Thanks to michael.lapinskas@autodesk.com
Pictures by Jeff Storm stormyjeff@rocketmail.com
I have been a huge fan of The Floyd for a long long time now, and I have just caught the latest In The Flesh 2000 show at the Shoreline Amphitheater. This was the best show I could have hoped for. The songs he played ranged from Saucerful of Secrets to Amused to Death. His playing so much early Floyd blew my mind, and he even played a song from the Pro’s and Con’s of Hitch Hiking (or I am pretty sure it was from that solo album). Anyway, I just wanted to say that for a Floyd fan that is half-way through college, this was the closest I think I will come to a Pink Floyd concert and experience. Oh, and the version of Shine On was the greatest tribute to Syd Barrett that I ever could have imagined! Hope you are able to catch one of these shows! Thanks to Alexander Vorobiov
June 25, 2000 Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View CA
First Set
In The Flesh*The Happiest Days of Our Lives*Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2*Mother*Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert*Southampton Dock*Pigs on the Wing, Part 1*Dogs*Welcome to the Machine*Wish You Were Here*Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Parts 1-7*
Second Set
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun*Speak to Me*Breathe*Time (Breathe Reprise)*Money*(5:06AM) Every Stranger’s Eyes*Perfect Sense, Part 1*Perfect Sense, Part 2*The Bravery of Being Out of Range*It’s A Miracle*Amused to Death*Brain Damage*Eclipse*Comfortably Numb*
Encore
Each Small Candle
Review:
It was beautiful weather for an outdoor show in CA. Who better to see in concert on a night like this? Obviously I mean Roger Waters. The crowd got to their seats pretty much on time. Most of the seats were filled and a good section of the lawn was occupied (maybe 12,000-13,000 total fans)??? 8 PM arrived and the crowd was ready for Roger to take the stage.
At 8:10 or so the band hit the stage and the crowd went nuts. Out came Roger (dressed in black trousers, black silk shirt and black jacket. Very well dressed I must say!) and he made his way up to the platform. The fans were ready and cheering quite loudly as we all watched Roger take his position. In the Flesh began and Roger was under way! The sound was great (the quad sound was impressive!) and the band was in great form. Roger delivered a fantastic rendition of this song and it really got the show going from the first note. The Wall suite of songs was great. Happiest Days and Another Brick were really good. I believe it was Snowy that played a good solo on Another Brick. Mother was fantastic. The woman next to me was brought to tears as she sat there with her daughter. Roger always wrote some powerful music. Roger sounded great and the backup singers were awesome. I really love live, acoustic guitar. Great work Roger!
Next came 2 songs from The Final Cut. A lot of people around me had never heard any of TFC album. Personally, I like that album quite abit, so I enjoyed GYFHOMD and Southampton Dock. Very nice acoustic guitar by Roger yet again. Pigs on the Wing also provided more refreshing acoustic guitar by Roger. Roger’s voice was sounding pretty strong on the songs thus far. When the band started into Dogs, the crowd went crazy. This was definitely a crowd favorite. Jon Carin does a good job vocally. The quad sound was really working for this song. You could hear the dogs barking all over the amphitheater. After Roger and the band are done playing cards, he really kicks in with some stellar vocal work to finish up Dogs. Roger sounded superb on the vocals for Dogs and the band was very hot on this number. This was followed up by the WYWH songs. I have to admit I missed Gilmour on these songs. They were all great songs to hear (also some of my favorites) and Roger and the band did some nice work on them. Gilmour was really missed on the beginning of WYWH and some of the guitar work on Shine On. The image of Syd Barrett during Shine On was interesting. I think the crowd really appreciated that gesture. Shine On was a great way to close the first set. Very intense music and so far all the songs came off quite well.
Time for intermission.
Set 2 began with a wonderful version of Set the Controls. I have heard this song played every time I have seen Roger (4 total) and this was one of the best versions! Snowy White laid down some great guitar on this old, classic Floyd tune. Next up, The Dark Side of the Moon. Once again the quad sound kicked ass for these songs. I was so happy to hear Roger do Breathe and Time as I have only heard Floyd do them on the last 2 tours, but never Roger until tonight. I love how the guitar and organ at the beginning of Breathe just seems to wash over your body like a wave. For me it was an intense feeling, as my stereo cannot match the sound you get live. Andy Fairweather-Low had a sweet solo on Money. Snowy and Doyle also did a great job. Roger’s band was fantastic on these songs.
Roger’s solo material was next. Every Stranger’s Eyes had some intense Native America images in the background. I guess Rog can’t hit some of the notes in this song as one section is definitely lip-sync. Still a nice song. The Amused to Death songs came across great live. I was really impressed with the band on all these tunes. Perfect Sense, Part 2 brought the crowd to its feet. It was great to see Roger’s solo work move the audience. I liked the fact that during Miracle and Amused to Death Roger moved around the stage and really sang to the audience. I have never seen him do this in the past. He got real close to the crowd and seemed very emotional and passionate about these songs and the crowd really appreciated this. He appeared to connect with the audience and I think he could feel our connection with him and the music.
Brain Damage, Eclipse and Comfortably Numb were next. BD and Eclipse were wonderful. When Roger sang “The lunatics are on the grass”, all the folks on the lawn cheered. CN sounded great and the crowd really enjoyed that Roger was playing this song again. Nice vocals and the solos by Doyle and Snowy were great. No, it was not Gilmour but who is? The Encore of Each Small Candle was well received. Although when Roger was introducing the song with the story, he did ask one gentleman to quiet down in the politest of English tones! I think the song needs more work musically, but that is the great thing about live music. This is where you test it and make adjustments to the arrangements. Overall the song is very good and quite moving. Roger still has the ability to write thought provoking and moving music. Good work Roger! He thanked the audience and the band walked off.
