Capacity: 21,000

Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: Olympic Boulevard, Sydney Olympic Park, NSW 2127, Australia.  MAP

Website: www.acerarena.com.au

Tickets for this concert went on sale on October 27th, through the venues, Ticketek, and other normal agents.

FIRST HALF: In The Flesh, Mother, Set The Controls For the Heart Of The Sun, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Have A Cigar, Wish You Were Here, Southampton Dock, The Fletcher Memorial Home, Perfect Sense parts 1 and 2, Leaving Beirut, Sheep.

SECOND HALF: Dark Side of the Moon. ENCORE: The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, Another Brick In The Wall (Pt 2), Vera, Bring the Boys back Home, Comfortably Numb.

CONCERT REVIEW – by  Luke

Lordy it was electrifying! Roger stumbled a bit on the first notes of Set The Controls but recovered, but apart from that and a couple of other things it was perfect. Pigs, Astronauts, Explosions, Bubbles… you didn’t know what was next! The visuals on the high-tech Mr. Screen were amazing also. Roger said he was “truly moved” by the long standing ovation before the encore. MOOOORE!

CONCERT REVIEW – by Chloe

I am a 21 yr old female who is a fanatical Pink Floyd fan. I went and saw Roger Waters in concert on thursday night. This is the first time I have seen ANY member of Pink Floyd live. It was so awesome!!!! I have never experienced anything like it.

My fiance and I were sitting 17 rows from the front so not only did we get the full force of the music and the explosions on stage but we also experienced the whole show with the pig and the spaceman.

He was very charismatic on stage too. Loved the joke about the poms and their dismal attempt at cricket (GO THE AUSSIES).

I enjoyed the concert for the moment I sat in my seat (1 hour before the show started). Leaving Beirut was very moving and the comic behind it was funny. And as always I looked forward to The Great Gig In The Sky and it did not disappoint… any woman who can sing that is incredible!!!!!

CONCERT REVIEW – by Colin Turner
Pictures courtesy of Colin and also Tim Hallam

On Thursday night (25 Jan) I set off to see Roger Waters perform the opening concert of his Dark Side Of The Moon extravaganza 2007.

We arrived at the Acer Arena in Sydney Australia nice and early, to catch up with a bunch of other Floyd fans. One couldn’t help but notice the amount of Pink Floyd t-shirts worn by a cross section of the crowd. You had to think that many of the crowd thought they were going to see Pink Floyd! (According to some, perhaps they did).

We took our seats early, only to discover that instead of being on the floor 15 rows back, we were off to the side & about half way along the arena (Visa Preferred will be hearing more about this!)

Having covered the show in fine detail in 2006 on A Fleeting Glimpse, I had a pretty good idea of what I was in for. I was expecting a great show, but was not ready for what was in store.

As the first notes of In The Flesh struck up, the hairs on the backs of my arms stood up (always a good sign) and they hardly sat down for the rest of the night.

There were so many highlights, it’s hard to know where to begin. Every song was played to perfection, not a bum note in sight, which considering it was the first show of the current tour, was quite surprising. I don’t think I have ever seen a band as tight.

Roger seemed in a good mood, and was much more animated than when I last saw him in 2002.

There was certainly some use of ‘vocal assistance’ (a euphemism for miming) on some songs, and I have to confess, that prior to the show I was concerned that knowing this, it might spoil the show for me. However, I can now honestly say that it didn’t worry me as much as I thought it was going to. It certainly didn’t mar or spoil the show for me in any way.

The band were on fire, and all seemed to be enjoying themselves, with perhaps the exception of Snowy White, who was his usual brilliant (but dour self!) Snowy, if you read this, SMILE!

The visuals were absolutely mind blowing, especially during Any Colour You Like. Also, as has been written about during the 2006 tour, the turning of the radio dial, (that is shown on the wonderful massive LED screen), that starts the show off, and acts as a narrative, is quite simply remarkable.

A few incidents: Roger’s pig almost got pigknapped, when at one stage a section of the near capacity crowd managed to grab hold of it.  You should have seen security scramble to try to retrieve it!

When introducing the band, Roger got to Dave Kilminster, and said “’this is Dave, er…… someone or other, no er Dave Kilminster, sorry, just had a senior moment’.

Roger also managed to trip a one stage, but deftly regained his footing and turned it into a little dance.

He also bemoaned the fate of the English cricket team (For those in the USA, please put C R I C K E T in google) :-}

The set list was the same as the 2006 leg, but there were many new, incredible & outstanding visual effects. The pyros were heart stopping.

I don’t think it fair to point to any individual band members for stand out performances, as they were all brilliant.

The night flew by so quickly, nearly three hours of fantastic entertainment was over before I knew it.

I managed to catch up with Graham Broad after the gig, and he said he thought it was a particularly tight gig, and how all the band enjoyed it.  I hope to catch up with Graham again next week in Brisbane, where I also have an invitation to meet Roger.

Summing up then……I have been to a lot of shows over the years, this show would have to be one of the best I have been to in my life. As somebody said somewhere, sometime, go to this show with high expectations, and be prepared to have them exceeded.

