Gig in Warsaw was my second encounter with The Wall Live by Roger Waters. First time I’ve seen The Wall in its arena version in Lodz, Poland standing in the first row. This time I decided to see how its presents from distance and buy tickets for seats on the tribune in front of the stage. Some of our view was obstructed by the one of two towers with lights, but it wasn’t bad and didn’t disturb watching the show.
Show started with 30 minutes delay, but in opinion it was good for the perception of ‘In the Flesh?’, which should be played in darkness. First thing to notice was the excellent quality of projections at the wall. Picture delivered by army of Panasonic projectors was crystal clear and sharp, colours were bright and vivid. The second one was sound of special effects. Sequence of Stuka attack was thrilling, being on airshows I didn’t hear so loud aeroplanes. Quadrophonic sound was permanently kicking ones chest. There is a video on YouTube with recording of sound from the outside the venue area and it’s still insanely loud. However, in some parts there were feedbacks, but this should be blamed on National Stadium, where it is difficult to obtain perfect sound, rather on sound engineers.
Before ‘Mother’ Roger was coping with difficulties of Polish language. All those scratchy sounds from Polish were obstacles for him, but after each sentence his struggle was acknowledged with loud and enthusiastic applause. Starting English part of his speech, he asked how we could speak in this language every day. He did a great job of learning and speaking this few sentences in Polish.
The show was mind blowing, as always. But I am wondering, what were thinking all those people who have came for hot-dogs and beer, without knowing ‘The Wall’? Unfortunately, audience on tribunes was reserved and composed mostly by fast food lovers. I saw few fans around me, who were also willing for immense of all the audience to the concert’s atmosphere.
Stage was far away, thus I could perfectly see the wall and projections, but musicians was far to small to watch their job. I caught myself for watching prerecorded parts projected on the sides as they were live images. In my opinion all acting from Waters is extremely important for this show, but are invisible from the second side of the football stadium.
For me, in spite of drawbacks, it was a great show. This time I came with my father, who always was a huge Pink Floyd fan and infected me with his passion, and with my sister and girlfriend. My father was astonished by the momentum of this version of ‘The Wall’. If asked which show, Warsaw or Lodz, I preferred, I’d answer Lodz. There it was easier to immense into the atmosphere and to interact with artist, including Waters himself.
Review thanks to Jakub Zimoch