. The audience loses its collective breath, realizing the scale of the production they are about to witness.
Video: In The Flesh?
The Wall itself is a character in the show; as the music progresses, stagehands add bricks to it, building up a physical wall between the band and the audience. Imagery is projected on the wall as it takes shape, from original iconic animation by Gerald Scarfe (familiar from the movie) to imagery denouncing the military industrial complex. Typewritten statistics accompany photos of Roger's own father, killed in WW II in Anzio in 1944, a firefighter killed on September 11, a victim of the London Tube bombing of 2005, and a murdered Iraqi child.
The music is practically note-for-note perfect, and though Roger is now 66 years old, his voice can still convey anguish perfectly. Vocalist Robbie Wyckoff does a great job covering for David Gilmour's vocals, but even more impressive are the guitarists, Snowy White, G.E. Smith, and Dave Kilminster. The sound quality in the arena is superb. Large impressive inflatable puppets of archetypes The Teacher, The Mother, and The Wife make appearances during their respective songs.
During "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2", a group of local kids in T-shirts reading "Fear Builds Walls" take the stage, eventually vanquishing the oversized marionette of The Teacher. During "Mother", Roger sings a poignant duet with footage of himself performing it at Earl's Court in 1980. Graphics of security cameras
scan the crowd while the large inflatable Mother glares over the top of the Wall with red eyes. Graffiti spells out "Big
During "Goodbye Blue Sky", the Wall is infused with cool blue light, and animated bomber planes rain down symbols on the countryside below. Nothing is sacred: crosses, stars of David, crescents and stars, dollar signs, Mercedes and Shell Oil logos - all play into the culture that enables and even encourages the building of walls.
"Empty Spaces" builds to a crescendo while sexually suggestive flower imagery morphs into something more sinister. "Young Lust" is a straight-ahead rock anthem set to black, white, and red imagery of sexy women.
"One of My Turns" is dramatic as the Wall stares unblinking at the audience with a huge pair of eyes.
"Don't Leave Me Now" is perfectly anguished and angst-ridden. Rog stands alone in front of the Wall, center stage, in the spotlight. "I need you babe," he wails, "to put through the shredder in front of my friends, oh babe, don't leave me now!" His voice gives me goosebumps.
Video: Another Brick in the Wall Part 3
By the time "Another Brick in the Wall Part 3" starts, the Wall is 30 feet tall, and has just 3 small sections of bricks missing, giving a peek at the musicians behind. Rog, still outside of the Wall, hits its surface and it appears to shatter like glass. Typography whizzes across the surface of the Wall, interspersed with corporate logos, advertisements, static, and news footage. "CONSUME" flashes by almost subliminally, along with "F*@% You" "IDOLS" "BELONGINGS" "DENOMINATIONS" and "ACQUIRE". It is sensory overload as we are bombarded by more and more words that we barely have time to register.
By "Goodbye Cruel World", they have placed "The Last Few Bricks" into the wall, leaving one single brick missing in the center of the stage. Rog is vaguely visible back there, as a single shaft of light emanates from the hole. Rog sings "Goodbye all you people, there's nothing you can say, to make me change my mind. Goodbye" as the last brick is placed and the stage goes dark and the sound cuts out. The audience erupts into applause as the house lights come on and the Wall simply says "INTERMISSION".
For the duration if intermission, the Wall then becomes a memorial of Fallen Loved Ones displaying photos solicited from fans by Roger on his web site alongside photos of the likes of Mahatma Gandhii.
Act 2 begins with the Wall alone onstage for a poignant "Hey You." It looks like it is made of stone, like it belongs in an old castle. It splits into a corridor and animation of a monster runs by, splattering blood all over the Wall.
Video: Hey You
A little drawbridge-like panel folds down from the Wall to reveal a small hotel room vignette, complete with neon Tropicana sign in the background. The staging looks identical to how they performed it 30 years ago.
Rog sings "Nobody Home" while sitting alone in a chair gazing at a flickering television set. "Got 13 channels" Rog sings and then points the microphone at the audience. They dutifully respond "of sh*t on the TV to choose from." Things haven't really changed that much in 30 years, there are just more channels now. Roger's sense of mortality creeps in as he sings about "A grand piano to prop up [his] mortal remains."