Roger Waters, you deserve your place in history.

CONCERT REVIEW – by Jon Harris

The first time I saw Roger Waters live was in London 2002.

Last night I finally saw him in my home town of Sydney. Others will write song lists etc., so I will just add a few of my observations:

Sound: this was AMAZING. We were in the nose-bleed sections at the back of the arena, but you could still FEEL the music. And there was a sense of the sound moving around.
Visual: the new screen is fantastic. I thought that the image at the beginning were real props (bottle, radio, plane) – in fact, my mate and I discussed how they transported them around the world!
Band: they were great. I know it was their first concert together for a while, but I did think that a few songs were going to stop. Graham Broad was trying hard to drive them forward but songs like “Shine On”, “Time” and “Money” were the main culprits. The new guitarist (Kilminster) was playing the Gilmour solos note-for-note, which is amazing, but sometimes I wished that he would break out. Snowy was – as usual – fantastic. What a great tone. I did miss Andy Fairweather-Low’s massive solo in “Money”… oh well – you can’t have everything.
Highlights: “Leaving Beirut” had such an emotional hit. “Piggy” came out with anti-Bush messages and a message say “Bring Hicks Home”, which is a reference to the Australian who is still held in Guantanamo Bay without being charged after more than 5 years.
The “Final Cut” composite is always great to hear, as I am one of the few that really loves the album.
Great to hear “Sheep” live for the first time (after hearing “Dogs” in London).
Lowlights: No songs from “Pros and Cons” or “KAOS”.

Well done Roger, thanks for a great concert.

CONCERT REVIEW – by Tim Hallam

I was at last night’s Sydney show. And I hate to say it, but for me it was all rather ho-hum. Perhaps four shows in 2000, three shows in 2002, and countless viewings of the ITF DVD have left me a bit jaded.

DSOTM was a faithful re-creation, but really, we came to see Roger, not him playing bass in a cover band, which is what the first 37 minutes of that set sounded like.

I had three hair on the back of my neck moments.  Leaving Beirut, (how much has that improved without the storytelling!), Sheep, and Bring the Boys back home.  Why hair on the back of the neck moments?  Probably because they were the only songs that were not played on the last tours I say (yes, some of DSOTM too, but Rog didn’t sing those ones)

Other thoughts: Sound was amazing, even where I was sitting (front and centre, so didn’t get the benefit of surround sound. IMHO he is still miming a lot of it.  There were lots of bits were he was singing really loudly, but his face, jaw and torso were not indicative of a lot of air coming out.

Video was great, the oil rig/submarine in the sports arena during perfect sense great, colour videos in ACYL amazing, even the shelf radio pre and post show was great and funny (quickly turned off three Abba songs, I have read how much Rog hates Abba!)

Everyone played and sang amazingly, Kilminster was great, Kenyon fantastic, but there was not a lot of real passion there, it was very play by numbers.

Politics was just right.  Much better than Bono shoving it down our throats the entire concert, and at least Rog made it somewhat locally relevant (David Hick, a Guantanomo Bay incarcerate).

I don’t know what it was though, perhaps I came expecting more.  But there was nothing new here.  How can a guy so creatively talented let 15 years pass without releasing anything of substance (ignoring Ca Ira), a few bland songs that he uses to close new shows (and which will likely never see the light of day again) is his total output in 15 years.  How does he get up on stage for eight years (since ITF 1999 started) and just play the same stuff over and over again? To his credit he seems to feign more interest than Snowy.

CONCERT REVIEW – by Hesham

The Dark Side Of The Moon 2007 leg in Sydney on January, 25th, 2007 is by far a more pristine show when compared to Roger’s May 2002 ” in the Flesh ‘ tour.

Though Roger’s Mic has suffered a feed back in at least three occasions, for which I guess of Andy’s’ own voice monitor stage location behind Roger. Nevertheless the sound was of the best quality I have ever listened to.

In 2002, there were much more emphasis on distributing the instruments through a surround sound matrix around the entertainment center. Last night at the Acer arena I felt that the sound was rather bursting out of the stage with clear defined and very low frequencies of strong bass impacting our chests.

The crystal guitars solos of Snowy White and Dave Kilminster were also in adherence of Roger’s view of delivering a show that is note for note, and of exact perfect tonality to what we all know – by heart – of Roger / Pink Floyd Repertoire.

Definitely, it’s a top audience show pleasers when all guitar solos are played perfectly to what we get out of our LP’s and CD’s.

The rectangular back stage projection screen has done an excellent spreading of the show visual components of far better than- rather nostalgic to see – the circular screen of previous tours. Very advanced deep coloured shapes of the Floyd prism in Any Colour You Like were simply breath taking. They indeed pull the eyes while the best of all instrumental dialogues was going on in this piece, as we all know.

However, the concert could very well do without both of the Flying Spaceman, and the – old nostalgia – of a Flying Pig. They’re brain insulters. Cheap rubber objects amidst the peak in intellectual lyrics, complex musical arrangements, and the highest possible in stage production.

For one I was eager to see Roger Waters delivering a show surprise with an acoustic version of his new beautiful ” Hello I Love You “.

