All pictures from this show have been kindly supplied by Joe & Los Hermanos Reyes. Someone stick a fork in me……6:00 AM. F*ck. Three hours ago I had made my way back to my hotel room here in Vegas and promptly crashed. What a night it had been. The gathering at Ricardo’s, the mood adjustment session at PLS’s hotel room, the show,…..man, the show. And then running into most of the band…unbelievable. But a new day dawned and I had a schedule to keep. It was then I noticed Sgith, crashed herself, on the other bed. Guess there wasn’t two rooms on my original reservation. Priceline.com blows. Still like Shatner, though. “Convoy!” My mind’s still got a foot in dream world. I giggle to myself. “Sgith!” “Huh…..?” “”You’re dreaming” “what…? “Wake up, you’re dreaming. It’s time to go….” “k….” Ten minutes later, we’re humming down the I-15 toward San Diego. The desert is already bright and warm, the morning light securely tucking away the night’s events into a cherished memory. An uneventful five hours later we cruise into town, relax for a couple of hours, and it’s off to work for me, pulling a 3-midnight shift just to follow that up with a 6 am-3pm shift the next day, all so I could see Roger perform at the Coors Amphitheatre in San Diego that evening. I remind myself of the hours spent on the perimeter, the 72-hour missions, the focus trained on what needed to be done in the days I was a soldier. Lack of sleep…hah! Suck it up and drive on. By the end of my shift, I was amped. I raced home and waited for my friends John, Nick, Frank, and Marc, while Sgith sat in my room mainlining the Internet through my computer. Everyone was soon congregated at my place and we all headed down to the venue. I was happy for a lot of reasons. This would be the first time my friends would see Roger perform, and as for my friend John, well, I have tried to broaden his musical horizons a bit. Being somewhat sheltered musically growing up, I took him to see his first concert a year and a half ago. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant at the Hollywood Bowl in LA. Had to start him off right! Now I was taking him to see Roger and baptize him in a pool of holy writing. We cruised into the parking lot, had a beer or two, and unsuccessfully tried to sell two extra tickets. Sgith and I were a little bummed at the lack of buyers, but at least we each have a full ticket to frame! We made our way to our seats and relaxed. While my friends were sitting there waiting for us to sell the extra tickets, a very inebriated woman tried to make her way down the aisle behind ours. She had a beer in one hand a clear row of seats to negotiate, yet she still managed to trip and fly over the back of the seats into the row behind her, flinging beer two rows further beyond her point of impact. Luckily, Miss Budweiser missed dousing anyone. She immediately recovered, ungracefully, and went and got another beer. The show hadn’t even started! Some people. Later, I would run into her cousin, Jethro. We looked for FP and Dianna, but couldn’t find them. But by then it was too late,…… the show started. The band sounded great. The crowd was really into it. The opening set of Wall numbers had everyone on their feet and the sound was just awesome. We were sitting over to the right and the sound set up was 90% agreeable. Only during some parts were there problems with our physical location, but that’s coming up. When Roger sang “Mother” with Katie Kissoon once again on vocals, I was covered in goose bumps. Twice in two days and I was teary eyed again. I can’t get enough of that song. It is just a joy to listen to. Doylie, if I may use Pam’s cute little name for him, was again proving to be a wonderful asset to the band. I can’t really expound any more than I already have in my Vegas review about how well he and Snowy play well together and individually. I began to look for things this second time around that I was too overwhelmed to notice in Vegas. Roger seems to have shed his dour image compared to his persona during his previous solo tours. He was very animated and theatrical with the audience, especially during ABITW2, singing the lyrics with no mic to the fans seated off to the sides. Filthy Hands/Southampton Dock seemed to by the starting bell as whole rows got up to piss and refill up on beer. If there was one thing the bugged me, it was the constant shuffling of people back and forth all night, bumping your knees and blocking your view, all just to get another beer. I felt like Roger on the ’77 tour..”Oh for f*ck’s sake…Sit Down!. Some ‘o us would like to enjoy the music!” I just don’t see the need to irritate most people by having the damn beer stands open all night, just to create problems like Jethro. I’ll get to Jethro. So the band moves into “Dogs”, now one of my favorites, and again they did an awesome job. The only thing I noticed was that during my pal Jon’s keyboard solo (and he is my pal; we go all the way back to Vegas), the quad sound was swirling the effects around and would just blast our section and then fade into faintness as it went around the far side. I’m sure it sounded great in the middle! Oh well, no big whoop. The blasting/fading swirl happened during “Crazy Diamond” when the girls slowly sang the word “shine”. Everyone seemed to enjoy the Jiffy-Pop thingy….I’m