This was a great concert. One of the best I have ever seen. Roger Waters never leaves me disappointed. His shows are so full of musical emotion. Since he has not toured in so long, this was a real treat to see him again live. Please keep touring Roger, we all need it! I love Pink Floyd and Roger’s solo work. I do wish the Floyd would get back together. I think they could create some great music and wonderful concerts.
Roger’s band holds its own with all the Floyd material. Roger’s concerts have always been a moving experience for me because he seems so passionate in his music and ideals and this seems to carry over to the rest of the band as well. I think that is what drew me to Pink Floyd. Thank you Roger for a great show that I will remember for years. I also want to thank Col Turner for his website and all the hard work he does for all the Floyd and Roger fans. I have to say my concert experience was enhanced by all the information he provided me before I went to see Roger.
Cheers, Jeff Storm
Well, what can one say?
Roger, man – sharply in focus and letter-perfect.
I travelled quite a distance to see this show – over 2500 miles in fact – to coincide with a very brief vacation. My first taste of California, the atmosphere, the sunsets – more beauty to the square inch than any place I’ve ever been. Hooked up with an old high-school buddy of mine who works in CGI (to the uninitiated, that’s computer-graphic-imaging – buddy’s an animator for one of the big film houses) – and we, along with a small crew headed out. The only sour spot to the night was the traffic, but I’m told for San Fran, we got off lightly. Got to the Shoreline, had a look about, saw some of the old Bill Graham posters (including one for the Animals tour – the big pink pig floating merrily above the fog, headed for the Golden Gate) – and then to our seats, to await the onslaught. And then, after repeated assurances that “five minutes” would see the beginning, it begins…RW, in the Flesh! The setlist is fairly representative of the other shows…to a fault I think (does EVERYTHING need to be reported ahead of time? A slight disappointment, personally speaking) – and into intermission…the second set, truly the magic begins there…”Set the Controls” never had more life. Same goes for “Time” – yes, and a thousand times yes – this version is better than the other guys’ version…sorry, Dave.
What really struck me was the raw energy being put into the Amused to Death material – you can tell that Roger really wants to present this work to his fans, so long starved for anything even remotely approaching the old days. Well this material not only approaches, it peaks and surpasses the older material, in its intensity and in the desire of its creator to show off his gifts, so many and so pure. Well, from myself if none other, THANK YOU, Roger – now I get it.
This was brought home no more strongly than in the closing number, “Each Small Candle” (A quick tangent here – who ELSE would have the sheer balls to open the show with their most famous works, their most popular songs, and end the show with untested material? – Sort of the anti-Freebird, if you ask me) – I get the feeling that hanging out with this younger crop of musicains (esp. Jon Carin, who rightly if anyone apart from RW himself does holds a claim on understanding how Floyd music works) has blossomed a new creative spirit in our hero…the song, quite evolved from the last leg of the tour, has such incredible power behind it…and a complexity that bears out which one is REALLY Pink.
Thank you Roger, I hope you read this note…you’ve been missed, and greatly admired by many over so many years…and the best is yet to come. My belief in that was shaken over the last dozen years, but no longer.
-Bill R. Ottawa, Canada (very tired, but very happy)
San Jose Mercury News
Roger Waters Shoreline, Sunday: *** 1/2 (of four)
There was a lot of nostalgia in the 2 1/2 hours done by Pink Floyd’s former bassist, who hasn’t toured in nine years and who filled the best of his show with the material he wrote with Pink Floyd.
But this old dog had some new tricks. He could teach a lot to today’s musicians who draw on his old material for inspiration — from Primus and Nine Inch Nails to Slipknot.
Instead of beefing up with stage show with fireworks and floating pigs, Waters put his money into the sound system.
Like some kind of performance art piece, he turned Shoreline into a giant surround sound, quadraphonic theater, with at least six banks of speakers around the seats and lawn. He had to block off sections of expensive reserved seats for some of them, a touch rarely seen from more money-hungry performers.
The effect was wonderful. It was rock as art, with the kind of concern for sound rarely seen today.
There was something different to be heard from every seat, as voices shot out from behind you and guitars swirled like hurricanes all around.
His set included much of the Floyd’s best material, drifting from 1979’s “In the Flesh,” “Mother” and “Another Brick in the Wall” to 1977’s “Pigs on the Wing” and “Dogs” to 1975’s “Wish You Were Here” and “Shine On (You Crazy Diamond)” to 1973’s “Money,” “Time” and “Brain Damage.” He even threw in 1968’s “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.”
The nine-piece band did little to change the songs, mostly covering them with a full, deep sound. Guitarists Snowy White and Doyle Bramhall II stretched out and improvised on their solos, but the overall effect was that even two inspired guitarists didn’t measure up to what David Gilmour had done originally.
Sadly, Waters’ newer material is longer in the tooth than his older stuff, even though he says in his program that he thinks it’s every bit as good as his Floyd material. He stuck a lengthy segment of 1992’s “Amused to Death” into the second set, which prompted the audience to sit down. The tunes sounded borrowed from his earlier work, and the lyrics were political diatribes against television, consumerism and war. His earlier work said far more with fewer words.
He loses points for closing with “Comfortably Numb,” a song which drew most of its power from Gilmour’s leads, and for doing a new song about the Kosovo bombing as the encore. He should have worked both into the show earlier and saved something classic, like “Shine On,” for last.
But these slight flaws didn’t diminish a gem of a show.
Thanks to Joe Zielinski & Will Taber