I shall remember:
– Andy Fairweather Low guitar talk at the start of big ” Leaving Beirut”.
– Jon Carin starting Electrical Piano chords on ” Sheep ”
– Andy Waters very warm piano play in ” The great gig In The Sky “, and the all-female vocalists also.
– Graham Broad thundering drums for ” Time ”
– Dave Kilminster faithfulness to David Gilmour mastership.

This evening, Roger Waters has delivered a memorable concert. An act of wide contemporary aspects, respect and appreciation to the fans.

CONCERT REVIEW – by Andrew Miller

I’ve only been a Floyd fan for a couple of years now (I’m just about to turn 30), so I know the pain only too well of knowing I’ll likely never see one of my favourite bands in concert. After easing the pain a little in November with The Pink Floyd Experience, last week managed to go one better with the closest thing to seeing the real Pink Floyd I’m probably ever going to get.

Truth be told, I didn’t really have the highest hopes for the show. As fantastic as the Live 8 show was, I can’t help feel that Waters’s vocals were the weakest point of the performance and I was worried his solo show would be plagued with the same problem. I’m very happy to say that by the end of the second number every one of my fears had vanished.

I can honestly not make a single complaint about the show. I guess it could be because I’m still fairly new to Floyd, but I was completely absorbed from the very first second: from the opening of In The Flesh right until the end of Comfortably Numb, everything sounded flawless to me and left me wearing a goofy grin for the entire night. From my seating position (around half way back and half way up), I had no idea there was any kind of miming going on. To be honest, it doesn’t bother me in the least.

There were so many great moments: from the visuals, the inflatables, the pyrotechnics – it was all exactly what I’d hoped to see and hear. I was initially a little disappointed by the set list when I first read about it (I was really hoping for Dogs), however after seeing the show personally I now realise that it’s tailored to give Roger the maximum amount of time up front and singing – and considering we’re there to see Roger Waters, it made a lot more sense to me.

It was amazing to witness Dark Side of the Moon performed live, and I also really enjoyed Leaving Beirut with its fantastic comic book-style presentation. If I was to nitpick, I’d say Shine On’s intro was condensed too much, but considering it came during the middle of the set I can understand why they did it that way. For me, though, the highlight of the night was Sheep –  I’m a big, big fan of Animals, so it was a thrill to hear anything being played from that album.

If I had to pick the moments that stood out to me most, they would have to be:
– Carol Kenyan, who absolutely _nailed_ The Great Gig in the Sky and completely earned a massive applause from the audience
– Snowy White and Dave Kilminster in perfect synchronisation during the Money solo
– Dave Kilminster in general, because he was note perfect the entire night

In the end, though, what impressed me most was Waters himself: not only was he performing as well as I’d imagine he did during his prime, but he was warm and courteous toward the audience, and gracious to his fellow band members, periodically stepping out of the limelight to allow them their appropriate moments to shine.

I don’t really hold out any hope that I’ll ever have the chance to see the real Pink Floyd in concert, but I’m extremely happy to say that the next best thing was more than worth it!

CONCERT REVIEW – by Alison Gerrard

In great anticipation, my husband and I rushed up to Sydney from Canberra to see what I had waited 30 years for – ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ performed live by its master, Roger Waters. I didn’t know what to expect given my preference for Dave Gilmour’s work since his solo career and his subsequent performances with the remaining members of Pink Floyd.

Quite simply, we were blown away.  From the first song to the conclusion of the concert, we were completely mesmerised.  Roger Waters was as charismatic as ever and we completely underestimated the intensity of hearing tracks live from ‘The Wall’ (particularly ‘Mother’, a favourite of mine), Roger’s tribute to Syd Barrett and his new song, ‘Leaving Beirut’.  It was wonderful to hear Roger reflecting upon his youth, unfolding a story that taught him a life lesson compelling enough to pen such a moving and thought provoking song.

Then… the ultimate listening experience…..’Dark Side of the Moon’ ….from ‘Speak to Me’ to ‘Eclipse’, what a moment in time.   Hearing it performed live by Roger and his back-up band proved one thing to us – ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ as an album, is in every way as powerful today as it was 30 years ago.  We were glued to our seats in awe of such a moving musical performance.

The crowd loved Roger and he returned in kind with his gestures towards cheering fans.  The concert finished with an encore performance that got everybody out of their seats for ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ concluding the set with a wonderful performance by Dave Kilminster performing ‘Comfortably Numb’.   A fantastic climax to a fantastic concert!!  Its effect on us lasting well after the conclusion of the evening.

So impressed were we that I shouted my mother, (huge Pink Floyd fan) a seat to the Melbourne gig and we did it all again. Then, why not… I took off to Adelaide on the 7th of Feb to catch the concert for a final time.  And it was worth every single cent!!  Without doubt, the best I’ve ever seen.  And judging by the comments of people I spoke to after every concert, it looks like Roger Waters has been cemented in time as one of the best songwriters and performers of all time (at least for every Pink Floyd fan!).

Roger, thank you!!  Come back to Australia soon.

We are indebted to our sister site Brain Damage for the use of the above material.