Roger Waters 9/8/06

Given all of that, I was beginning to fear that I would never witness a live performance of “The Fletcher Memorial Home” or “Sheep” or “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” or even Dark Side of the Moon by at least some of the people who are responsible for their composition.

As of last night I no longer have to worry about those things.

Roger Waters played at the Venue Formerly Known as Great Woods in Mansfield, MA last night and I finally saw the old bastard.  I’ve missed a few chances to see him live in the past, but I wasn’t going to miss him again damn it!

I’ve seen the other members of Pink Floyd twice, but both times were long after Mr. Waters left the band.  I sat in this very seat at this very computer and watched the AOL simulcast of Live 8 when all four of the old bastards stood onstage together for the first time since ’81 or so (and I didn’t watch as those fucking idiots at MTV went to commercial or the studio or whatever the fuck the halfwits did during “Comfortably Numb”),  but I wasn’t there so it doesn’t count.

The last time Floyd toured they did a full run through of Dark Side of the Moon at some shows, but not at the Foxboro Stadium show that I attended.

Roger’s current tour however includes Dark Side as the second set.  Would it have been better to hear it performed by the complete Floyd?  Of course it would have.  No question.  But this is probably as close as I’m going to get for now.  Maybe the 3/4 Floyd will tour again, maybe not.  For now though, I can say I saw 1/4 Floyd pull it off.

The band (is the Roger Waters band still known as The Bleeding Hearts Band?) consisted of a few familiar faces.  Graham Broad and Andy Fairweather-Low (I hope I spelled those right) have been Bleeding Hearts for a long time.  Snowy White dates all the way back to the 1977 Pink Floyd Animals tour where he was the rhythm guitarist/bassist in what would become known as The Surrogate Band.  Also, keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Jon Cairns (again, hope I spelled that right) was a member of the 3/4 Floyd touring band.  With Floyd he would sing some of Roger’s vocal parts… with Waters he sang some of Dave’s.  I wonder if he was a little confused.

Most of the lead guitar parts were handled by a guy I’d never heard of who shares a last name with Lemmy Kilminster (again, spelling?).  He was good, but he basically copped Gilmour’s solos.  Misters White and Fairweather-Low were much more improvisational, but Mr. Kilminster tended to color within the lines.  I’m not knocking the guy, he played very well and showed a ton of skill.  I just would have preferred to see him do a little more personal interpretation… its Pink Floyd music after all.  People don’t seem to remember that for years Floyd music was almost entirely improvised.  You can do your own thing without messing with the over-all spirit.

There was also a keyboard player named Harry Waters.  I don’t know if there is a relation, but it was overheard in the parking lot that Harry is Roger’s son.  Don’t quote me on that… you know how rock concert parking lot gossip is.  The sax player was Ian Ritchie (sp? once more) and thanks to the video screen I could tell that, yes he was playing a Selmer Tenor.  Nothing but the best for this guy.

As for the three backup singers, the only name I caught was Katie Kissoon and she’s been with Roger for ages too.  I apologize for missing the other two names.  All three of these women posses canonesque pipes and did nothing but impress.  Even Roger himself… he of the disappearing voice held up nicely.  There are still shades of the old maniacal screaming Roger, but the range has been drastically reduced and there is a gravelishness to the overall tone now.

One thing surprised me a little.  He only played two songs from his post-Floyd solo career and one of those was an as yet unpublished song.  Perfect Sense was the only song representing Roger’s three solo albums.  Everything else was Floyd.

Both sets and the encore were fantastic.  Dark Side of the Moon was, as mentioned, done in its entirety and a little more than half of Wish You Were Here was played too.  The treat for me was hearing “Southampton Dock” and “The Fletcher Memorial Home.”  None of the other members of Floyd want anything to do with The Final Cut album, but for all of its gloominess and depressiveness I absolutely love it.  I think the title song is one of Pink Floyd’s high water marks.  It’s as close to perfect as a song in the popular music vane can or will ever get.

Well, as you might imagine if you’ve read one of my retarded blogs in the past, there are horrible camera phone pictures to share.  One shot from the first set, and one from the second.  Yeah, in the second picture that bright blur in the middle of the picture is the moon from the video screen.

Enjoy!