Dark side of the moon - Bright side of Waters !

Oooohhh, aaaahhhh, whistle, roar, clap claP clAP cLAP CLAP … Enters Roger Waters. Applause, scream…

Well let me go back exactly 16 minutes. It was February the 12^th 2007, 19:54 hrs, I was walking into the Shanghai Grand stadium with a Roger Waters concert ticket in my hand. With ‘high hopes’ and enthusiasm and excitement, I got myself a bag of popcorn and kept looking for Row17 seat27. Comfortably settling into the moulded plastic chair and munching popcorn, I eagerly awaited the entrance of one of the most prolific musicians of all times and a focal part of my most favourite band Pink Floyd, George Roger Waters!

The crowd started pouring in and soon the stadium was almost full, though I had the empty seats on either side. For some reason it was warm inside the stadium and adding to this, a young pretty German girl found her seat beside mine. She too was complaining about the heat and just when we were about to strike a conversation, the music started!

The ticket said ‘No Video, No pictures’ but then everyone had some sort of digital optical device through which they captured the scene. But I, having followed the “rules” just sat looking. I felt devastated by the fact that I could have got my cam and captured the entire event but shortly I realized how lucky I was. I will get to that later.

The stage backdrop was amazing. It had a radio set, a whiskey bottle and a glass with a little amount of whiskey in it, an ash tray and a cigar with smoke emanating. A hand came across to change the station on the radio and played all songs from Elvis to Abba times and then…Oooohhh, aaaahhhh, whistle, roar, clap claP clAP cLAP CLAP … Enters Roger Waters. Applause, scream, whistle, ooooooohhhhh, aaaaahhhhh.

Waters and the rest of the band started off with In the Flesh (In the Flesh), and every guitar ‘tring’, every drum beat was responded with oooh’s aaah’s. The crowd got silent with the next song which was Mother (The Wall). It was played with utmost brilliance and with amazing precision. The next song was Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (A Saucer Full of Secrets). The backdrop was simply superb and Waters was at his best, emotional and passionate. And then came the fantastic beginning score of Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Wish you were here) and once again the crowd went crazy howling and clapping and cheering and in an instance there was silence. Waters mesmerized the crowd with an unfaltering vocal display. And somehow the heat in the stadium had abated, there was a cool breeze blowing out of nowhere… maybe it was just the song! This was when I realized that the pretty German sitting next to me had left…no bother I fell back to the charm.

The next song was Have a Cigar (Wish you were here). This was one of the songs I have seldom heard but was encapsulated in the captivating performance. Then came one of my favourite songs Wish you were here (Wish you were here) with all its graceful tunes and recitation and lyrics. A few lines worth mentioning here …

And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

The backdrop for this song was the same as the initial one with the radio but to the end the screen changed. It was stunning with candles all over and red poppies falling.

Southampton Dock (The Final Cut) and The Fletcher memorial home (The Final Cut) were soft and very touching with a black-white screen of a lovely country side. The crowd swayed to the melody and there were momentary screams when George Bush was depicted amongst a list of terrorists… Ha!ha!ha!. The crowd erupted for the next song Perfect sense-Part 1 & 2 (In the flesh) when an inflatable astronaut came floating into the auditorium. Cameras flickered all over and the crowd was busy capturing the scene. This was when I realized how lucky I was not to get my camera. Otherwise I would have been involved in capturing “perfect” electronic images of the event or adjusting the digital equipment rather than losing myself to the performance which is what I ultimately did. I knew I was capturing every moment more effectively than anyone else filming the event.

Next was his rumination on the incident that happened when he traveled alone to the Middle East as a young man. The hospitality and care showered to him by a poor Lebanese family was immortalized in his latest single Leaving Beirut (Leaving Beirut/To Kill the Child). Waters expressed his political side deriding Bush for his action on the Middle East. It was brilliant with a comic strip story providing the background which received loud cheers from the crowd.

Check it out at http://www.roger-waters.com/lyricsbeirut.html. One sentence worth mentioning, which if I am right probably got the loudest laughs/scream in the first half of the concert.