"Does anybody else in here feel the way I do?" Rog asks during "Vera". Meanwhile, the Wall displays footage of a young girl's incredibly emotional reaction to being surprised by her soldier father's unexpected visit to her classroom. The crowd roars in approval and wipes a tear from its collective eye.
Video: Bring the Boys Back Home
The ballad segues into the anthemic "Bring the Boys Back Home", as Rog stands alone in front of the Wall in a red spotlight. War footage blazes across the Wall. Word by word, the following quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower appears:
Every gun that is made,
Every warship launched,
Every rocket fired,
Signifies,
In the final sense,
A THEFTFrom those who hunger
And are not fed
From those who are cold
And are not clothed
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Then the text "BRING THE BOYS BACK HOME" punctuates the staccato phrasing of the final chorus.
A vocalist and a guitarist appear atop the Wall for their respective parts during the soaring "Comfortably Numb." Rog hits the Wall and it appears to shatter into trippy colored shards around him.
A male choir does an a capella "The Show Must Go On" as Rog and the Surrogate Band take their places in front of the Wall.
At the beginning of "In the Flesh Part 2", a black inflatable pig with red lit eyes appears from behind the Wall and sails over the crowd. The pig has various slogans and symbols scrawled on it, including the hammers, "Trust Us", and "Drink Kalashnikov Vodka". The first night it was neutrally bouyant and stayed nicely aloft above the crowds' heads. It was flown via remote control, with little fans controlling its direction. The second night it had a hard time staying aloft, and soon had to be rescued by the crew as it kept sagging into the crowd. Hopefully they'll have worked out the kinks before the next show.
Rog dons a black leather trenchcoat and sunglasses and assumes a dictatorial persona. Spotlights scan the crowd as he calls out to the "riffraff" that if he had his way, he'd have all of us shot. Just as he had during the '80 shows, he dedicates "Run Like Hell" to the paranoids in the audience.
"YOU BETTER RUN" is scrawled in scarlet letters on the Wall, and the bricks appear to fly out of the Wall at us in what almost seemed like 3D. Images of various people and animals had been manipulated to make it look like they were wearing white iPod headphones. In a dark parody of an iPod commercial, these were accompanied by the phrases iLead, iProtect, iFollow, iResist, iProfit, iLose, iTeach, iLearn, iKill, etc.
Rog sings "Waiting for the Worms" through a megaphone. Countless crossed hammers march in lockstep across the Wall as the rhythm builds in intensity. Then, "Stop", as a dummy sits in a spotlight atop the Wall and then plunges to the floor.
"The Trial" plays out on the Wall, with the classic animation of The Judge, familiar from both the 1980 concerts and the movie. Rog sits sideways on the stage on a step, watching. Illusions in the projection makes the Wall appear to spin horizontally. Words and images we had seen throughout the last two hours come fast and furious, as the music builds to a fever pitch. Loud chants of "TEAR DOWN THE WALL!" shake the venue. When it reaches a crescendo, a strobe light flashes, smoke rises into the air, and the Wall topples down to thunderous applause and cheers.
Video: The Trial
Roger and the musicians appear onstage amongst the debris of the fallen Wall, as for a curtain call. Roger plays a trumpet and they sing a somber yet hopeful "Outside the Wall". It functions as an encore. There is nothing further that they could do to follow that. Roger thanks the audience effusively. The audience adores Roger and lets him know it. We leave the venue feeling absolutely blown away, and addicted to the experience. Everyone around us has a similar reaction as we make our way back to the parking garage. We get out of there quickly, putting the finishing touches on an incredible evening.
After seeing The Wall on Thursday with Steve and my mother-in-law, and having seen it on Friday with Kevin, we can't pass up its last night in town on Sunday - we are Rog junkies. So we'll be seeing the final Boston show, and Steve, Kevin, and Jenn will all be joining us.
If you can make it to see this show when it hits your town - do it! You won't regret it.
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