Behind a Wall, Waters breaks down barriers through music

Pink Floyd’s 1979 record “The Wall” was their next to last great, masterful composition with the full original band of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason.  Since then, Gilmour and Waters have traveled very separate roads to success despite a re-forming of Pink Floyd on a one-off occasion in 2005 for the Live 8 concerts.  Since that time, Rick Wright has passed away and Roger Waters embarked upon two solo tours (The Dark Side of the Moon, and his current tour, The Wall, which has spanned the globe since 2010, making a return to the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul to a sold out crowd).   The show was a musical and theatrical spectacle, displaying an uncanny ability Waters has to tell a story.

Three male backing vocalists sang the tracks originally sung by David Gilmour on the album.  Robbie Wyckoff shared lead vocals with Roger Waters or sang parts originally done by David Gilmour.  On backing vocals were John Joyce and, the Lennon brothers (Mark, Michael, and Kipp).  

Guitarists Dave Kilminster, Snowy White and G.E. Smith provided the fireworks originally laid down by Gilmour on the record and all played with urgency, and soul, fitting the record to a T while showing their own skill, and Roger’s son Harry took command of the Hammond B3 organ on the whole list of songs but most notably playing the original organ line from the song “Young Lust” in the first part of the set.  That was a highlight.  The organ parts rang through crisp, loud and clear while Waters on bass and Graham Broad on drums held down the rhythm section.

The set list was the entirety of that album with its songs about greed and the effects of it, alienation, loneliness, and the notion that control in any way, shape or form (be it political manipulation by the allegiance to ideologies of any kind and, manipulation of the corporatism that takes hold in modern society), will build walls and ruin what a society could or has become.  There were signs flashed on the makeshift wall reading slogans and messages like “your mother loves you” during the performance of that song, “Mother” (the sixth track and end of the first side of the album).  Waters also sang a duet with himself telling the audience, "you are about to hear something we hope you like.  It's me singing a duet with myself as you watch footage from "The Wall" tour in 1980."

The theme is that building walls will not help a society and that using ideology to prove a point on political or worldly levels, can’t always work and it will lead to chaos, war, and downfall of nations.  Behind the pyrotechnics, the screaming guitars, thundering drums, and the hypnotic whirling of the Hammond B3 and Leslie speaker, this is the message of “The Wall” as an album which was brought home in a major way through the live theatrical performance.  Theatrical, because Waters intended for this album to be a rock opera, and that’s what it turned out to be.  There is a plot, a set of characters, and a struggle for one character to overcome isolation in a world he cannot understand.  

Both government and corporatism are what Waters is railing against in his angst as the album unfolds with the bombastic backdrop of a rock and roll concert, pyrotechnics and flying pigs as the means to illustrate such emotions.  Take something to an extreme to prove a point that this world can become way too extreme if people let it and that politically manipulative views of any kind will build walls and tear societies apart.  

Despite the gloom of that reality portrayed in the recording and in the live show, the music has a bright side to it through the technical skill of the musicians playing it.  So, fans can appreciate and represent both sides of what the album is about and that is what makes “The Wall” and its tour Waters is on right now, such a rewarding experience.  Here’s how the set list and the album break down, so, this could also qualify as one of the “record collection, revisited” pieces that are frequently posted in the blog, but seen through an entirely different lens.

Set List

Set 1:

In The Flesh

The Thin Ice

Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2

Mother

Goodbye Blue Sky

Empty Spaces

What Shall We Do Now?

Young Lust

One of My Turns

Don't Leave Me Now

Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 3

Last Few Bricks

Goodbye Cruel World

Set 2:

Hey You

Is There Anybody Out There?

Nobody Home

Vera

Bring The Boys Back Home

Comfortably Numb

Show Must Go On

In The Flesh

Run Like Hell

Waiting For The Worms

Stop

The Trial

Outside The Wall

At the end of the show,Waters introduced the band, thanking the crowd for accepting the music as it was played.  Waters still has a passion for bringing the legend of Pink Floyd to life, and it showed on Sunday night in the whole production of "The Wall".