Oh George! Oh George!
That Texas education must have fucked you up when you were very small

It was time for the second inflatable of the concert and this time it was a huge pink pig. You guessed it right, the song was Sheep (Animals). Well the Pig had wordings all over it … “Cut along the dotted lines”, “Habeus Corpus Matters”, “Save our bacon” etc. but the best of it all was “Impeach Bush now” on the Pig’s behind…Ha!ha!ha! The crowd went all crazy again.

Waters requested for a 20 min break and left the stage. Well, I got back to my senses…had some water and was expressionlessly looking around. To my surprise all his songs were running in my head and unbelievably I remembered all the songs in the right order! Phew, quite a feat considering my volatile memory. The screen showed a moon which was initially small and kept growing in size and before long, the lights went out and they were back on stage. The second half of the concert picked up pace and my god… was ULTIMATE! We took a trip to the “Dark side of the moon”.

The crowd got the true effect of the instruments with Speak to me (Dark side of the moon) and the oooh’s aah’s woooo’s got more frequent with Breathe. The crowd literally went insane with On the Run… the band were at their best with the instruments and the ambiance was completely absorbing, a colourful techno graphic background, stunning sound, crazy crowd! Next was one of the most famous songs – Time… the crowd got into the act and started singing along, I was no exception. Starting with dazzling drum beats, this got the crowd on their feet. Everyone crashed back into their seats stunned by the incredible female vocals for The great gig in the sky. It was such a beautiful, splendid, terrific performance that the crowd were all cheers and applause at the end. The enthusiasm didn’t abate when the crowd next heard tinkering of coins… again one of the best composed songs ever, Money was sung by the entire auditorium with utmost zeal.

Us and them and Any colour you like followed and there was no sign of the crowd getting tired, if not mentally even physically. Just when it felt as though the crowd was getting a little tired, all of us came right back with Brain Damage and Eclipse. These two songs are my personal favourite and I was completely lost. I was singing at the top of my voice and had no clue of who were around me… we’ll I guess everyone were in the same state. I can’t count as to how many times I have heard this song, but then every time I listen to it, I lose myself. At this juncture, a special thanks to my friend Sudhar V Rajan, who is acclaimed to have introduced me to the Floyd music and one person I truly missed at this concert, was him…. “Wish you were here”

At the end of Eclipse, as the tunes slowly faded, the crowd went nuts… oooooh’s aaaaah’s whistles screams, wails, roars, and I am not exaggerating, the applause went for about 8 minutes continuous. The band left the stage but the applause went on and on and on and on and on till they came back and acknowledged with what I would say the best part of the entire show.

Starting with Happiest days of our life (The wall), which was faintly heard with those 50,000 Watt speakers (I might be exaggerating but it was LOUD) because of the crowd who were still applauding and screaming on top of their voices. (All through out I have been mentioning “crowd” with the assumption that I am a part of it and everything attributed to the “crowd” is attributed to my actions also). The applause ceased and excitement grew with the beginning score of Another brick in the wall, rich/ardent/crazy people who spent close to 3000 Chinese yuan gathered around the dais swinging arms in unison. And we the back-seaters were bowing down to the brilliance of brilliants. Once again the crowd joined the band in singing aloud and continuously clapping along with the tune. Unable to restrict myself, here are the lyrics…

We don't need no education,
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom,
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

Vera / Bring the boys back home followed but again the initial part of this song was shadowed by the ongoing enthusiastic cries of the previous song. The crowd regained their senses but the clapping and applause continued and the crowd was once again caught in the fervour and sensation of Comfortably Numb. Completely lost in the lyrics, guitars, music, vocals….it took a while to realise that it was the last song of the evening (Was night by then). The cries grew louder, the applause wilder and wilder till our hands became numb.

As a whole, a blissful evening with a mind-boggling ambiance, brilliant performance, perpetual enthusiasm, profound emotions, sublime music and George Roger Waters!

“There is no dark side of the Moon really... matter of fact it's all dark"

p.s. - Special thanks to the one's who took the pictures and posted them online (Webweaver - (http://webweaversworld.blogspot.com/2007/02/roger-waters-dark-side-of-moon-live.html).
None of the pictures shown above have been taken by me. They have been merely used for the readers.