Roger Waters...Dark Side of the Moon

[rcarlton]

Saw Roger Waters performing DSOTM last night at the Superpages.com Center at Fair Park in Dallas. Terrific set...played the old standbys during the first set, 20 minute intermission and played DSOTM.


The auditorium is shaped like a pie slice with the expensive seats covered and closer to the stage, around the perimeter is a grassy knoll (after all it is Dallas) where I sat.

Demographics was interesting, about a 50-50 mixture of young people (High School-College) and 50 somethings. Quite a few people who looked like they were refugees from Woodstock. They were throwing down an interesting look with loose, earth colored clothes, long dirty gray hair and beards, almost gnome like, and walkers! The kids were also trying to look like 60's hippies. Some people were even sporting Pink Floyd t-shirts commemorating a 1972 tour! Some of the outfits the girls were wearing...Mmmmm.

Very little drug use, just a few people smoking some herb...too many older people there so they figured us for narcs...it was funny watching them hide a blunt.

Acoustics were so so. Seemed a little distorted, vocals were not clean, no real separation of the instruments, poor 3-D effect. My upstairs system blows the concert venue out of the water as far as sound quality goes. But...nothing beats being there live...warts and all.

Roger Waters visits a finer side with 'Dark Side' show

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, May 3, 2008

By THOR CHRISTENSEN / The Dallas Morning News
tchristensen@dallasnews.com

There's no disputing the popularity of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. It's sold between 15 and 40 million copies (depending on which source you believe) and it stayed on the Billboard chart for a record-breaking 14 years straight.

But few people agree on how good the 1973 album really is. Some argue it's a landmark marriage of psychedelia and philosophy. Others dismiss it as music for stoners.

Friday night, Floyd mastermind Roger Waters played Dark Side in its entirety for a near-capacity crowd at Superpages.com Center. And even if you weren't hallucinating, you had to admit it sounded timeless.

Mr. Waters, Floyd's lyricist, bassist and sometimes singer, surrounded himself with an airtight nine-piece band and a killer quadraphonic sound system: During the alarm clock symphony in "Time," you were forgiven if you thought your brain was melting.

Ditto for "Money," with its delirious fusion of cash registers and stride bass guitar. And "The Great Gig in the Sky" – with its mooic female scat singing – reminded you how far Floyd pushed the definition of "psychedelic."

The only iffy part was the vocals. David Gilmour sang lead on most of the Dark Side album, and in his absence, the songs were sung by the various bandmates – who did a decent job – and Mr. Waters, whose knotted voice reminded you how much better Mr. Gilmour is in the vocal department.

Before playing Dark Side, Mr. Waters led the band through a grab bag of Floyd classics and songs from his solo albums. The LSD-drenched "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (1968) felt dated, but tunes from The Wall and Wish You Were Here hadn't aged a bit.

Two unexpected high points were the anti-war songs "The Fletcher Memorial Home" and "Southampton Dock," from The Final Cut (1982), an album a lot of Floyd fans never bothered to buy. And then there was "Sheep," Mr. Waters' 1977 gem about sleepwalking through life.

Halfway through the tune, a giant inflatable pig appeared from the wings and floated around the amphitheater, much to the delight of fans who'd heard the prop went missing last weekend at the Coachella Music Festival.

Was it the original pig? Or a replacement swine?

Either way, it was a decidedly political porker, with the phrase "Impeach Bush Now!" on its hide and word "Cheney" placed directly on the naughty bits.

[Sonnie]

You lucky dog you.

My wife was telling me about them losing the pig at that last show.

[rcarlton]

They let the pig go at this show also. Flew off toward Love Field. Imagine what a SW Airline pilot might think if it was coming at him as he was trying to land.

[Sonnie]

Oh... so they intentionally let it go. I thought it was an accident. I bet someone would love to find one of those and keep it for a souvenir... although it might be a little difficult to store.

[rcarlton]

It would be cool to find. Have seen no mention in the paper of anyone finding the pig. Wonder what it would fetch on E-bay?

[Sonnie]

I am thinking there would be some Floyd fan out there that would pay big bucks for one of those.