beyond it! So the intermission hits and it’s then that I notice my friend John, who was sitting at the end of our group, was enjoying the cultured ravings of…..Jethro. Jesus Christ. Here was this guy, tanked to the gills, in his Dark Side of the Moon shirt and his sullen, irritated looking wife, gulping down a beer and going on and on about Pink Floyd and Roger and all sorts of incoherent bullshit. And my poor friend had been sitting next to this clown for I don’t know how long. I suggested to john he use the restroom and Sgith and I finally found FP and Dianna. But the second set was about to begin so we couldn’t talk long. We found our seats again right as John came back and I told him to take mine, which was two seats further into our group. I would rather deal with Jethro, being that I had three shows on my itinerary, than have my friend’s only Rog experience marred by MC MasterSlur. Besides, I was incensed by this moron. So I sat myself down next to these two in the last three seats in the row. As “Set the Controls” came on Jethro yelled out “Woooooooohoooooooooooo! Run Like Hell!” I turned and just looked at him. He then set down his beer when he realized it wasn’t Run Like Hell and left…………..to get another beer! ….sigh….. So now he’s double fisting, but manages to drop one beer, the less full one, but life’s still good cause he didn’t drop the newer, fuller, colder one. He cackled at his good fortune. When Graham did his Time drum solo, Jethro was on his feet. Then he started singing and thrusting his free hand, as a fist, into the air, not keeping time with the beat or knowing the lyrics…..”ticking…way…..mmments that make up….dull day…..you frrrr….ter and waste the hours in o…….waaaaay!.” You get the idea. Periodically, he’d turned to his wife and yell, “this music is so f*cking cool!” It was at this moment that I reached out to grab Brainstorm by the shoulder and kindly ask him to shut up when he gets up and says that he’s gonna get some seats down in the lower section since the StaffPro guy disappeared. You go, Jethro. Beer=mc3. So he’s gone for a minute, a very nice minute, and he comes back and gets his wife, and they both fade off into the lower section. Thank God! 10 seconds later a kindly, fiftiesh, sober!, gentleman sits down in the aisle seat, leaving only one seat left. Sure enough, two minutes later Jethro and Co. come straggling back, having been summarily kicked out of Lower Center. He walks up to Kindly Old Guy and slurs a demand he leave….”those were ooourrrr seats…we jus lef’ to get a beer….” To which Kindly Old Guy responds by pulling out his ticket stub and says “I’m not leaving….I paid for this very seat.” Yeeeeeesssssssssssss! Jethro leaves in search of another seat and another opportunity to ruin someone else’s concert. A half hour later I see them lying on the aisle concrete over by the landscaping, with their heads propped up by one hand, the other hand still being utilized for suds. Pathetic. At last StaffPro comes over and takes them away. His bullshit was so distracting. I don’t mind people having a good time and having a drink or two….but don’t be a Jethro. By this time Rog got into Perfect Sense I + II, and again I was moved to tears with P.P. Arnold’s solo. She did have a slight vocal glitch. If I remember, she was singing “when you add it all up, the tears and the marrow bone…” when her throat caught one of the words and it cut the line short. But she quickly recovered. I just get so emotional every time her that “Gaaarrdden of Eeeeeeddeeeeeeeen” line from her. Sgith went into her George Clooney/ER mode and immediately diagnosed P.P. with some sort of strain and worried over the next three days that P.P. was in vocal distress. I just figured it was a tough day at the office for P.P. As Perfect Sense came into Part II, Rog again had people on their feet with his unashamed open arms emphatic performance. Bravery rocked, again, and it was either during Miracle or ATD that either Jon Carin or Andy Wallace hit a wrong note on the keyboards, which totally stood out and momentarily looked like it was going to through off the band(Doylie even looked over Jon’s way), but the band ignored it and they were right back on track. Amused to Death had me grinning and singing every damn word, again, and we found ourselves glowing in the guitar solo for Comfortably Numb before we knew it. I did notice Roger again walking to each side during Numb and singing to the front section fans, with lots of emphasis, the lyrics as Doylie belted out Dave’s old parts….that was actually on of the coolest moments for me. I got see the Man singing that awesome song with no mic to a small group of fans; connecting. Wow. Each Small Candle was almost up and I think this is where Roger stood, said thanks, for coming and thanks for listening, and he stood there as the applause roared and wave built upon wave. No question which one’s Pink. I was happy for him. The band then kicked in Each Small Candle……and then, It was over. We gathered ourselves, found Dianna and FP, and made our way home. I do regret not having hooked up with more ATD board members at the SD show. I believe Moo and others were there, and I’m sorry we didn’t meet. But there’s always the ESC tour…! Till then……… Lycurgus

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